Massive lines for SIN cards and passports in the Greater Toronto Area
Herman Singh has been in Canada for three days—two of them were spent waiting outside a Service Canada office to get a Social Insurance Number.
“Yesterday I came here at 11 o'clock and the security told me to leave because I would have no chance to get [to] my turn here, so today I came at 5 o'clock,” the international student told CTV News Toronto as he stood outside the Service Canada location in Brampton, ON.
His story is not unique. Hundreds of people lined up in a queue hundreds of feet long, snaking around the building into the back alley and behind an adjacent restaurant.
By midday, many were told to go home and try again another day.
Daniel Mendy was one of the lucky few closer to the front of the line told to return later in the afternoon. He arrived from the Gambia last Thursday to study health care administration at Fanshawe College.
He says he has been staying in Brampton close to the service center before leaving for London, hoping to have a SIN card to make getting an apartment, bank account, and job that much easier.
“Today I have to wake up very early I’ve been here since 6 am in the morning,” he said. “I waited for hours, and later on I was told I had to wait until later in the afternoon around 4:30 [pm] before I have to come back again.”
Delays at Service Canada for passports have been ongoing for months, and something Employment and Social Development Canada—which oversees Service Canada—has deemed “unacceptable.”
“Service Canada expects the passport backlog to drop significantly by the end of the summer Employment and Social Development Canada advised in a public update on August 17.
The lines outside Service Canada offices like Brampton aren’t dissipating—as the fall semester looms, many international students are arriving in Canada.
Service Canada advises on social media and on plastic notices outside service centers that people may seek official documents online, instead of in person.
Mendy wasn’t taking any chances. Even after being told his name had been taken down and to return in the afternoon—he stayed, seeking shade around the parking lot.
“Having to wait through the day, it’s not easy,” he admitted.
His resolve, he says, comes from why he came to Canada.
The 30-year-old nurse is looking to learn how to improve the health care system in his homeland.
“Studying in Canada in one of the best education in the world which has that, I believe I will definitely be able to contribute hugely in my country,” he said.
“That is my inspiration.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.