Coming soon, to a stalag near you, the new BC Internal passport.
When East Germany and the USSR had these, they were called internal passports, travel documents that you had to show to go from one city to another. Either the
Stasi or the
Militsiya checked you and asked you to explain why you want to go to Gorky, for instance, a
'closed' city in Russia, or Rahnsdorf in East Germany.
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| Checkpoint Charlie, keeping you safe |
The BC Services Card will combine your drivers licence with your Care card in one document. Making it a convenient multifunction card. Convenient for who? BC Liberal MLA Mary MacDairmid assures us that no information will be given to unauthorized people. She seems to be overlooking the fact that your current BC Medical information is sent to accounting firms in the US or US firms operating within Canada. Either way, all the information handled by
any American corporation is subject to scrutiny by
Homeland Security in the States.
Despite the
Patriot Act's laudable goals, Canadian privacy commissioners have criticized it for compromising the privacy rights of Canadian citizens. Indeed, under the Act the U.S. government can obtain personal information about Canadians via American companies operating in Canada, or about Canadian companies that outsource to the U.S. Once the U.S. government has made a request, the company
must release the information. And the company is bound by law
not to tell you.
So much more of your personal information will now be available to those who can get it. Your medical history can now be shared by the police. And not just in BC. Reassurances by Canadian politicians have no weight at all. Indeed, in Britain the same proposal brought down a government when the people rejected the idea of even more surveillance even though it included no cameras or recordings. Electronic documents are much more sinister. It is called 'data mining'.
Yes, a very few are wondering about this. Or if you will need your 'documents' to go to Pentiction next year. Or New Westminster. "Why do you want to go to Prince George, Sir? Can I see your BC Services card, please? Are you still sick?"
The BC Government says the BC Services Card will take advantage of modern card technology that provides better security features and will keep everyone’s personal information more secure and help prevent fraud like identity theft or misuse of government services. At least until it is scanned into someone's electronic readers for the first time.
Maybe. Maybe this so called multifunction card will become a malfunction card?
Meanwhile drive safe and stay healthy and don't go anywhere that attracts attention.
thetyee.ca/News
huffingtonpost.ca
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