Ms. Tran's comments were echoed by several tribal officials: Tribal Council Member and Senior Forest Technician, Blaine Belleau, stated, "We're excited to be the first tribe north of the U.S. border to embrace this new technology which will help us prove we are who we say we are, When 9/11 occurred, and deadlines were imposed requiring proof-positive identification for everyone crossing the Canadian border, from either side, it played a big part in making our decision to re-define ourselves. These new cards and the state-of-the-art technology will allow us to do just that." Mr. Belleau continued, "The whole scenario is to re-capture our identity. Many presume who we are, but our history pre-dates the creation of Canada and the U.S. To be correctly identified and stated, I'm a North American born in Canada. These cards will play a very important part in the re-definition of who we are, and also, on a personal level, will create a re-definition of who I am."
First Nation Ojibway in Canada to Use Bio-ID Cards for Border-Crossing Control
Ontario-based tribe to use biometric ID technology for multi-purpose Tribal ID, Border Control and passport-backup ID card.
The Garden River First Nation (an Ojibway Tribe of North American Indians), headquartered at the eastern boundary of the city of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, Canada, has signed an agreement to license and use Veritec's 2-D VSCode Biometric technology for multi-purpose cards which will serve as Tribal Member ID, Border-crossing (from and to Ontario, Canada) control and passport-backup ID cards. The technology stores the individual's fingerprint minutiae in the 2-D VSCode, which is robust, compact and low cost."The Garden River Nation's 2,200 enrolled tribal members will be the first in Canada to be able to identify, without any doubt, their people are who they say they are," said Ms. Tran. "The tribal leaders should be commended for their truly historic foresight to know they're opening the door in Canada for what we believe to be the best counter-terrorism, identity-theft solution possible, and hopefully, other Canadian and Mexican border tribes, on both sides of those borders, and other U.S. states, will follow suit soon." (Montana's Blackfeet Nation initiated U.S. tribal use of Veritec's same technology and application in October, 2007.)
Ms. Tran's comments were echoed by several tribal officials: Tribal Council Member and Senior Forest Technician, Blaine Belleau, stated, "We're excited to be the first tribe north of the U.S. border to embrace this new technology which will help us prove we are who we say we are, When 9/11 occurred, and deadlines were imposed requiring proof-positive identification for everyone crossing the Canadian border, from either side, it played a big part in making our decision to re-define ourselves. These new cards and the state-of-the-art technology will allow us to do just that." Mr. Belleau continued, "The whole scenario is to re-capture our identity. Many presume who we are, but our history pre-dates the creation of Canada and the U.S. To be correctly identified and stated, I'm a North American born in Canada. These cards will play a very important part in the re-definition of who we are, and also, on a personal level, will create a re-definition of who I am."
Ms. Tran's comments were echoed by several tribal officials: Tribal Council Member and Senior Forest Technician, Blaine Belleau, stated, "We're excited to be the first tribe north of the U.S. border to embrace this new technology which will help us prove we are who we say we are, When 9/11 occurred, and deadlines were imposed requiring proof-positive identification for everyone crossing the Canadian border, from either side, it played a big part in making our decision to re-define ourselves. These new cards and the state-of-the-art technology will allow us to do just that." Mr. Belleau continued, "The whole scenario is to re-capture our identity. Many presume who we are, but our history pre-dates the creation of Canada and the U.S. To be correctly identified and stated, I'm a North American born in Canada. These cards will play a very important part in the re-definition of who we are, and also, on a personal level, will create a re-definition of who I am."
