By TOM BRODBECK

The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard the Doer government is looking at forcing Manitobans to provide fingerprints for their driver's licences was the case of the 675,000 driver's licence records that went missing in 1999.

Manitoba's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing secretly handed over licence information to Elections Canada in January 1999 to update their permanent voters' list.

Staff in Ottawa received the magnetic tape, which included names, addresses and licence numbers of all Manitoba drivers. Within five days, the tape mysteriously disappeared and it was never recovered. Miraculously, police were never called in to investigate the case.

Now government wants us to trust them with our fingerprints? I don't think so.

I'm not sure what some criminal organization or crooked marketing group would do with my fingerprints. I don't really want to know.

But my fingerprints are my own and I really don't want them shopped around like a pack of Cameos at Stony Mountain.

The province was sharply rebuked in 1999 for releasing the licence records. The provincial Ombudsman's office investigated the case and concluded the province broke its own privacy laws when it handed over the confidential data.

PRIVACY LAW NO-NO
The principle behind privacy laws is that government should only use the information it collects from people for the purpose it was intended for. The province used drivers' licence records for federal voters lists without the individual consent of motorists. And that's a no-no in the world of privacy laws.

It may not sound like a big deal, but without strict adherence to those principles, anything -- your health records, your income tax information -- could be fair game.

That's why Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency has to ask you if they can use your name and address for Elections Canada's voters list. You can say no. You have the choice. And that's another principle behind privacy laws.

My question regarding fingerprint files for drivers' licences is, why? Why do they want our fingerprints?

They haven't told us that, except to say that they want "enhanced security" in a post-Sept 11 world, whatever that means.

What security are they talking about?

I don't see how forcing people to give their fingerprints to a government agency will help anybody's security. All it does is increase the risk that personal information will end up in the wrong hands.

If somebody wants to forge your driver's licence -- by using your name and information but their own picture -- they can put their own fingerprint on the forged document, too.

The real question here is, is there an ulterior motive for government wanting our fingerprints on file?

Is it another step in compiling information on us which can be used for some other purpose? You've gotta wonder.

If the Doer government has some legitimate "security" issue it wants to solve or improve, they should tell us what it is before they start putting out tenders on how they can collect fingerprint files on us.

Otherwise, government shouldn't be surprised if the public is suspicious of its motives.
 

Copyright © 2003, Winnipeg Sun, Canada