No National ID for me
Posted on October 15, 2003
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 52 views |
Canada’s privacy commissioner (no, not the old one being investigated for multiple cases of fraud, the current one doing a good job) has declared that there’s no satisfactory case for instituting a national ID card program:
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre has failed to make a solid case for a national identity card, the federal privacy commissioner says.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee studying the issue, Robert Marleau said Coderre has given vague reasons for the need of the card and has provided no evidence to back up his case.
Nearly a year ago, Coderre called for a national debate on the cards, claiming they could combat terrorism and identity theft, and make it easier to cross the U.S. border.
“A strong case for the benefits of a national identification system has simply not been made,” Marleau said. - No case made for ID cards: privacy commissioner
As well as the usual Ob-anti-terrorist arguments it was also postulated that an ID card would make it easier to cross the border into the States. I just got back from the US and at least on that front, an existing passport still works quite nicely. (Weird Canada-US border trivia: you’re not allowed to take Montreal smoked meat into the States now, presumably as a result of the mad cow fiasco, so if you stock up at Schwartz’s on the way be sure to eat it before you hit the checkpoint).
Comments
Leave a Reply