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Digital ID

Tony Blair pushes digital ID as ‘essential’ to modern infrastructure but needing public ‘persuasion’

Published

1 year ago

7 minute read

Former UK prime minister Sir Tony Blair

From LifeSiteNews

By Tim Hinchliffe

In his Cyber Polygon 2020 talk, Blair didn’t make the case for why having a digital identity was actually necessary to prevent a cyber pandemic, but rather that digital identities would be an inevitable part of the digital ecosystem and would be crucial for managing health records, transaction data, and immigration status.

Speaking Tuesday at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) “Future of Britain Conference 2024: Governing in the Age of AI,” Blair continued his years-long push for digital ID adoption.

READ: Major anti-globalist TV station debanked in Germany and Austria

“An analysis on digital ID, which is an essential part of a modern digital infrastructure, could yield benefits not only for ease of interaction with government but for the public finances,” said Blair.

“Though, we have a little work of persuasion to do here, it has to be said,” he added.

Speaking at a session on “Why Building a Digital Backbone Is Essential for Britain,” India’s former Minister of State for Electronics, Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that digital ID was the “bedrock” of a “digital government architecture.”

When it came to the notion of individual civil liberties and digital identity, Chandrasekhar said that it was “an interesting debate to have” and that digital ID didn’t imply a violation of personal privacy:

People who say digital ID automatically implies a violation of personal information privacy have not read the last two chapters of the book they’ve been reading.

‘A citizen’s digital ID would contain a single unique identifier, which would help link the user with public services. Each service would retain its own unique identifier such as an NHS number or Unique Taxpayer Reference.’ — Tony Blair Institute, The Economic Case for a UK Digital ID, 2024

The report “The Economic Case for a UK Digital ID” claims that digital ID can be used for everything from integrating “personal health records and personal data” to streamlining taxation and welfare payments, as well as for managing refugees and asylum seekers.

The total cost of a digital ID rollout in the U.K., according the report, would cost at most £1.4 billion [$1.8 billion], and a digital ID scheme could be developed and deployed “over the course of a single parliamentary term (five years).”

Citizens would retain control over how linked they want their data from different databases to be via a user portal/app, while controlling how their digital identity attributes are used through a digital wallet (decentralized model).

Tony Blair has been pushing the digital ID agenda for many years for a variety of different reasons, from vaccine passports to tracking refugee statuses.

A TBI spokesperson told Politico EU that the organization was not advocating for mandatory digital ID cards, saying, “Everyone loves to talk about ID cards or government ID. That’s not actually our proposal,” adding that TBI’s vision is for people to be given “the ability to connect [their] data across the public sector.”

Speaking at the WEF-backed, Russian-based Cyber Polygon 2020 cybersecurity training exercise, former UK Prime Minister Blair stated with confidence that governments were “absolutely, inevitably” moving in the direction of digital identity adoption.

In his Cyber Polygon 2020 talk, Blair didn’t make the case for why having a digital identity was actually necessary to prevent a cyber pandemic, but rather that digital identities would be an inevitable part of the digital ecosystem and would be crucial for managing health records, transaction data, and immigration status.

Digital identity is one of three major components of what is known as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which also includes massive data exchanges, and a fast digital payments system, which can include the use of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

India is considered to be one of the world leaders in DPI, which everyone in the space refers to as the “India stack.”

Last year, India’s Aadhaar digital ID architect Nandan Nilekani said that everybody should have a digital ID, a smartphone, and a bank account because these were the “tools of the new world” upon which everything else was built.

In November 2023, the U.N. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnered to launch the 50-in-5 campaign to accelerate DPI rollouts in 50 countries within five years.

Earlier this year, the European Union parliament said that its digital identity wallet would be voluntary, which is what India said about its own digital ID scheme before government agencies began mandating it for certain services.

At the WEF annual meeting in Davos this year, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands said that a digital ID was good for knowing “who actually got a vaccination or not.”

Reprinted with permission from The Sociable

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Digital ID

Canada considers creating national ID system using digital passports for domestic use

Published on December 11, 2025

By

Fr0m LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Department of Immigration has had research done to investigate digital passports as an identity document, but MPs have soundly rejected the idea as dangerous and costly.

Without oversight from elected federal MPs, Canada’s Department of Immigration had research done to investigate a national ID system using digital passports for domestic use and how such a system would be enforced.

