When Miriam Steinberg opened the express mail envelope yesterday, it contained a surprise: her spanking-new passport, a day earlier than expected, and a typo.
OTTTAWA. Her place of birth had been misspelled with an extra T.
Steinberg, who was hoping to travel south of the border this weekend, called an accompanying 1-800 number and explained her predicament.
"I was told as long as my name hadn't been misspelled, I was fine and that (passport) was valid."
She also says she was told she would have no problem travelling.
Steinberg was shocked.
She has been following the story of Suaad Hagi Mohamud, the Toronto mother who was marooned in Kenya for three months after officials said her lips didn't match those in her passport photo, and couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"In this age of rampant forgery, who would not flag this passport?" said Steinberg, a retired provincial civil servant in her 40s. "If I was a border agent, I definitely would (flag it). And I would not want to be stuck someplace like that poor woman was in Nairobi."
She said she will not travel on this passport.
Get the full story at thestar.com
I find it offensive and quite irresponsible that the passport office would tell this woman to go ahead and use this passport. Considering what just happened to the poor woman who our government left languishing in a Kenyan prison, all while she also had a valid passport.
I think it is time for our useless federal government to start addressing some of these issues.
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