During a government-run event, the Liberals discussed using digital ID to hunt down the unvaccinated to get their shots in a future pandemic. 

According to True North’s Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, a speaker on a Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) panel said on February 1st that digital ID would be useful “in order to get [the unvaccinated] the vaccine” and track people’s vaccination status.

The suggestion was made by Joni Brennan, President of the Digital ID & Authentication Council in response to a question by Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Francis Bilodeau who asked how to best pitch “political masters and ministers” on the importance of digital ID. 

“Arguably, also, we haven’t necessarily done yet the great job of convincing our political masters and ministers of the importance of investing in this. What is everybody’s best sort of 10-second elevator pitch on why this matters, why we should be doing this?” Bilodeau asked. “And particularly in the context like today, where we are living through a pandemic, living an unprecedented time, how could digital identity and a proper digital infrastructure help us deal with future situations or future pandemics?” 

“I think that the identity is important for the pandemic—any time you would need to verify someone, anytime you would need to also do supply chain tracking and management about how do we even get the vaccine to people? How many people do we need to get it to? Have they had it yet or not? Are they due for their second dose?” Brennan replied. 

“In terms of making this more real, perhaps, for some of the folks inside of government, I would say that we really need to close the chasm of what identity is and what identity does. When we’re talking about identifying someone in order to get them the vaccine and do that tracking that needs to be done to deliver the vaccine and know where and how to distribute it, that’s an identity issue. Knowing that the vaccine actually came from the company, that’s an identity issue.” 

Digital ID is a favourite topic of discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The controversial organization which has peddled COVID-19 as an opportunity to promote its “great reset” agenda has pushed for world governments to track its citizens using digital ID.

In a January 2021 blog post, the WEF argued that digital identity was key to creating a “new reality” post-pandemic. 

“To re-boot the global economy and re-connect society physically and virtually in a new reality, people will need to engage physically and digitally with public authorities and businesses,” the article claimed. 

“Digital identity trust frameworks led by governments working with the private sector are emerging – defining claims for people and organizations that should be broadly recognized.”