Bill C-27 (39th Canadian Parliament, 2nd Session) - New Content - Identity Theft and Identity Fraud

Identity Theft and Identity Fraud

Identity information is any and all data that that could be used to identify a person. Such information can be in the form of name, date of birth, signature, credit card number, debit card number, SIN, or other information. The bill also would have included other identifiers such as biological identifiers, DNA, fingerprint, retinal image, iris image, and voice print. Early in 2008, the Province of British Columbia began testing the use of such biometrics in a new enhanced drivers license.

Bill C-27 defined identity theft as the following: "Everyone commits an offence who transmits, makes available, distributes, sells or offers for sale another person’s identity information, or has it in their possession for any of those purposes, knowing or believing that or being reckless as to whether the information will be used to commit an indictable offence that includes fraud, deceit or falsehood as an element of the offence."

The bill stated that a trial would occur in the province in which the allegation has happened, or, if the accused is not in that province, the trial cannot happen without the approval of the Attorney General of that province.

Identity fraud had a different definition: "03. (1) Everyone commits an offence who fraudulently personates any person, living or dead,

(a) with intent to gain advantage for themself or another person;

(b) with intent to obtain any property or an interest in any property;

(c) with intent to cause disadvantage to the person being personated or another person; or

(d) with intent to avoid arrest or prosecution, or to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice."

This included impersonating someone by using identity information, including impresonating someone on social networking web sites.