From: bo774@FreeNet.Carleton.CA   
      
   Wilbur Eleven (wil@nowhere.at.all.ru.ca.fr.uk.us) writes:   
   > How does one squeeze a birth certificate for someone born in 1910 out of   
   > the provincial redneck paranoiacs in Ontario?   
   >   
   > If the person I needed the certificate for had been born in the UK, I'd   
   > simply submit the details and paypal about £10 and about 2 weeks later   
   > I'd have the thing in the mail.   
   >   
   > Here in redneck-bozo-land, the whole thing is shrouded in mystery and   
   > paranoia. No one answers emails and there's no relevant department to   
   > find in the phone book.  Jesus H.  Christ, what's wrong with these   
   > people?   
      
   Perhaps they have seen too many scams where someone tried to obtain a birth   
   certificate for a dead person to create a fake identity.   
      
   There used to be publications available with titles such as "How to be   
   reborn as a Canadian" openly sold to give scam artists step by step   
   advice about how to bring a dead Canadian Identity back to life.   
      
   Governments in North American used to be rather casual about reissuing birth   
   certificates. That has changed.   
      
   Part of that is from foiled Millenium Bomber Ahmed Ressam using a forged   
   Quebec Baptimsmal Certificate, the obsolete version of a Quebec Birth   
   Certificate, to create a fake identity to use crossing the border into the   
   USA.   
      
   Ressam drove his car full of home made explosive past the Victoria office   
   building I worked in at the time, on his way to the Port Angeles ferry.   
      
   I feel that the issue of people asking for a birth certificate in another   
   name should be treated with the highest level of scrutiny.   
      
   Another reason is that a rural USA postmaster just south of the border   
   in Washington State noted an envelope containing a BC Birth Certificate   
   addressed to a PO box rented in another name, and placed it in a different   
   PO box matching the family name. The family had members on both sides   
   of the border near Grand Forks and asked BC Vital Statitics why a birth   
   certificate for a dead relative had been printed and sent to a total   
   stranger. Nobody related to the dead child even knew about the request.   
      
   The PO box in the mailing addess had been rented by a Pathologist who had   
   access to autopsy records at a number of BC hospitals, including the   
   hospital where the dead child's autopsy was done. He claimed to have   
   re-rented the PO box to someone else but did not have any information that   
   could identify the alleged other person.   
      
   Cross checking of Birth Certificate re-issue requests revealed that requests   
   for dead people were arriving almost every week. That lead to tighter   
   checking across North America.   
      
   Census data from that era should be available from Statistics Canada. What   
   makes an actual Birth Certificate so important to you?   
      
   http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/   
   http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pages/results.aspx?k=1911%20census   
      
   Why do you need a Birth Certificate, rather than a summary or fiche printout   
   from   
   the 1910 Birth Register?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)