This a from a week ago but I’ve been taking some time away from the computer so I didn’t think to post it until now. Check it out:<\/p>\n
Ottawa \u2014 Sooner or later, Canadians will have to carry some form of identification other than a passport to travel outside the country, says the new federal minister of public safety.<\/p>\n
The British Commons has just adopted legislation for a government-issued national ID card and Stockwell Day suggested in an interview with The Canadian Press that such a card is inevitable for Canada.<\/p>\n
“At this point, I don’t know what it should be called, to tell you the truth,” Mr. Day said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if we’ll call it that, but we want good, law-abiding people to have smooth and quick access at all border points \u2014 not just North American, but international.”<\/p>\n
New life is being breathed into the proposal now that the United States has dropped its demand that Canadians be required to show passports to cross the border.<\/p>\n
“We also want to be able to stop people who are a menace or a threat from getting in or getting out, so that’s the overall goal,” Mr. Day said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Day said the need for identification of some sort came up again this week when he spoke on the phone with his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cherkoff.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s fair to say that in both Canada and the U.S. we do want some kind of enhanced security provision,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Whether that’s some kind of a biometric approach, an enhancement on a driver’s licence \u2014 all of that needs to be explored, so we do want to see enhanced technological capacity in that area.”<\/p>\n
The idea of a national ID card was raised in the months following the Sept.11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States but proposals go back even further, as a way of replacing the abused social insurance number.<\/p>\n