The Council replies: Letters to the editor
Put on the EDL brakes

Stuart Trew
The Globe and Mail
August 1, 2008

From the speed at which provinces are introducing so-called enhanced driver's licences, you'd think they were a universally acclaimed technology (Passport Alternative Approved In Sask. - B.C. and online editions, July 31). But as a public forum in Toronto this month showed, there is much skepticism among Canada's privacy commissioners, consumer groups and the public.

The Council of Canadians' concerns are the same as most privacy experts - EDLs are invasive and unnecessary. Applicants in B.C. are being asked where their parents were born, as if that should determine eligibility for cross- border travel, and there are no guarantees that U.S. security agencies won't keep our personal information in databases to be "mined" for certain behaviours. Furthermore, federal government surveys have found most Canadians would rather pay for a passport than an EDL. So why the rush?

Stuart Trew is the Ontario-Quebec regional organizer of the Council of Canadians.