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Separated at birth. The BFD. Photoshop by Lushington Brady.

Ideas should preferably be weighed on their merits of course, but there’s also a pretty good rule of thumb: if Klaus Schwab and Justin Trudeau are for it, run away. Run away fast.

Especially when it’s an idea that’s just a step away from Xi Xinping’s Social Credit system.

As Canada’s digital ID plans move closer, the Canadian Banking Association (CBA) is pushing for a national digital identification system. In a recent whitepaper, the World Economic Forum also argued for dystopian-sounding digital IDs, which could be used to decide who gets access to services, adding that banks should lead the way.

Remember, this is just weeks after the Trudeau government summarily froze the bank accounts of Canadians who supported a peaceful anti-government protest — using personal data they obtained by employing a shady hacker.

BFD readers will also recall that Kiwis associated with the peaceful anti-mandate protests in Wellington also had bank accounts (temporarily) frozen. Prior to that, Kiwi Lee Williams had all his bank accounts revoked by Westpac, for the heinous sin of offending Maori Party leaders and Twitter cretins.

Plastic cards and paper licenses are an outdated technology that should be replaced with a digital identification system, says president and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association, Neil Parmenter.

The CBA published a white paper in 2018 titled “Canada’s Digital ID Future – A Federated Approach,” where it outlined how Canada can transition from the current system to a digital identification system.

The white paper claims: “The advantages to the federated digital ID system are clear for Canada. Unlike a centralized identity framework that puts the control of identity under one key player, a federated identity system leverages multiple systems, eliminating reliance on a single service provider. In other words, there is no single point of control or failure that can compromise the entire system. A federated model would also align with Canada’s federal structure by creating linkages between provincial and federal government identity management systems.”

In fact, cutting through the verbiage about a “federated model”, what the Canadian Bankers are proposing is an Orwellian, panopticon government register. In their own words, it would be: “an interconnected or ‘federated’ digital ID framework between government and private sector whereby a person’s electronic identity and attributes are stored across distinct but linked identity management systems”. The system would, they propose, use not just bank accounts, but driver’s license, “and biometrics such as fingerprints or facial recognition”.

In other words, the government will be able to access everything you do and own, with a single click.

And lock you out of it all, just as easily.

A lot of information could be stored in someone’s digital ID, including biometric data, driver’s license, financial tools, and healthcare information. Other data that could be added include vaccine status, criminal record, credit score, and gun license status.

In its report, the World Economic Forum said that banks should spearhead digital identity projects.

Reclaim the Net

We’ve already seen just how banks are “spearheading” authoritarian governments.

Run a mile from digital identification systems. Run far away, very, very fast.

As Bill Burr once said, “You might as well just hand the keys of your house to the Illuminati”.

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