Ottawa gauges domestic digital ID scheme behind Canadians’ backs

Immigration Canada covertly gauged support for turning passports into domestic ID, without a mandate, transparency, or regard for longstanding warnings about privacy risks and state overreach.

Tamara Ugolini
  |   December 08, 2025   |   News Analysis   |   2 Comments

 

Canada’s Department of Immigration quietly commissioned research into enforcing a national ID system through digital passports, newly released Access to Information records reveal.

Despite years of parliamentary rejection and public pushback, Blacklock’s Reporter obtained the government documents showing that officials were actively exploring ways to repurpose the Canadian passport as a de facto domestic identification tool.

This is being done without debate or consultation, which means there is no civilian consent.

A senior departmental analyst flagged the issue internally, according to the documents, noting that Canadian Digital Services appeared to assume passports would become domestic identity documents.

“This warrants a policy discussion,” the analyst wrote — yet none occurred.

Instead, managers quietly inserted a “new question” about national ID into the 2024 Passport Client Experience Survey. This annual questionnaire has been used for a decade to gauge service quality, though it was never intended as a testing ground for a national identification regime.

Access records don’t identify who ordered the new question, while MPs and senators weren’t informed of the research. The Privacy Commissioner wasn’t consulted, and then-Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s office declined to comment when first questioned by Blacklock’s, which triggered their access request.

The new survey question asked Canadians how “comfortable” they would be sharing a “secure digital version of the passport” inside Canada as ID. It’s framed by the government as harmless, but the implications are sweeping.

Survey results revealed that only 20% of Canadians regularly use their passport as ID, and nearly half don’t use it for anything other than international travel. Yet when asked about digitizing passports for domestic identification, 64% showed interest, while roughly a fifth opposed it outright.

This quiet attempt to gauge public tolerance for digital ID flies in the face of repeated legislative warnings, with parliament discarding national ID proposals for decades.

In 2003, the Commons immigration committee cautioned that such a program would cost up to $5 billion and risk policing overreach; specifically, the ability to stop people in the street and demand papers.

Canada’s former Privacy Commissioner Robert Marleau stated in his 2003 report that “such a card would do little to address real problems, would present enormous financial and practical challenges to implement, and would do grave damage to privacy.”

Concerns around an identification system included the stripping of anonymity, exposing more personal data than necessary, and allowing governments to link individual activities into detailed profiles.

Two decades later, those same concerns remain, yet instead of open debate, federal officials appear to be testing the waters for a digital passport-based ID system behind closed doors.

There’s no parliamentary oversight, no public discussion, just bureaucrats quietly assessing whether Canadians might accept an identification regime.

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Tamara Ugolini

Senior Editor

Tamara Ugolini is an informed choice advocate turned journalist whose journey into motherhood sparked her passion for parental rights and the importance of true informed consent. She critically examines the shortcomings of "Big Policy" and its impact on individuals, while challenging mainstream narratives to empower others in their decision-making.

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COMMENTS

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  • Bernhard Jatzeck
    commented 2025-12-08 20:35:29 -0500
    Doing things without consulting the electorate is typical of how the Liberals have operated since the days of Pearson. After all, were we, the people, ever asked if we wanted a new flag?
  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2025-12-08 19:42:27 -0500
    What cunning devils we have in Ottawa. It’s why Alberta must leave this sinking ship of state. Ottawa is stacked against the people and we’re independent enough to tell those Laurentian fools to pound sand.