page 16 THE CALGARY JOURNAL

IN FOCUS

OCTOBER 2009

Canadian identity misidentified at the border

Bilingual Northwest Territories birth certificate causes difficulty at U.S. crossing
by CATHERINE SZABO cszabo@cjnewsdesk.ca

andwiched between Canada and Mexico, the You multiply that out, and there are tens of thouUnited States of America constantly deals sands of documents that people could present to us. with Canadians and Mexicans requesting Prior to taking the communications position, Schentry at its borders. Despite her proximity, one Cal- reiber worked as a border patrol officer for 20 years, garian woman still had trouble crossing into the U.S. and served in the army for 11 years. this year. Their vehicle was inspected at Born in Inuvik, N.W.T., Kate the border, Kate said, and the who asked that her real name customs officer told the couple not be used, as she feared it they could not be in the country would affect her during her for more than 48 hours. frequent work-related border And yet when they crossings has a birth certificate returned, speaking to written in English and Inuktitut, the Canadian border one of the northern indigenous patrol this time, Kate languages. said they had no (The language) looks like problems. geometry almost, it has a lot of We made sure to squiggles and lines in it, she tell (the Canadian ofsaid. ficer), We were told When she and her boyfriend to be back here in 48 tried to cross the border this hours by the Ameripast February at Great Falls, can customs, do we Mont., the American border have to tell you? patrol guard didnt recognize Kate said. (The Cathe language on the certificate. nadian officer) said it Kate said the officer asked her was no problem, so why she was travelling with a Photo courtesy of Google Images I dont know if they birth certificate that had Arabic The Inuktitut alphabet can be found in talk back and forth the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, writing. between border as well as parts of Manitoba and He had no idea what it was, guards. Newfoundland. and thought it might be Arabic, Damien Healy, Kate said. I said I was Canadian, and was born in communications manager for the Departthe Northwest Territories, but he said, Thats not ment of Health and Social Services in the what it says here, it says Nuwute he was reading Northwest Territories, said the departthe abbreviation of the (Northwest) Territories. ment does not usually get complaints Usually, the 25-year-old travels with her passport about its bilingual certificates. during trips scheduled into the United States, or However, he added, the provincial even when she has a flight stopover south of the government plans to release a new design 49th parallel. This time, however, she had sent her soon, mainly because the birth certificate passport in for renewal. hasnt been revamped in many years. At the time, using a birth certificate was still acThe purpose of it isnt to be high-level ceptable to enter the country, as the regulations stat- security, Healy said. Its so that they can ing a passport was needed to enter the country by get other identification. land, sea, or air didnt come into effect until June 1. Kate said that after the incident, she Tom Schreiber, the public affairs worker for the could only assume that the border guard U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said, The probhad attributed the writing on her birth lem is, there are about 3,000 counties in the United certificate to Sanskrit. While she said she States. could see some similarities between the

two languages, there are also obvious differences. Schreiber said that using birth certificates at border crossings has always been a problem. He used the example that when the document is re-issued because it has faded or been damaged, the re-issue date no longer matches the age of the individual, and could raise questions about its authenticity. We are not in the business of prohibiting bona fide Canadian visitors from coming down, touring the United States and coming home, Schreiber said.