Liberals again vow no mandatory digital ID. Can Canadians trust them?

Ottawa insists digital ID will never be mandatory. But after failed schemes, billions spent digitizing services and expanding pilots, Canadians are being asked to take them at their word.

Source: X (Mark Carney)

The Carney government is once again promising Canadians they will never be forced to use digital ID, even as Ottawa expands digital credential pilots and spends billions modernizing the infrastructure behind federal services.

Cabinet made the pledge in response to a petition sponsored by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis raising concerns about privacy, surveillance and biometric data collection, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The government is not developing a mandatory national digital identification system or a centralized database of Canadians’ personal or biometric information,” Cabinet wrote in response to Petition E-6961.