DON'T PUT YOUR PASSPORT IN THE LAUNDRY....

Passport flap keeps businessman from friend's funeral

ELIZABETH CHURCH
From Monday's Globe and Mail
December 10, 2007 at 5:20 AM EST
What started as a personal tragedy - the sudden death of a dear friend and business partner - has became the latest instalment in the bureaucratic horrors of international travel for a Windsor man desperate to be at a funeral later this week in Hong Kong.
Mike Levesque spent yesterday at Toronto's Pearson Airport after an Air Canada official said his well-used passport was unacceptable, even though he had just flown home from Asia on the same airline a few days before.
"I have to say I've never, ever had this kind of treatment anywhere else in the world," a weary and emotional Mr. Levesque, 38, said yesterday afternoon as he camped out in Pearson's Terminal 3 where he hoped to get on a flight with another carrier. "It's been quite a day."
His day began in the wee hours of the morning with a four-hour drive to Toronto to catch an Air Canada flight to Hong Kong. The quickly planned trip followed news that his business partner and university friend, Kevin Yuen, had been killed on a mountain road in nearby Macau by a drunk driver at the wheel of a dump truck. After days of searching, authorities had located the man's body on a steep hillside and Mr. Levesque was eager to be there for the service and to support the wife and two daughters Mr. Yuen left behind.
But when the ticket agent saw his passport - a frequently used document that also made a trip through the laundry about a year ago - she questioned whether authorities in Hong Kong would allow him entry. This even though the passport contained a 90-day visa for travel there that had been stamped the last time Mr. Levesque arrived in Hong Kong on his most recent business trip on Nov. 16 - the last time he also saw his friend.
Given that he had just travelled in Asia for three weeks and never had his passport questioned, Mr. Levesque was astonished airline staff would prevent him from returning.
"I said there was no way that it wouldn't be accepted and asked to speak to the supervisor," Mr. Levesque recalled. The airline supervisor refused to let Mr. Levesque on his flight, even after Canadian immigration officials at Pearson said the passport was still usable because it scanned and was readable.
"He didn't care that I was going to a funeral. He told me you might as well book a room. You can go to the passport office in the morning. You might be there by Thursday," Mr. Levesque said.
Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said airlines are responsible for checking that passengers have the correct documents for travel, even though it is the countries of entry that ultimately make that decision. "There are hefty fines for airlines, which come into effect for allowing passengers to travel without proper documentation," Ms. Mah said. "With the state of this passport, we just could not be assured of the actions taken by the Hong Kong authorities."
For Mr. Levesque, the ordeal left him bewildered at a time when his world has already been upended. "It's a defining moment," he said searching for words to describe the experience. "It could have been avoided with a little bit of a human touch."
Mr. Levesque struck up a friendship with Mr. Yuen while they were engineering students first at the University of Waterloo and later at the University of Toronto. After Mr. Yuen moved to Hong Kong, the two began working together on business ventures. Mr. Levesque's company, Engineered Systems Inc., designs wind turbines and also does work on solar energy and LED lighting, the part of the business Mr. Yuen oversaw.
Just a few weeks ago, Mr. Yuen greeted his old friend when he arrived at the airport in Hong Kong. They met with a business contact and later had tea before Mr. Levesque left for Shanghai.
"That was the last time I saw him," Mr. Levesque said. "It's all so fresh."
Late last night Mr. Levesque was on standby for a flight with Cathay Pacific that would get him to Hong Kong early tomorrow morning, a few hours before the funeral service. Cathay Pacific had no problem accepting his passport.