Highlights:

  • During the Freedom Convoy 2022, the banks abandoned their customers and cooperated with the government in freezing the bank accounts of customers who participated in the convoy.
  • The Canadian Banker’s Association supports the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) plans to establish a worldwide digital data identity system.

The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) is an elite organization representing 60 domestic and foreign banks, which claims to advocate for Canadians.  It does not.  It does not have the best interests of the public on its agenda.

Canada has six major national banks, which are certainly not suffering.  These banks together hold $6.6 trillion in assets.

Instead of standing up for their customers, who provide them with such astonishing wealth to administer, and for profit, the banks have become the willing tool of the Trudeau government, as evidenced during the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa in February 2022.

On February 15, 2022, the day after the Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act, it issued the Emergency Economic Measures Order, dictating that Canadian banks and other financial institutions freeze, without a warrant, the bank accounts of customers who had participated in or supported the convoy.  This froze $78 million in 267 bank and credit union accounts and 170 bitcoin wallets. The banks enthusiastically, without questioning the legitimacy of such an order, or challenging it constitutionally in the courts, abandoned their customers and dutifully cooperated with the government. The banks should have challenged the lawfulness of the freezing order and requested an injunction against it in an attempt to protect their customers’ interests, but did not do so.  The effect of the frozen accounts went far beyond not being able to withdraw cash. Rather, suddenly, without recourse, the customer was unable to pay any bills for rent, food, medicines, or a mortgage.  Effectively, these account holders were rendered outcasts and the banks made no objections.

For example, the federal bank, the Farm Credit Canada (FCC) in Regina, which provides financing in the agricultural sector, ordered its employees to track and report clients who were sympathetic toward the truckers’ Freedom Convoy.  The employees were instructed to compile their names and other information and report it immediately.  The customers were not informed they were under scrutiny.  The FCC continued this practice until five days after the government revoked the Emergencies Act.

The banks knew or should have known that this freeze was likely a violation of the Privacy Act. When the CBA testified before the House of Commons Finance Committee on March 7, 2022, it also admitted that it had frozen more accounts than those provided in the RCMP lists.  It also admitted that these accounts may be flagged in perpetuity as there were no instructions by the government as to how long the data can be kept and who may have access to it.

The CBA’s Cooperation with the World Economic Forum (WEF)

The CBA evidently sees itself as a mover and shaker, a power broker in Canada’s future since it has become associated with the WEF.  Its plans are to establish a worldwide digital data identity system.  The WEF had previously published a 46-page, definitive report illustrating the need for such a system.  The digital system was defined by the WEF as an electronic identification system equivalent to an individual identity card, which will provide information such as health status, driving licence information, social security number, and financial and business transactions.  It would replace the numerous, currently used plastic cards.  The WEF argues that this system would free time and reduce hassle.

The CBA’s White Paper on Digital ID

The CBA fully supports this project.  It published a white paper, entitled “Canada’s Digital ID Future – a Federated Approach”, which stated, “a federated ID system developed in collaboration with the WEF and the banks … has the power to store every Canadian’s electronic identity and attributes”.  It went on to state that such a system would “potentially include personal data such as a person’s sexuality, credit scores, criminal record, gun licence status, and vaccine status”. President and CEO of the CBA, Neil Parmenter, specifically stated in the white paper:

The World Economic Forum agrees banks and financial institutions should lead the path forward for digital ID.  Banks are highly regulated and trusted.  They have advanced cybersecurity and privacy technology and they have the infrastructure to operate provincially and nationally.

In 2018, a promotional video released by the CBA described the advantages of the digital identity systems as a “controlled digital ecosystem that would have the power and security to store every Canadian’s electronic identity and attributes, while providing a fast, easy and secure way to bank, sign up for government services, renew driver’s licences or health cards, shop, travel, and more”.

Digital System Provides Private Information to the Government and the CBA

The CBA, however, did not mention that the identity cards would also provide the government and the banks with the entire file of private information about individuals.  Experience from the freezing of the bank accounts during the Freedom Convoy is a red flag in Canada as to how easily this can happen and the amount of harm it can cause.

Canadians should also be concerned that digital IDs are closely associated with what is called “social credit systems” used in China, where 1.4 billion people are monitored and graded.  Those who fall short are banned from booking flights and enrolling their children in certain schools, etc. The Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) warned, in 2018, that “Big Data is allowing the Chinese government to extend its control over the lives of Chinese citizens. The developing social credit system will make possible comprehensive data collection to measure individual loyalty to the state”.

Canadian authorities are already creating the infrastructure required to implement a digital identification network, which can then lay the foundation for social credit systems. Simply put, the digital system is likely the state’s plan for a social credit system.

In January 2018, the Liberal government entered into collaboration and partnership with the Netherlands and the WEF to develop a seamless flow of travellers, by the launch of a pilot project called the Known Traveller Digital Identity prototype.  Its purpose is to give travellers “control over and the ability to share their information via personal mobile devices with governments and travel providers to facilitate and expedite progress from departure to destination airports and beyond”. This project indicates that the government has begun its development of the identity card and perhaps, a “social credit system”.

The president of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier, appointed by Trudeau after the 2021 federal election was given a mandate letter to work ‘towards a common and secure approach for a trusted digital identity platform”.  In August 2022, Ms. Fortier released a report entitled, “Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022”, in which was outlined the concepts that would be involved with Canada’s future digital infrastructure.

The former Privacy Commissioner, Daniel Therrien, has sounded an alarm about the digital identity system when he appeared before a House of Commons Committee in June 2022.

It is now apparent, however, that his warning has been ignored.  The CBA and the Liberal government are working together to create a digital identity for Canadians that may impact on our future rights and freedoms.