Birth certificate for wrong child sent to Calgary mother after applying for passports

Like many Canadians Laurene Dawson has been waiting months for her and her son's passports to arrive in the mail, but last week she got an unexpected delivery from Service Canada instead. 

While one of the two envelopes she received contained her three-year-old son Jasper's birth certificate, the other envelope contained the birth certificate and expired passport of another child — someone unknown and unrelated to their family. 

"Instantly I was like, this is a huge mistake and I'm like, at this point, where's my kid's passport? Is it lost? Is it given to this kid's family?" she said.

Dawson said she immediately called Service Canada to find out what had happened. 

"The girl I talked to was very helpful, but she was also not apologetic at all," she said.

The employee was able to provide Dawson with the first bit of information about the status of her families' passports since their applications were received in April. She was told that her son's passport was "still in limbo" because it was missing his height, and helped Dawson rectify that, along with a missing piece of documentation for her own application.

'Hold on to it'

As for the other child's documents she had wrongly received, Dawson says the employee told her to "hold onto it" and that a representative would call her back to determine what to do with it. 

When Dawson spoke with CBC News at the end of last week, she still hadn't been contacted by Service Canada to tell her what to do with the documents. 

"This is a huge, huge breach of confidentiality and it's very concerning because I've been given someone else's birth certificate and passport that has picture and identity information," she said. 

"If I was this child's mother, I'd be very upset. I'm just happy it came to someone like me who's not going to do anything with it."

Dawson filled out a waiver for Service Canada so that the agency could provide CBC News with details specific to their case.

Service Canada responds

In a written response service Canada spokesperson Mila Roy said that sometimes mistakes happen.

"Service Canada is always concerned when a passport or any supporting document, at any time after issuance, leaves the care and custody of the rightful holder or when personal information is made accessible to a third party," she said.

"Although employees follow strict guidelines and procedures in processing Canadians' passport applications, it may happen that documents such as the passport or supporting documents, are returned to the wrong applicant."

Roy said that when this type of breach occurs, employees receive an email reminding them to follow guidelines and procedures to prevent these errors. 

People who receive the wrong documents are asked, as Dawson did, to immediately contact the Passport Call Centre, and will them be asked to return the package to their nearest Service Canada or passport office. 

"Service Canada also contacts the client whose information was breached to inform them of the situation," said Roy. 

Passports enroute

She says that both Dawson's passport, and her son's have now been mailed out, and they should have them and any missing documents in the next few days. 

But according to Roy, long waits can be expected for anyone who applied for a passport by mail.

"It may take up to 17 weeks, plus mail time to receive it. Supporting documents may not be returned to you along with the new passport. The original documentation submitted may be sent back separately," she said.

In August, the federal government blamed a sudden surge in passport applications — coming at the same time as pandemic-related  health restrictions — meant up to 70 per cent fewer staff could be onsite at its service centres and processing facilities until May of this year.