A Surrey man is in a battle with the province of Manitoba over one tiny, but crucial, space in the spelling of his name.
For 61 years Jack MacKay has spelled his surname as one word. But when the former Manitoba man went to renew his driver’s license, suddenly there was a space.
"I said that's not the correct spelling of my name and they said ‘well, that's how it's spelled on your birth certificate so if you want it corrected you'll have to get your birth certificate corrected’" said MacKay.
MacKay was now Mac Kay. He chalked it up to a simple data entry error and expected the issue to be an easy fix. He requested the Vital Statistics Agency in Manitoba make the correction to his birth certificate.
"They responded by saying nope, your name is spelled correctly," he said.
The misspelling has now affected both his B.C. driver's license andhis replacement marriage certificate. MacKay pleaded his case with bureaucrats to no avail.
"It's so ludicrous and ridiculous that I’m arguing with strangers on how to spell my name," he said.
The province of Manitoba has since offered to change the documents to MacKay, providing Jack's mother sign a document admitting she made a mistake on her son's original birth certification application.
"It doesn't make sense to have it two words. I don't know why they won't correct it and be done with it?" said Ellen Desrochers, MacKay’s mother.
MacKay agrees and is refusing to have his mother sign anything, believing it is the province that should own up to the error.
“I’m trying to establish I am who I am. It’s just been ridiculous is what it’s been,” he said.
