History of passports

Introduction

Passports conjure up images of mystery and intrigue from the films : pin-striped diplomats, dashing secret agents, steely-eyed border guards and suitcases with false-bottoms. They are all part of the mystique of this simple booklet.

There are few more exciting moments in getting ready for a trip abroad than the moment you pick up your passport. Your travel dreams become a reality when you see your name and face in that small blue booklet.

For the occasional tourist, it is truly a passport to romance and adventure; for the experienced traveller, it promises safety and security. There is comfort in the presence of this document close to you in exotic or foreign places. Both kinds of travellers take for granted the fact that their Canadian passport gives them entry to almost every country in the world.

But it was not always thus.

Early passports

One of the earliest references to passports was made in about 450 B.C. Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes of ancient Persia, asked permission to travel to Judah. The King agreed and gave Nehemiah a letter "to the governors of the province beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he travelled through their lands.

Today's Canadian passports still carry such a letter of request. Inside the front cover is a letter issued in the name of Her Majesty the Queen. Like Nehemiah's letter, it also requests safe passage and protection for the bearer.

Not until the reign of King Louis XIV of France did these "letters of request" become popular. The King granted personally signed documents to his court favourites. The letter was dubbed "passe port", literally meaning "to pass through a port", because most international travel was by sailing ships. Hence the term "passport".

Within 100 years of Louis XIV's reign, almost every country in Europe had set up a system to issue passports. Besides needing passports from their own countries, travellers also had to have visas issued by the countries they wanted to visit, much as we have travel visas today.

The rising popularity of rail travel in the mid-19th century led to an explosion of tourism throughout Europe and caused a complete breakdown in the European passport and visa system. In answer to the crisis, France abolished passports and visas in 1861. Other European countries followed suit, and by 1914, passport requirements had been eliminated practically everywhere in Europe. However, World War I brought renewed concerns for international security, and passports and visas were again required, as a "temporary" measure.

Early Canadian experiences

The story of the Canadian passport is entwined with Canada's history, both as a colony of Great Britain and as a neighbour of the United States.

Before 1862, Canadians, as British subjects, could travel freely to and from the United States without passports. To travel to Europe, however, a Canadian had to obtain a British passport from the Foreign Office in London. Those who were not British subjects by birth could still go to the United States with a certificate of naturalization, which was issued by local Canadian mayors mainly for the purposes of voting in municipal elections.

During the American Civil War, however, authorities in the United States wanted more reliable certification from people living in Canada. In 1862, the Governor General, Viscount Monck, introduced a centralized system for issuing passports. For the next 50 years, a Canadian passport was really a "letter of request" signed by the Governor General.

It is difficult to trace the history of Canadian passports in the first few years after Confederation because so few were issued. The financial statements of the Secretary of State in 1878 record an annual passport revenue of $50. Since passports then cost $1 each, we know 50 must have been issued. Over the next few years, annual revenues varied between $35 and $50.

In those early years, passports were issued as single-sheet certificates and stamped with the official seal. In 1915, Canada switched to the British form of passport, a ten-section single sheet folder printed in English only.

A series of international passport conferences (1920, 1926 and 1947) resulted in a number of changes to the Canadian passport. The 1920 conference recommended that all countries adopt a booklet-type passport, which Canada began issuing in 1921. Another recommendation of 1920, that all passports were to be written in at least two languages, one of which was to be French, led to the first bilingual Canadian passport in 1926. The 1920 conference also recommended that passports should be valid for at least two years and preferably for five. It is interesting to note that, since 1919, Canadian peacetime passports were already valid for five years, with the possibility of a five-year extension.

The year 1930 saw more changes in Canadian passport regulations, reflecting Canada's growth and international status. Canadian travellers needing passport services abroad were now directed to the nearest Canadian legation instead of to a British consular office.

When war broke out in 1939, the United States government announced that Canadians would need passports and visas to cross the border. At that time, about half a million Canadians travelled to the States each year without any documentation. Tensions rose at border crossings when American officials began searching Canadian travellers culminating in a riot when a hearse was detained at the border. This led to the issuance of special wartime passports for Canadians travelling to the United States.

Until 1947, two kinds of passports were issued in Canada, one for British-born citizens and one for naturalized citizens. That same year, the Canadian Citizenship Act, which stipulates that only Canadian citizens are eligible for a Canadian passport, came into effect. The familiar blue passport booklet with pale pink pages similar to the booklets with blue pages issued to British subjects appeared at that time. As of July 1948, passports were issued by the Canadian Government only to Canadian citizens.

The modern era

Between 1947 and 1970, Canadians could only apply for passports by mail to Ottawa. Requirements were very simple, and applicants claiming birth in Canada did not have to provide proof.

However, within a few years, the increased number of lost and stolen passports pointed to the need to tighten requirements. This need was reinforced by the escape of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., using a fraudulently-obtained Canadian passport.

The Royal Commission on Security in 1969 recommended much more stringent application requirements. It also supported plans to open Passport Canada offices across Canada for better service to the public. In 1970, three Passport Canada offices opened--in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver--to accept and process applications submitted in person. There are now 33 offices across Canada, which process more than 80 per cent of the 3 millions Canadian passports issued each year.

Machine-readable passports, introduced in Canada in 1985, meet the standard set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The new format was smaller, and the bearer's personal information, photograph and passport details were laminated to prevent tampering. In the special machine-readable zone, personal information and passport details were repeated in a format that could be scanned at checkpoints.

In 1991, additional security features were built into the Canadian passport and more stringent processing requirements were put in place. By 1993, a new style of passport was introduced that contained unique features to prevent replication or alteration.

In order to protect the integrity of the travel document and to remain current with international security technology, Canada is a regular participant at ICAO conferences and is recognized as a leader in technological developments in passport design and processing systems.

In recent years, Passport Canada has invested in new technology to modernize its operations and to create a passport that is among the most secure in the world. This Canadian passport, introduced domestically in 2002 and abroad in April 2006, features a digitally printed photo of the bearer that is embedded into the identification page of the booklet. The passport also contains holographic images and a second hidden photo of the bearer that can only be viewed under ultraviolet light.

From its simple beginnings as a letter of safe conduct, the passport has become the single most important international identity document a traveller can carry. Since 1995, Canadian passports have been issued with an expiry date in the next century and may therefore be said to be passports to the future.