The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has released a report about the growing threat of digital ID technologies in Canada. .“What Canadians need today is not more unmitigated government access to private information, but instead a renewed commitment to Charter rights and freedoms,” said JCCF president John Carpay in a Wednesday press release. .“We are on the road to Beijing, and Canadians should be apprehensive.”.The report outlines China’s use of digital IDs to suppress freedoms, cautions Canadians about governments promoting these technologies, and shows how they could undermine the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. .The Chinese government enacted digital IDs in 2009. This technology has allowed China to blacklist and segregate people for committing crimes, expressing controversial beliefs, and attending religious services. .The report identifies parallels between digital IDs in Canada and China. It determines the parallels are too close. .While it is true digital IDs promote efficiency and accessibility, the JCCF said they threaten Charter rights and freedoms. These technologies allow governments to track people’s financial and physical behaviours and could lead to people being penalized for exercising their rights and freedoms. .Various governments required people to present digital vaccine passports when going places during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report said this program was possible because digital tracking technologies have proliferated in Canada throughout the last decade. .“Things are moving fast, and Canadians should be very concerned that a free and democratic society is quickly headed towards a society where citizens can be cancelled by the government with the flick of a switch,” said Carpay.
