http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/03/bc-biometric-immigration-figure-prints.htmlFederal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office has confirmed Canada will soon roll out biometric scanning for travellers seeking visas to Canada, but it won't say which country will be first.
On Friday, the Toronto Star reported the federal government is planning to roll out the first phase of the $200-million electronic fingerprinting program in India because of ongoing concerns about widespread immigration fraud on applications from that country.
The comments below the article are in some cases quite disturbing, one person is advocating DNA testing.
If biometric scanning prevents fraud, easily and quickly, then it seems a positive step towards more efficient processing of legitimate visa applicants ... on the face of it. The trouble is always that the bureaucracy won't stop there, but will keep pushing for more and more information, more control, until individual rights have been extinguished. It is said that 9/11 was a boon for the CIA -- because they thus gained immense control over individuals that the Constitution had prohibited.
But what option do we have? If we neutralize the government to protect individual rights, we also empower the criminals to put our lives or at least lifestyle at risk. What lifestyle would we have in Canada if criminals successfully flooded our streets with fraudsters -- who would probably raid our welfare programs and cause our tax rates to soar to unaffordable levels?
It seems we are between a rock and a hard place.
In essence, criminals are the government's best friends. They allow Big Brother to infringe our freedoms with the "best" intentions.
Immigration Forum
