Canada plans to expand its biometric screening of visa applicants to almost 150 countries.The expanded process is detailed in an omnibus budget bill which amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow the collection of biometric information from any person who applies to come to Canada. Previously, only about 30 nationalities were subject to biometrics gathering.The government expects to collect data from 2.9 million people by 2018-19 under the process. However, visitors who travel to Canada without visas, such as Americans and Western Europeans, are exempt from biometric screening.”We will be fingerprinting 2.9 million people. That will constitute all people making a temporary resident visa application: all students, all workers and all refugees,” said Chris Gregory, director of identity management and information sharing with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, in parliament.He said that the timescale would give the government enough time to implement a system “with world-class privacy protections,” reported CBC.However, in a 2 June letter, Deirdre Wade, Chair of the CBA Privacy and Access Law Section, voiced concerns about the impact on privacy rights.”Biometric personal information is, by nature, sensitive health information and its permitted or mandated disclosure by statute warrants careful analysis, due process and deliberation. The proposed amendment would expand the collection of personal information without adequate rationale and sufficient consultation.””An omnibus bill is not the appropriate vehicle to introduce substantive changes to laws unrelated to finance, taxation or spending, especially when those changes raise significant privacy concerns.”

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