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‘What Canadians need today is not more unmitigated government access to private information but, instead, a renewed commitment to Charter rights and freedoms,’ Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms President John Carpay said.
(Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms) – The Justice Centre released a new report Wednesday on the real and growing threat of digital ID technologies in Canada. This report, entitled “Canada’s Road to Beijing,” outlines the Chinese Communist Party’s use of Digital ID technologies to suppress freedom in China, cautions Canadians about the immediate and increasing threat of government use of these technologies, and shows how they could impact Charter-protected rights and freedoms.
Digital ID and digital currency technologies are hardly novel, having been extensively developed and implemented in the People’s Republic of China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2009. There, these technologies have armed the CCP to “blacklist” and segregate Chinese (and even Canadian) citizens for criminal behavior, for disseminating controversial beliefs, for holding religious gatherings, for having too many children, and even for purchasing too many video games.
This report draws attention to the parallels between the uses of digital ID technologies in China and Canada. We conclude that the parallels are uncomfortably close. While it is true that these digital technologies promise greater efficiency and accessibility, we caution that they pose a significant (but overlooked) threat to Charter rights and freedoms.