.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS APPEARED IN THE RECORD February 12, 2003

National identity card is long overdue



I must be missing something but I fail to understand what the fuss is all about over Minister Coderre 's national identity card proposition. So what if it would contain biometric information such as iris scans, facial recognition or fingerprints. There is nothing wrong with having a secure and reliable way to prove who we are and to prevent con artists from taking over, first our identity and then our bank accounts. If anything, it is long overdue.

Fraud, theft and personification are rampant crimes, which have always thrived precisely because of our weak ID system. Each year in Canada, governments, individuals and businesses are bilked in the billions of dollars. Welfare fraud, unemployment fraud, credit card and commercial fraud are among the most obvious examples.

Furthermore, the US government, like Canada, has every right to increase the requirements for travelers into their country in order to beef up their national security. The risks of more terrorist attacks are bound to increase in the event of another Gulf war. If Canada isn't prepared to play ball with the United States who do you think will suffer on the long run. We will, of course.

Yes, I know all about the arguments of those who believe a national ID would violate their civil rights. No, I have no ideological problem nor does the proposal cause me sleepless nights. I simply don't go for all that malarkey that no free country should require its citizens to have such an ID.

But then again, I never had a problem in answering questions put to me by the police, immigration or border officials. As far as I am concerned, if you have nothing to hide -the odds of getting into trouble with the law are slim. During the last 20 years, I've crossed the US border at least 800 times and have been questioned as many times. My only regret is that the routine occasionally takes up precious time because the officers want to know my true identity and whether I've answered their questions, truthfully. Their only tools are instinct, acute observations and the evaluation of IDs ranging from a drivers license to a passport. The same process applies each time I return into Canada. In short, in both directions it is possible for unauthorized persons, including terrorists and criminals to slip in by obtaining unauthorized or counterfeit ID's. I'll go one step further. If our government could produce one simple ID card that could replace all the other ones, that would suit me just fine. If, at the same time such a card could be tamper proof and at the same time simplify border crossings, airport verifications and police interceptions -then I would be the first in line to support the initiative.

If your wallet is anything like mine, you have a Quebec driver's license. Not only does it have your picture, signature, gender, driver classification, address, age, weight and colour of eyes it also has both a long file number and reference number. I strongly suspect that it also contains coded information. When asked to show it for ID purposes - I don't go into a tizzy nor do I feel my civil rights are being violated.

Despite all of the precautions we all know that some drivers have more than one license while others have only one license under a fictitious name. Quite clearly our present system isn't foolproof. So what if additional biometric information, such as finger or face scans is embedded in a totally new driver's license as an added security measure? Yes, I realize that such measures would necessitate fingerprinting millions of Canadians and forming a national database.

How about my Medicare card? It too has my picture, date of birth, gender and identification number. Whenever I go to the hospital I never have any qualms when a hospital clerk asks for my card. We all know that each year thousands of patients succeed in defrauding our health care system to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by using Medicare cards that don't belong to them. Sure, some of the fraud could be avoided if only hospital clerks, doctors and secretaries took the time to examine the pictures.

Let's not forget your vehicle registration identification, vehicle insurance card, social security card, credit cards, membership cards, hospital card, emergency road assistance cards, air mile card, your professional card etc. Each card provides another link to your identification. Depending on the occasion and requirement we are continuously having to show each card and ID to someone, whether it is in a private or public context. Unfortunately we are not the only ones. Wait and see what happens if and when your cards and IDs are stolen or loss. The odds are that someone else will try to take over your identity and defraud you.

How about your passport - perhaps the most crucial piece of personal identification. Whenever I travel outside of Canada I carry my passport as well as a plasticized birth certificate. The birth certificate is just in case my passport gets stolen or is lost. Both documents contain my family and given name, gender, date, place of birth and registration number. Besides containing my picture, my passport also indicates my nationality, passport number, the date it was issued and date of expiry.

Once again, despite the many precaution, we all know that our passport system isn't foolproof. Many foreigners have succeeded in obtaining Canadian passports through fraud and deception. The US government is very much aware of such occurrences. Time and time again US law enforcement officials have arrested terrorists and criminals in possession of legitimate Canadian passports that were obtained through fraud and misrepresentation.

I'm not going to pretend that national ID cards will stop all terrorist actions or that they would necessarily have prevented the terrorist actions of Sept. 11. On the other hand no one will convince me that they can't help to unmask potential terrorists and illegal immigrants. Our present ID system is technically outdated and ineffective.

Yes, I strongly favour a national ID card, which will provide us additional protection from fraud and terrorists actions.