July 14, 1980

WORLD CITIZEN REFUSED CANADIAN VISA TO ATTEND FIRST GLOBAL CONFERENCE OF THE FUTURE

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Garry Davis, World Citizen and head of the World Service Authority which issues the World Passport, mostly to refugees, will be unable to attend the "First Global Conference on the Future" sponsored by the World Future Society, July 19-24 in Toronto. The Canadian authorities have refused to visa his World Passport, claiming it is not a "valid" travel document. Davis turned in his U.S. passport to the U.S. Embassy in Paris in 1948 after renouncing "exclusive national allegiance" thus becoming a stateless person.

The World Service Authority, administrative agency of the world citizen government declared by Davis in 1954, which claims over 200,000 citizens, with offices in London, Tel Aviv, Beirut and Hong Kong, will have an exhibit at the Toronto conference of which the Honorary Patron is His Excellency, the Governor General of Canada, the Right Honorable Edward R. Schreyer.

Besides taking applications for the World Passport, the global authority will introduce a World Identity Card and a World Birth Certificate, both in 7 languages, for the conference participants.

In a parallel development, David Carliner, Davis' counsel in his case against the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, has filed a brief on May 22, 1980 in the U.S. Court of Appeals seeking a reversal of the lower court's decision that Davis be excluded from the United States as an "alien." Davis was born in Bar Harbor, Maine and was a World War II bomber pilot. The U.S. Government must respond before July 20 after which a trial date will be set.