Report - Guardian

86 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005“Grounded in man’s physical and moral autonomy, privacy isessential for the well-being of the individual. For this reason alone, itis worthy of constitutional protection, but it also has profoundsignificance for the public order. The restraints imposed ongovernment to pry into the lives of the citizen go to the essence of ademocratic state.” 217Bothwell was pursuing his right to privacy on the basis of his freedom of religion, buthe lost his case. The Court decided that his religious beliefs did not meet the criteriaunder the religious freedom section of the Charter. As he was not part of an organizedreligion, his beliefs were not recognized as religious. The court therefore managed toavoid dealing with the other issues, specifically privacy, because they were focused onestablishing whether he met the test(s) for religious freedom.As is the case in Australia, despite setbacks on ID cards, the Canadian Government ismoving to implement biometric passports. Although the national ID card wasabandoned officially in March 2004, in April 2004 the Government announced its plansfor biometric passports. While outlining the Canadian National Security Policy, theGovernment declared:“Canada will deploy facial recognition biometric technology on theCanadian passport, in accordance with international standards.” 218The Canadian Government justified this change, like most other countries, as necessary“to maintain our reputation as a First World nation”. 219The policy refers to the ICAO statement from May 2003 to explain its choice of facialbiometrics. This was decided on grounds that this biometric was the mostunobtrusive. 220 The National Security Policy states that:“Canada will begin issuing a biometrically enabled smart chippassport in early 2005. There will be no change in the way thatCanadians apply for a passport. However, the photo that they submitwill be digitized and stored on a chip imbedded in the passport.” 221There are no plans to compile a searchable electronic database of the images or otherdata encoded on the chip, 222 although there are reports that the Passport Office has beentesting the idea of screening applicants’ photos against images of suspects on terroristwatch lists, with an accuracy rate of 75% to 90%. 223There are further developments under the Smart-Border Agreement. This is anagreement with the US Government on data-sharing and common standards between thetwo countries at border points. The “Smart Border Declaration and Associated 30-PointAction Plan to Enhance the Security of Our Shared Border While Facilitating the217 R. v. Dyment.218 ‘Securing an Open Society: Canada's National Security Policy’, April 2004, chapter 7.219 ‘The IT in your ID’, Shane Schick, ITBusiness.ca, July 19, 2004.220 ‘Passports go high-tech’, Luma Muhtadie, Globe and Mail, April 28, 2004.221 ‘Securing an Open Society’.222 ‘Canadian digitized passport stamped’, Canadian Press, Calgary Sun, July 19, 2004.223 ‘Plan to match Canadian passport photos with terrorist watchlists in works’, Jim Bronskill, August 29, 2004.