OY Canada ! Won't Recognize Jerusalem, Israel as Birthplace on Passport

Eliyahu Veffer was born in Jerusalem, Israel--->well not according to the Canadian Government. You see in todays world of Political Correctness and Appeasement of terrorism, Canada will not allow its citizens to list Jerusalem, Israel as their birthplace on passports. They claim that because Jerusalem is disputed territory it is passport taboo. The fun part is that they aren't considering pre-1967 boarders as disputed, because then Jerusalem would be cool, no these idiots will only recognize Jerusalem as someone's birthplace if they were born prior to 1948. Its no wonder that very few people outside the beer industry take Canada seriously.

Israel' banned from Canadian passports

A federal policy that bans Canadians from listing Jerusalem, Israel, as their birthplace on their passports does not violate the Charter of Rights, the Federal Court of Appeal said Tuesday.

The ruling came in the context of a three-judge panel decision that the Canadian government was not required to allow 19-year-old Eliyahu Veffer, the son of a Toronto rabbi, to amend his passport to indicate that his birthplace, Jerusalem, was part of Israel.

"There is no discrimination here," the judges wrote in the decision released late last week. Veffer still maintains the freedom to express his faith and his subjectively held views as to the status of Jerusalem; he is just not able to do so in his Canadian passport."

The Canadian National Post reported that the decision upheld a 2006 court ruling that Canada's passport policy was neither discriminatory nor a violation of religious freedom, despite the fact that Israel was the only exception to a practice of letting passport applicants list their birth country of choice when dealing with cities in disputed territories.

The federal government, citing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over the control of Jerusalem, insisted that immigrants who were born there are issued passports without any reference to a country.

The appeal court wrote that Veffer's passport was no more than a travel document showing proof of citizenship and that "there is no evidence that the absence of a country name beside Jerusalem hinders his ability to travel in any way."

The ruling, which concludes that any damage to Veffer's religious freedom was "negligible," emphasized that Canada's refusal to recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel was consistent with the UN's stance on the issue.

Veffer immigrated to Canada with his family nine years ago. He is now a student at Hebrew University in his native city.

His lawyer, Gordon Wiseman, said that Veffer was "dismayed by the ruling and he wants to go on fighting the good fight," the Canadian National Post reported.

Wiseman said he expected Veffer to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Veffer, in an affidavit filed in the Federal Court, argued: "When the Canadian government does not allow me to put in my passport that I am born in Jerusalem, Israel, they are denying me the truth of who I am."

David Matas, another one of Veffer's lawyers, contended with the court's declaration that the threat to Veffer's religious freedom was negligible.

"It's negligible to them, but it's not negligible to him," the Canadian National Post quoted Matas as saying. "In my own view, they shouldn't be weighing how important religion is to people. That is kind of a secular intrusion into religious beliefs."

During Veffer's court battle, the government issued a recall after it discovered that 146 passports that listed Jerusalem, Israel, had slipped through the cracks.

The policy took effect in 1976, but does not apply to people born before 1948, when Jerusalem was part of the territory then named Palestine.