Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Holiday Inn Canadians

Holiday Inn Canadians: A National Post story passed on to me by friend and commenter Assiniboine (who's Canadian himself but resident in Australia) ... most fascinating.
The British have a term for them: bolt-holers. A bolt-hole is a secret route an animal digs from its burrow, out through which it can escape if ever a predator enters the main tunnel. In the human sense, bolt-holers are dual citizens who live in one country more or less permanently, yet retain a passport for a second, more stable country to which they can bolt if things get too "hot" at home.

It is hard to know just how many of the 40,000 Canadian citizens registered with our embassy in Beirut are bolt-holers, but even a conservative estimate would place their share at 50%. While they are Canadians, and Canadian law requires that all citizens be treated equally, it is hard to work up as much sympathy for Canadians living full-time overseas as it is for those short-term Canadian visitors to Lebanon who suddenly found themselves trapped there.

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