When Canada’s passport was gold

Over the previous five years my passport got me in and out of 50 countries and several hundred border crossings

by Toby Barrett

I showed up at the Canadian Consulate in Buenos Aries when it dawned on me my passport had run out.

This was in late March 1972.

It probably expired sometime back in Bolivia.

The staff person across the desk at the Consulate was able to give me an answer on the spot,

“There’s nothing we can do. This passport is not valid. You have nothing to prove you’re a Canadian citizen. We can’t give you a passport.”

I understood the dilemma for him. As we both got up to leave he said, “You know what’s going on in this city, right. A guy like you carrying a knapsack is going to be detained a lot for identification.”

I told him I knew exactly what was going on from the perspective of the street … he then asked me if I would pull up my chair again and fill him in.

My Argentinian girlfriend had brought me to the city from Tucaman in the north; got me a job as a security escort for a Syrian business woman ; and when we weren’t touring gun shops and perfume shops, like every young person in Buenos Aries, we were running from the men in uniform. If your eyes weren’t wide open you got detained. Buenos Aries was under a State of Siege; people were being arrested and I no longer had a ‘Stay out of Jail Free’ Canadian passport.

Why the State of Siege?

In March, when I arrived in Buenos Aries, the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) had just kidnapped Sallustro, the President of Fiat in Argentina. Their demands: the release of imprisoned Fiat autoworker union leaders; and several million dollars to provide a pencil, an eraser, and a notebook for every school-aged child in Argentina.

The Fiat auto company was willing to negotiate the demands; the Argentinian government was not.

Sallustro was killed by his kidnappers on March 28, 1972.

Guys my age were throwing knapsacks of explosives, like I was carrying, over the walls of military barracks. Busses of 40 officers were blockading street by street for door by door forced entry …but my girlfriend knew every alley and pathway to get away.

When I finished my briefing with the consulate guy, we shook hands and he walked me to the elevator.

Next floor down two Americans my age came in, laughing, and foolishly talked about how they’d had just scammed themselves Canadian passports. They knew, for whatever business they were in, a Canadian passport was gold.

And I knew what I was going to do with this information.

At 9am the next morning I was back in the consular office and I turned them in, letting the consul agent know the American guys were criminals and were not Canadians. I had no qualms about turning these guys in: they got a passport and I didn’t. And I had to do whatever it would take to get a new Canadian passport.

After the better part of five years on the road sleeping outside you learn that, when push comes to shove, few people give a shit about you other than yourself.

On hearing my accusation, the consul guy jumped up and said, “I f*cking knew it! Frank get in here! We’re going to the basement!”

Down we went and after mug shots and fingerprints in a matter of 20 minutes I had a brand new (albeit one year temporary) passport to get me back on the road.

As I can also attest, at the time, our Canadian passport was worth its weight in gold. Over the previous five years of its life my passport got me in and out of 50 countries and several hundred border crossing. In those days a Canadian citizen was a British subject with welcome access to Canadian, American and British consulates and embassies world wide.

However, in contrast to then, I have the impression now we’re handing out Canadian citizenship to foreigners at an amazing rate, in the millions.

I now wonder and worry how our country’s passport is viewed on the world stage today?

*****

Toby Barrett, MPP Haldimand Norfolk

First elected to the Ontario Legislature in June 1995, Toby was Haldimand-Norfolk MPP until his retirement in 2022.

Toby has a Masters of Science degree from the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) and a degree in Economics from the University of Guelph. A former teacher of high school Agriculture and Environmental Science, Toby is a partner in his family farm near Port Dover, and for 20 years worked for the Ontario Addiction Research Foundation.

In 1993, Toby was awarded the Canada 125 medal for outstanding community service. Toby is a life-long resident of Haldimand-Norfolk. He and his wife Cari live on the family farm and have three children – Shawn, Brett and Brittany. Before starting his career,Toby travelled in over 50 countries and has an abiding interest in antique cars, trucks and tractors.