The Written Word: February 19,2008
By Rafe Mair
A Modest Proposal with apologies to Jonathan Swift
We’re going to have identity cards so we’re told. The final vestige of freedom and democracy is to be eliminated and now Big Brother will have no problems keeping an eye on us. The same thing is happening in the UK with this exception – the people there are upset and have made it a political issue for the coming election, big time.
But, perhaps those who see a dark side of this are wrong. Maybe we should do a more thorough job. Let’s start with health care – wouldn’t it be a good idea for the government to have instant access to this information so that anyone, any company can search my records to see if I was ever treated for a dose of “clap”? If done properly, the government would know what organizations we belong to and make that all available to businesses and, routinely, to the police. Law enforcement becomes easier the more inside information they possess and we all want to help law enforcement any way we can, don’t we?
I have another idea which worked so well in Nazi Germany – make everyone who moves from one police jurisdiction check with the local police, identify themselves, have the police run a computer check then make out a lengthy form explaining what the individual was up to, what business he had and when he was going home. On the way home would, of course, he would be required to check back in with his own local police and report on what they’d been up to in the other jurisdiction.
The identity card would have fingerprints and eye ID along with every possible bit of the card-holder’s personal history. Caught with some candy pinched from a local store when a kid? That will be on your ID card so the police can warn businesses that someone known as a shoplifter is in their store.
The mind truly boggles at the amount of information the government and industry will have about us all.
And after all, if we have nothing to hide from Big Brothers in Victoria and Ottawa, why should we care about ID cards?
I say the more information the government has on us the better! After all, why would citizens want to keep anything secret when they can do so much for the government, its business pals and the police buy simply telling all?
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Posted by: caranmacil on February 21 2008 2:12 PM
It is indeed the canadian government that wants every little item on you that they can get their sneaky little hands on and store.
What is really weird is that even though they know how many times a day we pee,they still pretend that they do not have a clue who we are even though we were born here and so were our parents in many cases!
Everytime you have to talk to the government for anything, you have to go through the whole process all over.
social insurance number,phone number,(including cell)email address,(which they never use)city,street address,place of birth,and your mothers maiden name etc.
It has become much worse since the conservatives came to power, and will continue to do so.
Which begs the question...what do these people who work in all the various arms of government,provincial and federal,actually do all day?
And then guess what?
They store that information in the U.S.in many cases.
Just ask the B.C.Campbell government about that!
What a bunch of sheep we are that we allow this without protest!
Ain't democracy a wonderful thing?