October 9, 2002

Op-Ed

 

 

“Tm going crazy—hand over my SIN card and nobody gets hurt.”

Erin Culhane
Opinions Editor

Labour Day was very traumatic. And
expensive. The events of September 2 have
led to a very restrictive feeling—it's like I’ve
been bound and gagged in red tape. And it’s
all because of a red, black and white plastic
card.

You see, my purse was stolen on Labour
Day. In my purse was, well, everything.
Driver's licence, cell phone, checkbook,
credit card, make-up (including brand new
lip gloss—that really hurt). But the worst,
the absolute worst, was the kids’ ID, which
I had put in my wallet for our plane travel
a couple weeks earlier, and stupid-stupid-
stupidly not taken out.

In the days that followed, I started the
process of cancelling, changing, closing,
opening. Without a single item of picture
ID, it’s hard to know where to start.

Five days later I got a call from Ben,
owner of a used-car dealership in the area
where my purse was stolen. He had found
my purse in one of the cars on his lot.
Imagine my excitement...but it was short-
lived. Yes, my purse was there. Yes, my dri-
vers licence and all of my son’s ID was
there, but my daughter's I[D—all three
pieces—was gone. I just felt sick.

I went in to the Human Resources office
and asked if I could get a new Social
Insurance Number for Haleigh. “No,” said
the woman, “We can issue a new card, once
you have a birth certificate and Care Card,
but she has to keep the same number.”
While this procedure seems logical for an
adult, or anyone who has actually used their
SIN card, Haleigh’s was never used. The
card was like an unopened bottle of
ketchup—the safety seal was still intact.
Can I please just have an exchange?

A fraud investigator at HR told me to
make an appointment once I had the rest of
her ID replaced, and they would put a
“flag” on the card. Yeah, I can just see the
flagperson monitoring Haleigh’s number,
on the look out for suspicious activity.
Here’s a thought: let’s try a little foresight.

Her ID was stolen, my son’s was not. To me
that is pretty specific and purposeful. It
wasn't just lost, it was stolen, and now some
rotten person is in possession of it.

Member of Parliament Grant McNally is
on my side. “She's young, why not issue a
new one and fold that number altogether?
Why not take extra precautions?” Yeah,
why not? “It’s a pretty important docu-
ment. We know there’s been all kinds of
trouble with stolen identity documents. We
found that out last year,” McNally said,
adding, “We don’t have really strict docu-
ment checks or exit and entry controls.” He
pointed out the potential danger of some-
one going underground with the ID and
waiting 10 or 15 years to use it.

For a security perspective, I called up
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) Media Liaison Nicole Currier, who
called my SIN dilemma (and paranoid con-
spiracy theories) “non-traditional terror-
ism,” which includes information opera-
tions and cyberterrorism. “Those types of
issues are coming up more and more,” said
Currier.

My big break came when I called up the
SIN general information number listed in
the Blue Pages. The representative was real-
ly nice. When she started in on the policy
stuff I said, “You know what? My bottom
line is that somehow, some way, I’m getting
a new number for my daughter.”

She said, “Okay, Pll forward your infor-
mation to the Social Insurance Registry and
they'll call you within two days.” Two days?
“They're really, really quick,” she said,
“They deal with everything to do with
Social Insurance Numbers.”

This registry is based in Bathhurst, NB
and I’m waiting patiently for the call.
Hopefully they will cut through the red
tape (it’s starting to chafe) and issue a new
number. Otherwise, Haleigh just might
have to sue (the government and me) for
not cleaning up this mess when we had the
chance.

 

 

the other press

 

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