Immigration lawyer, critics raise concerns about citizenship marker on Alberta ID

Critics are questioning what problem the Alberta government's move to add mandatory citizenship markers to provincial identification aims to solve.

Critics are questioning what problem the Alberta government’s move to add mandatory citizenship markers to provincial identification aims to solve, and say it opens the door to potential privacy breaches and discrimination.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Monday the move is all about streamlining services and preventing election fraud.

Zool Suleman, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said the United Conservative Party government’s impetus is unclear, and all Canadians should be worried about an increasing “creep” that forces the disclosure of more personal information.

“There’s some kind of hovering fear which some people are inflaming, which is that there are people who are voting who are not supposed to vote, or there are people accessing services they’re not supposed to access,” he said in an interview.

“This kind of fomenting of fear is then remedied by having tighter and tighter identification requirements and exposing more and more about who you are on these identification documents,” he said.

The change comes as Smith’s hand-picked Alberta Next panel continues its tour of the province seeking support for measures meant to push back against federal policies and programs. One proposal is for Alberta to create its own provincial immigration system and withhold social services from newcomers who aren’t approved.

Suleman said the government needs to be very careful that the new rule doesn’t become a way to target newcomers or people with temporary status.

“We already have identification to prove if you’re a Canadian citizen. Millions of Canadians already have this identification. It’s called a Canadian passport or a Canadian citizenship card or a birth certificate in a Canadian province,” said Suleman.