Hutterites lose clash over photos

OTTAWA—Canada’s top court says a small Hutterite community in Alberta can be forced to have their photos taken to get a driver’s licence.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 today to uphold provincial rules that make a digital photo mandatory for all new licences.

“The goal of setting up a system that minimizes the risk of identity theft associated with drivers’ licences is a pressing and important public goal,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote for the majority.
“The universal photo requirement is connected to this goal and does not limit freedom [of] religion more than required to achieve it.”
Alberta introduced the new rules in 2003 as part of a face-recognition security measure to crack down on identity theft.
The Hutterite Brethren is a Christian sect that believes being photographed violates the second of the Ten Commandments forbidding idolatry.
They traditionally had been allowed to carry special licences, and said the photo rule threatens their way of life.
The judgment is the latest twist in the legal debate over reasonable accommodation of religious beliefs and customs.
Quebec especially has grappled with the duty of the majority to condone minority beliefs.
Alberta started issuing drivers’ licences with photos in 1974. An exception under provincial regulations was offered to those with religious objections until 2003.
By that time, there were about 450 special licences in circulation—56 percent of them held by Hutterites.
Lawyers for the colony argued the province presented no evidence to show that the practice somehow constitutes a security threat.
But federal lawyers warned that allowing an ongoing exemption for Hutterites could increase the risk of forgery for a document used not just for driving but for identity purposes.
They also raised the prospect of a flood of requests for religious-based exemptions.