According to Access to Information documents, a senior analyst wrote in a staff email, “One of the things that came up in our discussions with Canadian Digital Services is the assumption the passport would be used within Canada as an identity document.”

“This warrants a policy discussion,” the staff email added.

MPs have soundly rejected any national ID system as both dangerous and costly.

According to internal records, managers at the immigration department put a new question regarding national ID into a 2024 voluntary Passport Client Experience Survey.

The files do not say who requested the new question to be added, and no MPs, Senators, or even Canada’s own Privacy Commissioner were told about this question.

Liberal MP Marc Miller, who is now Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture but was then the Immigration Minister, offered no comment to the media when asked early this year about why the new question was inserted in the passport survey.

The question was asked, “How comfortable would you be sharing a secure digital version of the passport within Canada as an identity document?”

Responses were given as “very comfortable,” “comfortable,” “neutral,” “not comfortable,” or “not comfortable at all.”

One of Canada’s most staunchly pro-life MPs, Leslyn Lewis, recently warned Canadians to be “on guard” against a push by the ruling Liberal Party to bring forth Digital IDs, saying they should be voluntary.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Canadian government hired outside consultants tasked with looking into whether or not officials should proceed with creating a digital ID system for all citizens and residents.

Per a May 20 Digital Credentials Issue memo, and as noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, the “adoption” of such a digital ID system may be difficult.

Canada’s Privy Council research from 2023 noted that there is strong public resistance to the use of digital IDs to access government services.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Carney federal government plans to move ahead with digital identification for anyone seeking federal benefits, including seniors on Old Age Security.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sounded the alarm by promising to introduce a bill that would “expressly prohibit” digital IDs in Canada.

Digital IDs and similar systems have long been pushed by globalist groups like the World Economic Forum, an organization with which Carney has extensive ties, under the guise of ease of access and security.

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Business

Conservative MP warns Liberals’ national AI plan could increase gov’t surveillance

Published on December 9, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis raised concerns about the Liberals’ major investment in AI, which could lead to digital ids and loss of freedoms.

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis is sounding the alarm over the Liberals’ nearly billion-dollar AI infrastructure investment, which could lead to digital IDs

In a December 2 post on X, Lewis raised concerns over the Liberals’ 2025 budget, which funds a $925.6 million “Sovereign Canadian Cloud” and national AI compute infrastructure at the same time as the Liberals are pushing digital identification on Canadians.

“Who audits the algorithms behind government’s new digital systems?” Lewis challenged. “What protections exist for Canadians in this new infrastructure? Who builds it? Who controls it? Who owns the data?”

“Good technology isn’t the issue, our freedoms, surveillance and good accountable governance in a digital era are the real issues,” she warned.

“Digital infrastructure is power, and it must never be implemented in secrecy or without parliamentary scrutiny,” Lewis declared.

Despite spending nearly one billion taxpayer dollars on the project, Prime Minister Mark Carney provides surprisingly few details on how the infrastructure will work and what its purpose will be.

“Budget 2025 proposes to provide $925.6 million over five years, starting in 2025-26, to support a large-scale sovereign public AI infrastructure that will boost AI compute availability and support access to sovereign AI compute capacity for public and private research,” the budget read.

“The investment will ensure Canada has the capacity needed to be globally competitive in a secure and sovereign environment,” it continued.

Alarmingly, the funding comes at the same time as Liberals are moving forward with digital identification systems, despite warnings that they will infringe on Canadians freedoms.

Additionally, the Canadian government hired outside consultants tasked with looking into whether or not officials should proceed with creating a digital ID system for all citizens and residents.

Per a May 20 Digital Credentials Issue memo, and as noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, the “adoption” of such a digital ID system may be difficult.

Canada’s Privy Council research from 2023 noted that there is strong public resistance to the use of digital IDs to access government services.

Nonetheless, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sounded the alarm by promising to introduce a bill that would “expressly prohibit” digital IDs in Canada.

Critics have warned that the purpose of such IDs is actually to centralize control over citizens. This opinion seems to be mirrored by the general public, with a Bank of Canada survey finding that Canadians are wary of a government-backed digital currency, concluding that a “significant number” of citizens would resist the implementation of such a system.

Digital IDs and similar systems have long been pushed by globalist groups like the World Economic Forum, an organization with which Carney has extensive ties, under the guise of ease of access and security.

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