Federal government unveils new, heavily redesigned 'state-of-the-art' passport

The single biggest change is to the document’s data page that features the owner’s picture and personal information

Nationalpost.com
May 11, 2023
Christopher Nardi

Canadians will soon be able to apply online for a newly redesigned Canadian passport that features a host of advanced security features and a significant graphic rework that largely eliminates references to the country’s history.

On Wednesday, Ministers Sean Fraser and Karina Gould revealed the new “state-of-the-art” passport, which features many impressive new security features that they say will make it the envy of the world. The new document will be distributed starting this summer.

They also announced that Canadians will finally be able to skip the line at Service Canada offices and apply online for the new document come the fall.”Our passport is recognized around the world and this new design will not only be more secure and reliable, but I believe it will also continue to inspire pride in the hearts of those who carry it,” Gould said during a press conference at the Ottawa airport.

The government is obliged to update security features every five years to embed new anti-counterfeit measures but the Liberals have not modernized the passport since coming to power.
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This is the first major redesign for the essential travel document since 2013, but Gould warned that it would take a few months before new applicants receive the updated version.

The new passport features completely new imagery throughout its 37 pages, which are now printed on material similar to the new Canadian bank notes.

Gone are the pictures of historic Canadian icons, locations and moments such as the Fathers of Confederation, explorer Samuel de Champlain, Niagara Falls and the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885.

Instead, the new passport’s visa pages depict sketches of Canada throughout the seasons, such as birds at a feeder, an Indigenous kayaker, narwhals with golden tusks breaching the water and a man raking leaves into a wheelbarrow in front of a home.

Fraser said the new generic graphics are meant to highlight “Canada’s diverse people, landscapes and wildlife across the four seasons.” He noted that they were the result of consultations with the department of Canadian Heritage as well as Indigenous communities and that none of the feedback “found our history offensive.”

He also said the government chose to completely overhaul the document’s images for security reasons.

“We need to continually change the design,” Fraser said. “If you maintain elements that may have existed in the previous design, it becomes easier to counterfeit the Canadian passport, which is something we want to protect against.”

But the replacement of iconic images such as the Vimy Memorial and the Terry Fox statue by generic landscapes was criticized by some as either esthetically unpleasing or erasing the past.

The Royal Canadian Legion said it was “disappointed” by the “poor decision” to remove the Vimy Memorial from the passport.

NDP MP Alistair MacGregor noted on social media that he was “glad my current passport is valid until 2032” whereas CPC MP Ryan Williams commented that the new graphics on the visa pages are “incredibly bad.”

Minister Gould said reporters were “looking to create a story” by asking repeated questions on the replacement of images such as prominent suffragette Nellie McClung and famous Nova Scotian ship Bluenose with generic Canadian scenes and landscapes.

Beyond the new images, the single biggest change is to the document’s data page that features the owner’s picture and personal information.

The new page is made out of polycarbonate thermoplastic on which an owner’s data is laser-engraved (instead of printed with ink) with a new proprietary font. That allows the designers to also emboss certain characters on the page for an added layer of security.

The owner’s picture is printed three times in different formats on the page, including one that is a security hologram embedded into a maple leaf emblem that switches between a picture and an ID number when rotated. The passport’s chip is now also visible through the plastic page, which officials say will make it easier to see if it’s been tampered with.

The data page also features a new heat-sensitive red maple leaf emblem that should disappear when covered by a finger.

For the first time in decades, the passport’s cover page was also redrawn, with an outline of most of a maple leaf in the centre of the page while the Canadian coat of arms is shifted to the bottom left quadrant.

The back cover page of the passport now features a new pop of colour with the addition of eight new red maple leaves.

The government also noted that this is the world’s first passport to refer to England’s new monarch, King Charles, in the text on the second page. Ironically, that reference sits underneath the old version of Canada’s coat of arms that features the Canadian Crown under Queen Elizabeth. The same coat of arms also adorns the front page of the passport.