Originally Posted by
StuMcIlwain
All found Canadian passports are supposed to be turned over to the police, who return them to the Passport Office where they are destroyed. Apparently this is the law in Canada.
I've heard of cases when the passport has been returned to its owner, but this is not what is supposed to happen.
This is correct, federal law requires airlines (and other travel-related businesses) to send lost passports to Ottawa / Washington / insert appropriate capital city here. But it obviously doesn't always happen.