OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Officials from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own Privy Council Office last year authorized confidential research to investigate the possible creation of a Canada-wide digital ID system.
As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, on August 24, 2022, Trudeau’s Privy Council commissioned a focus group in secret in the province of Nova Scotia regarding federal digital IDs. The total cost of the focus group research was $2.4 million, with the research conducted by Toronto pollster The Strategic Counsel.
The confidential research looked into whether a federal digital ID would be viable. However, there was no reason given as to why the research was being conducted.
The researchers concluded that participants in the focus group were divided on whether a national digital ID would be a good idea and be acceptable to the average citizen.
According to a September 7, 2022, Privy Council report titled Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadians’ Views, the widespread adoption of “digital credentials by Canadians may be difficult to achieve.”
Noted the report, the creation of a digital ID may be hard “especially among cohorts of society who may already be somewhat distrustful of public institutions.”
The report pointed out that some participants “believed daily life would feel far more restricted and were skeptical of assigning such high responsibility to a single department or agency to manage these credentials.”
Only a few individuals were aware of “digital credentials,” which they were told were a form of identification to replace physical paper identification, many expressed concerns about widespread usage of this technology,” the report stated.
Among the concerns noted were “security risks of storing sensitive personal information” on one’s phone or online.
Thus far, proposals for the creation of a federal digital ID program have been hit with roadblocks.
For example, in 2002, a recommendation by the then-Liberal government for national ID was rebuffed by a House of Commons all-party immigration committee.
In fact, in 2003, then-Privacy Commissioner Robert Marleau wrote a report titled Why We Should Resist A National ID Card for Canada.
He called a form of digital ID “the most significant privacy issue in Canadian society,” and said such a program would be expensive and not tolerated well by Canadians.
Marleau indicated that such a system would in effect mean every facet of one’s life would be shared by a multitude of systems and government departments, which would increase security risks to individual privacy.
“There would also be costs to Canadians’ privacy rights and the relationship between Canadians and the state,” Marleau wrote.
When it comes to digital IDs, the federal government under Trudeau has been actively open to the idea.
Last year, through an Inquiry of Ministry, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Leslyn Lewis demanded information from the Trudeau government and Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra over its participation in the World Economic Forum’s “Known Traveler Digital Identity (KTDI)” pilot program.
Through this action, it was reported that the Trudeau government has a $105.3 million contract with the WEF to create a digital ID system for travel.
Conservative leader vows if elected PM he will never impose digital ID
Over the weekend, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre told a crowd of supporters in Windsor, Ontario that a conservative government would not go along with a federal digital ID system.
“I will never allow the government to impose a digital ID,” Poilievre declared to loud cheers on Saturday.
Poilievre made the comment after being asked by a person in the crowd what he was going to do about digital ID.
Two Canadian provinces thus far have rejected a form of a national digital ID.
Alberta became the second province after Saskatchewan to decline participation in any type of national healthcare “digital ID” program as a condition to receive funding for health care from the federal government.
On Friday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made clear to Albertans that their personal medical information would not be shared with the federal government.
The provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and New Brunswick have already forged ahead with pushing a digital ID on the public and are all listed on the Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) as members.
Saskatchewan did at least temporarily pause implementing its own local digital ID system last year after a public outcry.