The monkeys followed me from camp...and are working at CIBC!!!!

At times I sit back and think that camp life is the only place that attracts the strange people that I seem to work with. A fire safety guy that can turn a fire safety meeting in to an Abbot and Costello routine; cooks and managers that seem to think that the more times that you swear has a direct relation to how fast the work gets done; a company that seems to think that having routine 'town hall' meetings to inform the workers that no decisions have been made on the decision of the camp but will continue to keep us informed of the indecisions that they have as they progress. All these people I seem to think are only available in camp for my amusement. Today, however, I had my eyes opened to the wonders of the world of banking.

The Mrs has a supplementary card on my main account at the CIBC. She has had this card for about the last 5-6 years. It made it easier financially on the whole travelling aspect when they put in that rule that if you buy a ticket on a credit card you need the card in your possession to get on the plane, as well as when we had to pay online for gov't expenses to get the visa going on. Since she was in Singapore and there was no CIBC there, it was pointless to have it set up for a PIN so that she could pay it at the ATM since there is no ATM there to pay at. Now that she is in Canada we decided that she should have a PIN so that she could pay the visa if I was in camp and it was coming due.

We went up to the teller and showed her the card and asked if we could pay the balance of the credit card and get a new PIN for it. Well, she was all to happy to take our money and put it on the visa with a smile and a stamp of her rubber date stamp but when it came to the PIN she asked if the Mrs had any ID. So she gave the teller her Alberta Health Care card as well as her Singapore ID card (basically, everything the passport has with the added addition of her thumb print on the back). The teller looked and handed back the Singapore ID card and asked for a Canadian photo ID. We were both taken a bit aback and said that she didn't have a Canadian piece of picture ID because we are in the middle of the spousal visa process and the gov't won't issue any picture ID until the visa has been approved. Very similar to the cycle "they won't hire me without experience - I can't get experience to get a job - to get a job I need experience - they wont hire me without experience". She smiled at us like we were to smile back and go "ok" and walk away.

Now this has me wondering about the whole idea of what it is to be Canadian. Is it that Canadians are just so accustomed to being non-confrontational that we just smile when we are told that something can not be done and ask 'what do we need?' and when we are told "you need to find the tears of the unicorn, distill it under the light of the first blue full moon of the century and hold it in a cup made of moon beams" we go "no problem, thank you for your help. We will return when it is done" and walk away knowing that it is possible to get it done and it is our responsibility to do this? Is this the way that all Canadians are or is it just me?

Well we were told this and both the Mrs and myself kind of got our hackles up and started to give her stereo 'but we have this...we cant have that...we should do this..." and the teller took a step back and said she would talk to her supervisor. At this point I had to tell the Mrs that one of us should do the talking and the other remain silent since having stereo attacks on the teller might be more harmful than helpful. We voted and agreed that I would do the talking and she would answer the questions when asked. The teller then returned and said that we needed to have a Canadian passport or photo ID to make it happen and that it was impossible with only an international ID card.

At this point I tried to wrap my head around the logic and it just wasn't warping that way. So I took a deep breath and tried to explain the situation. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak I felt a summoning of power deep inside my brain that boiled to the surface like a demon coming forth from the deepest darkest levels of my psyche. I heard myself say in a calm yet slightly elevated annoyed tone "let me get this straight. She has had this card for years, we have used this card and made payments on it; you have no problem with her actually using the card and being charged interest but when it comes to giving us a PIN so that we can use the card at the ATM to pay for the things we buy without coming up to talk to a human you are going to tell me that it is impossible until we can come to you with a piece of Canadian ID, that we can not obtain. I was told that the CIBC will not accept any passports as a form of ID except for Canadian and British and yet the Bank of Montreal was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account with just her Singapore ID and her health care card?" She took a step back and said that her supervisor said that it couldn't be done but her manager was available to talk. I said that I would love to speak to her manager and could we do so at the soonest convenience.

As the teller walked away I took a breath and looked around for my dad. The speech that I gave, coupled with the tone of voice and pointing at an imaginary day timer on the counter, would have been word for word for what my dad would have said in the same situation. I would have sworn that if I had a mirror I could probably see a vein throbbing in my temple at the time of me speaking.

The manager came with the teller, we explained the whole situation, complete with how the BMO was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account after we were denied setting up any banking accounts at the CIBC because they don't seem to want to accept anything except a Canadian processed ID. At this point she looked up a CIF (Customer Information Form) and asked the Mrs to confirm her phone number and address, which she did with flying colours, and then printed out a form, initialled it and said that we passed and they would change the PIN.

I mean, how absolutely stupid is that? I could understand and appreciate the security if we were there to report the card missing and wanted a replacement card, or ask them to increase the amount cause we have our eye on a new corvette and needed $150,000 on it so that we could buy it free and clear; but to change a PIN????? Even if we were changing the PIN to do cash withdrawals what would be the point? We have the card, we have obviously used it and have $1200 in debt already. What kind of identity thief would we be stealing credit cards and maliciously paying off a $1200 debt? If that is how credit card fraud works, I have a couple of other cards I would gladly give to a thief for them to maliciously pay off.

Yeah, this experience had to be the one and only time that I walked away from a Canadian business with the Mrs and did not even try to rationalize or come up with a logical excuse as to why they would do that. I joined in the Mrs rant in how stupid the banking system was and was left wondering why exactly I have my visa with them to have the privilege of giving them large amounts of interest on money borrowed.

Oh, quick movie reviews:

Whiteout - total waste of time and really stupid. Left me with so many questions of how it all worked (as in how they can walk in a storm that is so strong that full metal boxes are being thrown around like tin cans and a hot cup of coffee can drop from a table and freeze 1 second after hitting the ground but they can walk out without anything covering their lower face and not have frost bite in seconds). Definite miss.

9 - really interesting cartoon, definitely not for kids. Not a lot is explained in the movie about the characters and machine war and all but all in all not a bad film. Animation is amazingly good.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - really really funny and good. 3D special effects are amazing and the humour in the movie is good. I think the Mrs said it best when she described it as 'quirky fun'. Definite see, and not just for kids. Lots of funny good stuff for adults.

Inglorious Basterds - definite Tarantino film, his flare is throughout the whole movie. Really funny, slightly gross, lots of blood. Not as much wit or comedic conversation between the characters as I had hoped but since it is more a gruesome comedy than a witty comedy I can't hold much against it. If you are a Tarantino fan, a must see; if you are not a fan, could be a miss.

All About Steve - horrible. Not as funny as we had hoped, not funny at all. I think there was once or twice I might have smiled at it but laughing did not happen. For a chick flick, this one even fell flat as the Mrs was not impressed at all either. Definitely miss it.