The measures announced last week by Ottawa do not seem to have changed the situation at the passport office in Quebec, which is still stormed by hundreds of people, including dozens who had spent the night there from Sunday to Monday.
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Mélanie Bourassa, a single mother of two children, was there shortly before 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, with her few-month-old daughter in her arms.
She was trying her luck for the fourth time when her flight to Nevada was scheduled for… 10:17 a.m. that same morning.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” she blurts out, tremolos in her voice.
A musician, she has to fly to a concert and needs a passport for her daughter, whom she does not want to leave behind since she is breastfeeding her.
When the office opened, the security guard let in first those who were leaving the same day, like Mélanie, and those who had appointments for 8:30 a.m.
The others had to wait in line.
Among them, at least thirty had spent the night outside, according to several, including Mathieu Jacob who plans to fly to Mexico with his two children on July 9.
Shelter, sleeping bag and cooler, he was “one of the best equipped”, according to one of his companions in the line who had also spent the night there, after arriving around 1 p.m. Sunday.
The latter, who preferred not to identify himself, had resolved to hang around for hours, unable to follow up on the passport applications sent for his boys “months ago”.
For two days, he used an application allowing him to repeatedly call the Passport Canada telephone line, without success, despite more than 5,000 attempts, he says.
In Quebec, several people met by Le Journal who also made the crane foot last week did not notice any change in the management of the queue. They have never seen coupons circulating, a new system put in place a few days ago in Montreal to bring some order to the chaotic management of this crisis.
Many line up without knowing if they really have a chance of getting through the door of the passport office.
“I find it sad, it creates anxiety. Are we waiting for nothing?” asks Jason Beaulieu, who is lining up so that his spouse’s son can travel with them to the United States on July 2.
More details to come…
