If you are the person responsible for a small business or if you participate in the activities of a non-profit organization (NPO) — whether it is your neighborhood association, a chess or ornithology club — or , again, if you live in a co-ownership and participate in the management of your union, it is likely, to your great surprise, that you have been asked to provide a copy of your driving license.
Since 1er Last March, the Quebec Business Registrar required the managers of these legal entities to require the driving license of their directors (a term not defined in the law). This measure, which affects millions of Quebecers, arises from Bill 78, the “Act mainly aimed at improving business transparency”, adopted on June 8, 2021. As its title indicates, the new law aims “ mainly to improve transparency.
Two weights, two measures
Barely three months later, on September 22, 2021, the Quebec government adopted Bill 64, which aimed to increase the protection of personal information held by private companies. If like me, your financial advisor, your accountant, your dentist or anyone who runs a small business has refused to send you information about yourself by email (as they have done for 20 years), tell yourself that it is because of new obligations made by this law.
While it is true that my accountant’s interpretation is cautious (it nevertheless results from the training he received from his professional order), it is nevertheless the most widespread because of the considerable financial penalties — which can go up to $10 million — required by law.
Far be it from me to judge the wisdom of the government, but the problem is that it imposes — under the pretext of protecting personal information — considerable obligations and excessive financial penalties on a small business, an NPO or a co-ownership association. , while it forces them to transmit to the Registrar of Companies (under the pretext of increasing transparency) the driving licenses of millions of people without their consent, and without them knowing that it is prohibited in Quebec to request it .
Illegal demands
One thing is certain, these two laws are incontestably at odds, and the measures they provide are irreconcilable and incontestably illegal, for two reasons.
First, the government forces a person to transmit personal information about another person to it, in violation of its own law (the Personal Information Protection Act), the fines of which were substantially increased by Bill 78 (LQ 2021, c. 19); failing to violate the law as required by the government, this person will receive a substantial fine under Bill 64 (LQ 2021, c. 25).
Second, it is illegal, as a result of an express legislative provision adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec (article 61 of the Highway Safety Code) — except on the part of a peace officer and that ‘for the sole purposes of road safety — to require a driving license. It’s illegal. Point bar.
The same principle also applies to the health insurance card (section 9.0.0.1 of the Health Insurance Act), the social insurance number (section 237 (1) of the Tax Act income) and passport (Canadian Passport Order). Here’s the rub, it is illegal to require these IDs unless for the purposes for which they were issued.
In other words, the government is forcing you to transmit a person’s driver’s license, which is contrary to two laws validly adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec (the Highway Safety Code and the Protection Act personal information) and your failure to violate the law at the request of the government constitutes a violation of a third law (the Act respecting the legal publicity of enterprises). And I found the comic strip ridiculous The 12 labors of Asterix !
As the Quebec Commission for Access to Information so rightly points out, “there exists, neither in Canada nor in Quebec, an identity card whose objective is to prove that a person is what they are.” she pretends to be.” However, it sometimes happens that it is essential to establish the identity of people, which is why the government of Quebec should adopt and issue to each Quebecer a citizenship card, or even, as Minister Éric Caire has promised since 2019 , a digital identity, the legal regime of which would comply with the laws adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.