Canadian Passport - Notable Cases of Misuse

Notable Cases of Misuse

• In 1940 Frank Jacson, a Spanish national, traveled to Mexico City on a fraudulent Canadian Passport to assassinate Leon Trotsky
• In 1961 Konon Molody used a fraudulently obtained passport of deceased Canadian Arnold Lonsdale. Using this identity he engaged in espionage activities in the United Kingdom.
• In 1968 James Earl Ray used a Canadian Passport, obtained using a forged baptismal certificate in the name of Ramon George Sneyd, to temporarily escape capture following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
• In 1973, Mossad agents killed a waiter in Norway in the mistaken belief that he was a senior operative for Black September. The use of false Canadian passports by the killers prompted a diplomatic crisis in relations between Canada and Israel, resulting in a commitment by Israel not to misuse Canadian passports in the future. It also resulted in a redesign of the Canadian passport to improve its security features.
• In 1997, Israeli secret service personnel again botched an assassination bid while using 'Canadian passports'. The attempt against Khaled Mashal in Jordan resulted in the arrest of the would-be killers. The Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy eventually received an apology and a written assurance that Mossad would desist from using Canadian passports.
• Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian al-Qaeda Millenium Bomber who attempted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999/2000, evaded deportation by Canada and travelled freely to and from Canada by using a Canadian passport he obtained in March 1998 by submitting a fraudulent baptismal certificate; he used a stolen blank certificate, filling it in with a fictitious name.
• In 2007, a former Canadian bureaucrat pleaded guilty to selling at least 10 fraudulent passports to individuals overseas.
• A Russian spy involved in the Illegals Program used a Canadian passport to travel to the United States to deliver payment to Russian sleeper agents. The passport was issued to a man known as Christopher Metsos, however, following the public revelation of the spy ring Passport Canada revoked the document, saying it had been issued by the Canadian High Commission in Johannesburg, South Africa to a man assuming the identity of a deceased Canadian child.