RE: "They will not change our way of life"

With all due respect, I disagree to some extent with Joe.

If used properly biometrics can work wonders for both national security and in our health care system. More on the latter, later.

I have seen my father's identity card from his four years in the RCAF being stationed in Great Britain.

I have seen the identity card that several of my British relatives that lived in London during the war.

I have also seen the numbers tattooed on an elderly Jewish friend, and the card held by the grand father of a Chinese childhood friend, and the Japanese family that were moved out of Richmond even though they were business partners with my Great Grand Father.

Somewhere in between is what is needed now. Unfortunately, but yes we do.

Unfortunately today, we as a tax paying citizen do not want to pay what it will cost to make this country secure, nor do we want to be good civic citizens.

Am I giving into the slippery slope? Maybe.

We need a way for people to be identified as Canadians when they travel, visit a hospital, or make an application with their government.

We need a method to tell who is entering the country, and whether they are someone here to build a new life for themselves and add to Canada as my grandparents did, or to tear down the country.

Let me give you and example of how biometrics would work.

At the airport you provide the entry gate personal a fingerprint, and it matches the one on your passport. All know who you are, and that you are a Canadian citizen, or landed immigrant. The fingerprint is checked against a databank to see if you are running from standing up in court and facing charges, or just running to Cuba to escape the in-laws.

The fingerprint can then be expunged from the system, never to kept or used again. The next time you visit the departure gate, you have to give them a new fingerprint sample. Much like as happens if you are arrested, charged and found innocent now by a law enforcement officer.

Carry this one step forward. Your father shows up at the emergency ward disoriented, or even with severe Alzheimer's.s He is suffering from what looks like a heart attack, but in fact it is just indigestion and a quick scan of the embedded chip in his medical bracelet would give the ER Doctor or Triage nurse a picture of his most recent EEG, medication, and the number of his doctor. The team can then compare it to the results of the test they just took, and decide the best route to take. This took one or two hours, instead of the 10 hours it will take today to find the specialist on the golf course or at the Stampede, and have them call their nurse or staff to fax over the results of the latest tests.

Yes, this kind of system is open to abuse, theft, or such things. So is my drivers license and birth certificate.

So were the identity cards of the Jews in Germany and Poland, the Chinese and Japanese on the west coast, but in England it may have help identify people to know whether they should be on the waterfront or on the fences that surrounded the RCAF base while they prepared the planes for D-Day or built the plywood decoys.

I agree with Joe in that we must be very careful and vigilant with the biometrics, especially with the band of idiots we have running the government now, but we must keep an open mind to finding a secure method of making sure those that should be in Canada are, and those that should not be aren't.

This deserves a national and open debate at the grass roots, and an examination to find a Canadian solution, that is made in Canada, with Canadian technology, and the data is stored and secured in Canada, by Canadians.

My biggest beef, are people who are too chicken to become true Canadians, and give up their dual citizenship and travel as a Canadian on a Canadian passport. To me, you are either a Canadian or you are not.

Sitting on the fence leads to neutering.