That's about all I am going to learn for now about the grizzled-looking man before me -- and getting that out of him takes a bit of work as he answers most questions with, "Who wants to know?"
So it's with little surprise that I find Ernie's not so sure about a plan by the provincial government to issue identification cards to people like him, whose weather-beaten backpacks hold most of their worldly possessions and home is a mat at one of the city's shelters.
"It sounds a little like Big Brother," he says as his buddies chide him for talking to a woman toting a reporter's pad.
"I don't know if I like it," he adds.
Despite the fact my own wallet holds more than a dozen cards of varying types that confirm my own identity, I must admit to having the same kind of knee-jerk reaction to the news that next week, the provincial government will unveil a new system in which the more than 8,500 individuals in Alberta with that dreaded "no-fixed-address" label will be able to wave a card attesting to who they are.
It does have a bit of that Big Brother tinge, this new program that's been earlier reported to incorporate biometrics as a way of confirming the identity of people who've managed to make it to adulthood and beyond without ever possessing a birth certificate or driver's licence.
After all, in this day and age when the federal government's privacy commissioner has no shortage of villains who exploit what they know about us -- Facebook and retailers who use our personal information for marketing purposes among them -- the whole idea of an ID card has a way of bringing out the paranoid in the best of us.
Earlier this week, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Jonathan Denis is on hand at McDougall Centre to welcome Gary Bowie as the new chairman of the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness, and also to hint of an upcoming good-news press conference to usher in the introduction of the voluntary ID cards -- a first of its kind in Canada.
But while he won't confirm what the features are of the new cards, or what they'll look like -- the $12.30 cost is about all the detail he's giving up for now -- Denis is in a confident mood about the reception he'll get on this newest initiative.
"I'm quite excited about it; it's one piece of the puzzle to dealing with homelessness," Denis tells me after his news conference. "We've worked with the privacy commissions in getting it right, along with those who work with those facing homelessness."
Indeed, many of those on the front lines have no issue whatsoever with the plan that at face value sounds potentially controversial.
"It's a no-brainer," says Steve Griffin, director of programs for the Mustard Seed, who admits he's been busy this week juggling calls from media across the country looking to poke holes in the plan.
"Being able to show a card attesting to your identity is the difference between being able to access all kinds of services, or being able to access absolutely nothing," Griffin says, adding that while the idea of walking around with no identification is a foreign concept to the average person, a good number of the Mustard Seed's shelter guests "have never even seen their own birth certificate, which you need in order to get any other kind of identification."
Another misconception many hold about the homeless population is that they're not engaged in things like politics and elections.
"A lot of them tell me they are interested in the issues facing the city, and would like to vote in the upcoming civic election," says Griffin, who is holding town hall meetings for aldermanic candidates both in the ridings where the Mustard Seed's downtown location sits, as well as its shelter in the Foothills industrial park.
"With a card like this, they can cast a ballot. Being able to vote gives a person back their dignity," he says.
For her part, Carlene Donnelly is taking a wait-and-see approach to the new initiative.
"To be honest, I'm not that familiar with it, so I can't really assess it until I know more," says Donnelly, executive director of CUPS Health and Education Centres.
"But I'm all for anything that might help our clients cut through some of the bureaucratic mazes. If they can explain the details of it well, to us and to our clients, then it's got great potential."
Griffin thinks that if such a card can make it easier for the homeless to do such everyday things as open a bank account or vote, then this is a long overdue initiative.
"What you and I take for granted, homeless people can't even hope to achieve," he says, noting facilities such as the Mustard Seed have in recent years implemented their own identification policies.
"As long as there are safeguards built in to protect privacy, then I think it'll be win-win for everyone involved."
Griffin's organization, like many others in the province, is already working to sell the idea to its clients, people like Ernie. The government's job will be to sell it to a privacy-sensitive populace. That's when they'll know if all that homework done ahead of time gets a passing grade.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Valerie Fortney
Quelle/Source: Calgary Herald, 02.10.2010
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