Mr. Speaker, I noted the question posed to my colleague from Winnipeg Centre by the member for Winnipeg South. While I am not trying to respond to his question, I think he needs to be reminded that Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski, who has spoken extensively on the topic, stated quite clearly that the right to be anonymous is at the very core of human dignity, autonomy and freedom, and that we should resist the idea of being fingerprinted for a national identifier. However benignly it starts it might require us to show our papers on request at any time, sort of an internal passport.
I would ask the member for Winnipeg Centre about the position as we understand it at this point with respect to our neighbours, the United States. It is being suggested to us that actually we may have to do this in the end because this may be what the U.S. demands of us.
Could the member comment on the fact that the United States, we are told by a Globe and Mail editorial earlier this week on the same subject, is so wary of such a card that congress actually inserted the following line in the bill creating the U.S. department of homeland security. It said:
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card.
Could the member for Winnipeg Centre comment on the argument that seems to find a lot of favour with Liberal members these days, that in the end we would just have to do what the U.S. wants us to do so we might as well give up the fight?