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Lower Kootenay Band first to launch a Machine Readable Zone

The 49th parallel, which cuts traditional Ktunaxa territory in half, will soon be easier to cross for all First Nations communities in Canada. Lower Kootenay Band members will be among the first to cross the border by simply using new Secure Certificate of Indian Status (SCIS) cards.

“It’s such a victory that we are a small band of 240 members,” Lower Kootenay Band Chief Councilor Jason Louie expressed. “There are many other First Nations in all of Canada that number in the thousands. But we were the most persistent and we were the ones that wanted to make this happen.”

Indigenous Services Canada is making Machine Readable Zones (MRZ) a standard feature on all newly issued and renewed SCIS cards in Canada, a feature Chief Louie says he asked for in the past.

“I got wind of MRZ cards nine years ago,” Chief Louie explains. “I made a trip to the Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) office in Vancouver, making a request for Lower Kootenay to have that. It was a flat out no.”

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According to Chief Louie, his window of opportunity began early in January of 2019 to work with ISC to be first in line to grant his community SCIS MRZ cards.

(image courtesy of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada ‘INAC’ and Lower Kootenay Band)

The Lower Kootenay Band boardroom housed representatives from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and US Customs and Border Protection to oversee the historical process on February 25  from 9:00 a.m until 9:00 p.m. It is estimated that over 90 Lower Kootenay Band members were processed by the end of the day.

Chief Louie noted that some members of the Lower Kootenay Band community do not have the resources on a limited budget to simply get passports for their large families after all the fees. The new SCIS cards will make it easier for both travelers and border officials to scan data rather than manually enter all the information with outdated documentation. The SCIS MRZ cards do not replace passports however, they may only be used on land ports of entry.

Though a step in the right direction, Chief Louie sheds light on what Certificate of Indian Status cards symbolize for many First Nations in Canada.

“The Certificates of Indian Status are a symbol of oppression. There isn’t anything that is really glamorous about it. Ultimately we are still wards of the Canadian government. However, in this case it is a victory that we are able to do something very significant, working in collaboration with Indigenous Services Canada, Canada Border Services Agency as well as US Customs to freely cross the border.”

Information retrieved at the border will remain the same as the previous Certificate of Indian Status, including;

  • Last and First Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
  • Citizenship (Which will be identified as “XXX” which is captured as “Unknown” in CBSA systems)
  • Document Type
  • Document Number

 

 

 

 

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