(LifeSiteNews) – Canadian airport officials asked the federal government to implement a digital ID for domestic travelers as an option in the name of “modernization.”
Currently, domestic travelers are only required to use physical identification for air travel, including a driver’s license, passport, or government-issued ID card.
However, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport recently recommended that Canada’s Secure Air Travel Regulations be amended to allow for “digital ID to be recognized.”
“To modernize and support enhanced passenger experience, we ask that the government endorse system-wide border and screening modernization including immediate regulatory changes,” Pearson representatives told Canada’s House of Commons finance committee in a recent submission.
Airport managers wrote that “Canada should proactively embrace both emerging and proven technologies that have the potential to enhance the passenger experience and improve operational efficiency and promote productivity across the sector.”
“Key initiatives should include accelerating the adoption of a common digital ID for both domestic and international travel.”
The Canadian Airports Council also told Parliament that a national digital ID program should start with airport travelers, including the introduction of “biometrics.”
The Council asked to “enable digital ID and biometrics in air travel” to allow it to “enable more efficient use of space, reduce pressure on infrastructure and enhance security.”
“At present, Canada is behind our international peers in ensuring travel process security screening, Customs and border procedures and boarding are modern, efficient, simple and biometrically based,” it wrote.
Only non-Canadians are currently mandated to undergo biometric screening as well as fingerprint scans when they enter Canada.
To date, Parliamentary committees have shot down requests for a domestic national identification system.
Some nations, such as the United Kingdom, have recently said they will mandate digital ID using the pretext of illegal immigration as the catalyst.
As reported by LifeSiteNews a few months ago, the Canadian government hired outside consultants who will be tasked with looking into whether or not officials should proceed with creating a digital ID system for all citizens and residents.
Canada’s Privy Council research from 2023 noted that there is strong public resistance to the use of digital IDs to access government services.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has a history of backing central bank digital currencies and supported in 2023 “choking off the money” donated to the Freedom Convoy protests against COVID mandates.
As late as February, the Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s immigration ministry, as reported by LifeSiteNews, was secretly asking Canadians via surveys if they would accept a national identification program that would likely end up requiring each citizen to always have a type of “digital” passport on them.
While the Liberal government under Trudeau insisted the program would be optional, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre nonetheless sounded the alarm by promising to introduce a bill that would “expressly prohibit” digital IDs in Canada.
Digital IDs and similar systems have long been pushed by globalist groups like the World Economic Forum, an organization with which Carney has extensive ties, under the guise of ease of access and security.
Critics, however, have warned that the purpose of such a system is actually to centralize control over citizens. This opinion seems to be mirrored by the general public, with a Bank of Canada survey finding that Canadians are very wary of a government-backed digital currency, concluding that a “significant number” of citizens would resist the implementation of such a system.
