Citizenship and Immigration Canada has suspended its use of a new system to process passport applications after widespread glitches with the program were reported.

Despite dire warnings from senior officials warned that the processing program was not ready and could present new security risks, internal records from Citizenship and Immigration revealed new Canadian passport processing program was rushed into operation on May 9.

Since the launch of the new Canadian passport processing system, officials have been scrambling to fix hundreds of glitches and seal security gaps. Weeks after the new process was brought on line, there were calls to stop production.

Those recommendations were ignored, and the passports continued to be issued in the first phase of production under the new system.

Numerous reports show that during a period of several weeks, it was possible for Citizenship and Immigration employees to alter the photo on a passport after it had been approved. There are also numerous reports of discrepancies between information contained in the database and what actually appeared on a passport.

In some cases, information disappeared from the system, making it difficult to verify if the applicant had used questionable guarantors or had made repeated claims of lost or stolen passports in the past.

This information acts as a safeguard to flag potential problems with applications.