On this episode, we sit down with fellow podcaster and friend Andrew Gurza. He recently a hard time getting his passport. Such a hard time in fact, that he managed to get himself on national news in Canada. So we thought we’d chat with him about his experience, and the weird little differences between the US and our neighbors to the north. We hope you enjoy this episode! More is always on its way, and we thank all of you, as always, for listening.
Who is Andrew Gurza?
He’s just some guy. Just kidding! Andrew is a “Disability Awareness Consultant and Cripple Content Creator working to make the lived experience of queerness and disability accessible to all.” Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t he? We think so too, so naturally we had to have him on our show. He also hosts two podcasts, which you can find at the link above. (Spoiler alert: We have both appeared on his show separately and those are the best episodes in our not-so-humble opinion!)
What’s the big deal then?
Andrew Gurza was denied service at a passport office in Canada because of some stupid bureaucratic rule. The rule states that a government employee can’t assist someone filling out a form, for fear that they will lead on the person filling out the form. That makes sense on paper, but what if someone can’t fill out a form? Shouldn’t the rules be bent in that case? According to the Canadian government, no.
We talk about various bureaucratic BS like that that you have to navigate when you’re someone with a disability. And we also talk about how weird Canada is! Did you know their milk comes in bags?! We didn’t!
Anyway, we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did making it! Go check out Andrew’s podcast!