Faking It Easy: Province (Ontario, Canada) issues birth certificates without proof of identification

Ontario is blindly issuing birth certificates without proof of identification, government officials admit — a welcome invitation to terrorists needing to create a false identity to wreak their havoc. For $50 — and without showing any identification — anyone can walk into a provincial office and get a birth certificate on the same day.

"It's kind of a joke. You could just say anything (on the application) and get a birth certificate. They don't check," said John MacDonald, who took advantage of the one-day service.

Mahagtab Hossain of Toronto, returning his son's birth certificate earlier this week because of a misspelling, said he was surprised he was able to obtain the original one in a day without showing identification.

And that, says David Harris, former strategic chief at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, is why Americans say Canada is a threat to their homeland security.

"It's a phenomenal situation. A birth certificate is what a terrorist uses to start playing their game of killing. We should be worried for ourselves, let alone other nations," Harris said.

"This is no minor thing. It's nightmarish. There is also the criminal threat of identity theft."

If you make false statements on the application, you can face a fine of $50,000 and two years less a day in jail but breaking laws are part of a day's work for terrorists and criminals, Harris said.

There are reference checks built into the system used to issue birth certificates, Julie Rosenberg, with the Ontario government's consumer and business services said, adding showing ID isn't one of the checks.

Quote:

The lack of verification is "frightening," said Wesley Wark, a professor of international security and espionage at the University of Toronto.

"There was attention paid to false documentation after Sept. 11, but that has evaporated. People in Canada assumed the loop holes in the old fashion system had been tightened. Bizarre," Wark said.

"Obtaining a (false) birth is the beginning in creating a new identity. It reflects concerns on many fronts (for other nations) about our security measures."

Just so long as they leave Canada lone, eh.

Snowyman wrote: Nothing like creating a story with just part of the facts. If you're 96 years old or died at least 71 years ago , you might just get away with it.. The office of the Registrar General holds records for Birth certificates that happened in Ontario during the past 95 years, marriages that occurred within the past 80 years and deaths that occurred in within the past 70 years.

The writer didn't say the records weren't available, he said that there was no attempt to check them — a big difference.

Furthermore there is no attempt to verify that the person making the request is who he purports to be.

So apparently whatever somebody says is jake with the bureaucrats, after all they get paid the same either way.

Faking it easy

Province issues birth certificates without proof of identification

By KEVIN CONNOR - TORONTO SUN - Saturday December 13 2003

Ontario is blindly issuing birth certificates without proof of identification, government officials admit -- a welcome invitation to terrorists needing to create a false identity to wreak their havoc. For $50 -- and without showing any identification -- anyone can walk into a provincial office and get a birth certificate on the same day.

"It's kind of a joke. You could just say anything (on the application) and get a birth certificate. They don't check," said John MacDonald, who took advantage of the one-day service.

Mahagtab Hossain of Toronto, returning his son's birth certificate earlier this week because of a misspelling, said he was surprised he was able to obtain the original one in a day without showing identification.

And that, says David Harris, former strategic chief at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, is why Americans say Canada is a threat to their homeland security.

"It's a phenomenal situation. A birth certificate is what a terrorist uses to start playing their game of killing. We should be worried for ourselves, let alone other nations," Harris said.

"This is no minor thing. It's nightmarish. There is also the criminal threat of identity theft."

If you make false statements on the application, you can face a fine of $50,000 and two years less a day in jail but breaking laws are part of a day's work for terrorists and criminals, Harris said.

There are reference checks built into the system used to issue birth certificates, Julie Rosenberg, with the Ontario government's consumer and business services said, adding showing ID isn't one of the checks.

'NEED A GUARANTOR'

"I'm not at liberty to discuss internal security matters.

"There are a series of questions (to be answered on an application) and you need a guarantor which is followed up on," Rosenberg said.

More than a month ago, a Toronto Sun lawyer was a guarantor on one of the 320,000 birth certificate applications the province processes each year. He hasn't been contacted to verify the document he signed.

The lack of verification is "frightening," said Wesley Wark, a professor of international security and espionage at the University of Toronto.

"There was attention paid to false documentation after Sept. 11, but that has evaporated. People in Canada assumed the loop holes in the old fashion system had been tightened. Bizarre," Wark said.

"Obtaining a (false) birth is the beginning in creating a new identity. It reflects concerns on many fronts (for other nations) about our security measures."

It's a dangerous way to do business, said Paul Bresson with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's national office in Washington, D.C.

"The falsification of identifying documents and any loopholes that exist in the process, whether they are in the U.S. or elsewhere, are a very big concern to the FBI and all of law enforcement, especially in the post-9/11 environment," he said.

'BECOME A THREAT'

It makes life easier for terrorists, said Vincent Cannistraro, former director of counter-terrorism for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

"We all have to make sure people can be verified so they aren't receiving false documents and becoming a threat," Cannistraro said, pointing to the case of al-Qaida member Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian who lived in Canada for six years and was caught by U.S. border police when he tried to drive from B.C. to Washington in late 1999 with a carload of explosives.

Ressam had two fake Canadian driver's licences and a bogus Canadian passport -- which can be obtained with a fake birth certificate.

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