Posted on 06/04/2015 4:02:32 PM PDT by rickmichaels
TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced broad new measures Thursday to expand the collection of fingerprints and digital photos of foreign travellers as they enter Canada.
The measures will help improve security and is intended to combat the threat of global terrorism, Harper told several hundred people packed into a hotel ballroom near Yorkdale.
The government will spend $312 million over five years on the plan which will see travellers from every country that requires a visa, except the United States, submit biometric information.
Well make sure people are who they say they are, Harper said. (Well) make sure the person who arrives in Canada is the same person who applied for the visa overseas. You can fake your name, you can fake your documents but you cannot fake your fingerprints.
Canada already collects biometric information from travellers from 29 countries. This initiative will see that expand to 150 by 2018-2019.
The government will also commit millions more in funding to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canada Revenue Agency. CSIS will see receive $137 million over the next five years and $41 million each year after that to beef up frontline counter-terrorism. The CRA will receive an additional $10 million over the next five years to focus on preventing Canadian charities from funding terrorism abroad, he said.
Our government recognizes the terrorist arsenal includes more than guns, knives and bombs, Harper said. To radicalize and equip collaborators here at home or to finance malevolent actors in other parts of the world, terrorists need cash.
Harper pulled no rhetorical punches when talking about the reason for the changes. Extremists, like ISIS, are the enemy and threaten Canadians, he said.
All civilized nations are today faced with an enemy who hates everything about our existence, he said. Freedom, democracy, tolerance, openness.
Harper said the government will ensure privacy and legal standards under Canadian law are respected when it comes to use of the biometrics information.
Its important to note we already have access to the biometric data ourselves of other countries so obviously this is information that to some degree we want to be able to share so we can verify that people are who they actually say they are.
Dats my boy !!
I seemed to have missed the reaction of Thomas Mulcair, leader of the parliamentary opposition. I know he kicked up a fuss about his personal safety where he resides. Not enough done for him, I presume, after the attack on Parliament. Coupled with the brutal senseless slaying of a volunteer guard at the cenotaph. This includes his eulogy to Islam at a mosque.
Steer her straight Prime Minister.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.