The design of the new Canadian passport, where historical icons like the Vimy monument have been swapped for representations of the country’s natural heritage, has been very poorly received by veterans and conservatives.
The removal of the Vimy memorial from the pages of the passport “without knowing the reasons for it was, to put it bluntly, a bad decision”, outraged the Royal Canadian Legion, an organization providing services by or for veterans of the army.
“We are disappointed by the decision to remove an image that symbolizes the sacrifices made for the very type of freedom that the passport offers,” the legion added in an email.
The new design also evacuates any reference to Samuel de Champlain, founder of Quebec and New France, to the mounted police or to the statue in honor of Terry Fox.
Instead, there are now depictions of Canadian landscapes through the seasons, aboriginal canoeists, ears of corn, snowflakes and iconic animals of the country, such as caribou, bears and snowy owls.
The case rebounded during question period in the House, where Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused Justin Trudeau of “erasing veterans” and the Vimy memorial, “where 3,598 Canadians died defending freedom and defining our country”.
“They cleared Vimy Ridge for a squirrel eating a nut; they erased Terry Fox, a man who ran half the country to fight cancer for a man who rakes leaves, and they erased Quebec City for what appears to be an image of a young prime minister swimming in Lake Harrington [à la deuxième résidence ]Mr. Poilievre teased.
In a livelier tone than usual, the Prime Minister retorted that the Conservatives are “always very quick to use [les vétérans] as symbols,” but that they “cut veteran service offices across the country” and “veteran funds.”
The new imagery is the result of consultations with various groups across the country to ensure that the passport “reflects who we are as Canadians,” said Immigration Minister Sean Fraser at the unveiling of the new passport on Wednesday morning.
“To be very clear, we are extremely proud of Canada’s history,” said the Minister. “I don’t think there’s a single person, regardless of political color, who isn’t proud of the Marathon of Hope. [mené par Terry Fox]who does not want to continue to commemorate the service of our veterans.”
Canada’s history, Mr. Fraser continued, is already represented through different mediums, such as currency, for example.
“One of the things we heard was that we wanted to celebrate our diversity and inclusion, celebrate our natural environment and try to include those elements in the design,” he said.
On the cover, the coat of arms of Canada is reduced to make room for the outline of a maple leaf, all on the same navy blue background as before.
The coat of arms is that which was used until the coronation of King Charles III, and not the new ones unveiled last weekend on the occasion of his coronation. The passport will, however, contain a reference to the new monarch on its inside pages.
The document also contains a number of state-of-the-art technologies to make life more difficult for fraudsters: kinegram which changes colors according to the angle of vision, chip and antenna on opposite pages, metallic papers on the cover, sheet of embossed maple on the back, among others.
The production of the new passport will begin this summer, confirmed the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould.
Passports already in circulation will remain valid until their expiry date.
Starting in the fall, Canadian citizens will be able to apply for a passport online.