Canadian citizen (not by birth ) - be careful at Heathrow airport

Be warned - if you fly out of Heathrow with Air Canada and are resident in Canada you risk getting serious hassle and even being refused the right to fly if you do not have a Canadian passport OR a foreign passport and Permanent Resident card. I have been a proud Canadian citizen for almost 4 years. I do not have a Canadian passport as I don't need one, they're expensive and the waiting list to get one is horrendous. It is quite legal for me to fly into Canada with my British passport and a Canadian citizenship card. Permanent Resident and a Citizen of Canada are two distinct status and once a Citizen you do not need, and indeed cannot have, a Permanent Resident card.I pointed this out to the Air Canada check-in person but she decided to get an 'immigration expert'.

The 'immigration expert' had serious 'attitude' and claimed that the citizenship card is honorific and has no value as an ID document - it was just for people like me who had emigrated to Canada and gone through the process of becoming a citizen - an honorary document. This was said in a tone that was méprisant and by someone who seemed to not like immigrants. I was so upset I could have cried.

I told the immigration officer at Montreal airport about all this and he was disgusted that this had happened to me BUT warned me to be careful as these people who, even though they are totally wrong, have POWER, the power to refuse someone the right to board an Air Canada flight to travel back home to Canada.


Sorry to rant but I am so upset by this and want to go public on it to warn other people.

Think of life like this...

Found this great quote on the Facebook page of one of my FB friends

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming...... Wow....Whatta ride!!!!!

Hiroshima

I was at a soirée at the Château Versailles Hotel in Montreal this evening and got talking to someone about Hiroshima. We talked about the A building and how this contrasts with the bustle of the street; the Peace Garden and the museum. I will never forget seeing the model of Hiroshima before the bomb dropped and the model of Hiroshima afterwards. If only world leaders could be obliged to go to that museum they would perhaps conclude that war in general and nuclear weapons in particular need to become things of the past.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Jane Birkin

Tonight I was at a concert by Jane Birkin in Montreal. At one point she expressed forcefully how she felt about the military Junta in Burma and sang a song she had written about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Exceptionally, although this was not a benefit concert, Amnesty International were present for people to sign a petition afterwards.

This resonated with me for two reasons: firstly I had travelled in Burma some ten years ago and had attended a rally where Aung San Suu Kyi spoke and also because of the book I am writing on music and human rights.

Nothing to do with consulting but....

In The Quiet Land (By Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)

In the Quiet Land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd

In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...

In the Quiet Land....
In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.
But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.