see, this is plausible and everything, and i don't want to reject it completely. but, i suspect there's something else going on, related to facial recognition software. i agree it would be very hard to push the voting thing. but, there's no cameras at the voting booth either and should definitely not be any. are there cameras at a citizenship ceremony?

being born here, i'll admit to never having been to a citizenship ceremony, or even knowing much about them. but, even if this is a veiled lob at the base, it's just completely random. why target citizenship ceremonies and not some other random thing?

but, if the ceremony gives the state an opportunity to get people's faces into some kind of a system, it all of a sudden makes sense.

there's a little bit of consistency, too. rather than compare it to the voting thing, let's compare it to something that is maybe a bit more contextual: this government has also made it illegal to protest with a face mask. again, that seems completely random and pointless. until you stop for a moment and realize that they're probably filming the protesters, and the masks interfere with the software.

i'm just speculating, of course. this is actually a job for a real life, investigative journalist. it's maybe a wikileaks upload, if it's not a simple request for information. but, i think i'm on to something...

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/09/16/veiled-threats-the-conservatives-dog-whistle-pitch-for-the-anti-muslim-vote/

thecrucible
If they want a drivers licence, they have to show their full face for a picture. If they want an identification card, they have to show their full face for the picture. The list goes on.

All these situations result in a full face photo on file somewhere. Of everyone, not just new citizens. It doesn't make sense for them to use photos at citizenship ceremonies only.

No, this is purely a political "wedge issue". An attempt to get certain people to focus on one single issue, and get their vote based on that single issue alone. In this case, they are looking for the bigot vote with an appeal to the people afraid of their own shadows as well.

I abhor this kind of politics. I have seen normally thoughtful people get caught up in it. They become so focused on that single issue, they give up thinking about anything else. These same people would once dismiss the Green party supporters because of being "solely focused on the environment", but now they are doing exactly the same. It is psychological manipulation of the worst sort. It is modern day, marketing techniques driven, politics. It is designed to stop people from thinking, and turn them into an emotion driven mob. Wedge politics turns people into single issue voters.

deathtokoalas
but, there's various reasons why using the database for driver's licenses to build a new database of "people of concern" is a problem - there's the legalities of it, to begin with, and also the sheer size of such a thing, and the difficulty of really pulling what you want out of it.

getting people on film at a citizenship ceremony would be a faster, and at least not explicitly illegal, way to build that kind of system. and, as mentioned, there is precedent in it with the face mask law against protesters.