Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 85our own scanners, we can say we will take care of our own peoplewith our own scanners.” 214Although no proposal was tabled, it was left open to a Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Citizenship and Immigration to investigate the case for the cards. TheCommittee held a number of consultation sessions, met with local leaders, and travelledinternationally to consult with countries with identity cards, and those without. After afew months it released an interim report. The interim report outlined a number ofconcerns. These included a transformation of the relationship between the individualand the state, data protection and privacy, function creep, the weaknesses in thetechnology, over-reliance on a single card, identity theft generated by the card, costs,and race relations.The interim report concluded by stating:“This report is intended to summarize what we have heard thus far andwe reiterate that we are continuing our study. It is clear that this is avery significant policy issue that could have wide implications forprivacy, security and fiscal accountability. Indeed, it has beensuggested that it could affect fundamental values underlying Canadiansociety. A broad public review is therefore essential. The generalpublic must be made more aware of all aspects of the issue, and wemust hear what ordinary citizens have to say about the timeliness of anational identity card.”No further work followed, and no final report was issued. Rather, with those words theinitiative was abandoned.A parallel situation arose during this formal consultation. Every province in Canada isresponsible for issuing driver’s licences. Increasingly these licences are becomingdigitized, and photographs are being collected and stored on databases. The province ofAlberta has even implemented facial recognition into their licensing system. In the caseof George Bothwell, whose licence was issued by the province of Ontario, this resultedin a constitutional challenge. As a Christian fundamentalist, Bothwell mounted thechallenge to prevent his driver’s licence from being entered on a database. Heconsidered that this was not in accordance with his religious beliefs (with reference toRevelations from the New Testament):“The danger is when the central authority captures digital identifiersfrom people and stores them in a central data base for any authoritywith the right technology to access.” 215Bothwell argued that this was a violation of the Charter of Rights and his right tofreedom of religion, particularly if the database contains face, fingerprints or eyescans. 216 Clearly Bothwell was concerned with his right to privacy. According toCanadian jurisprudence:214 ‘Coderre pushes Ottawa to adopt national ID cards’, Campbell Clark, Globe and Mail, February 7, 2003.215 ‘Ontario farmer challenges driver's licence photo’, Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail, October 15, 2003.216 ‘National ID cards slammed at immigration hearing’, CBC Online, February 11, 2003.