If it didn’t involve government I wouldn’t believe it. I will start by saying that a passport is a form of government sanctioned identification that basically says ‘you are who you are’ (i.e. Canadian, etc.) to other governments.
In this regard I can trace my family back five generations on my father’s side, and twelve generations on my grandmother’s side, so how much more ‘Canadian’ do they want? Moreover, I am recognized internationally as a Canadian author, and if you ‘Google’ my name it will come up with about approximately 12 pages of recognition.
“Not good enough,” the faceless bureaucracy in Ottawa insists, “You’re not you or Canadian until we say you are.” Ergo, I am required to get a ‘guarantor’ to attest that they know who I am both. [In my case I got a first-generation guarantor, so that was quite acceptable.]
Then, there was a difficulty about the acceptability of the form—not what was on it, but the form itself. It seems that if you call it up on the internet and push “print,” the resulting copy is acceptable. However, if you scan the government’s form and push “print,” it’s not.
Only in government, you say. Figures!
