Online offers of fake documents show it's time for a national vaccination passport: NDP critic

NDP MP Don Davies is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government to act quickly to introduce a single, secure, national proof of vaccination after CBC News reported that cybercriminals are offering to sell fake Canadian provincial vaccination certificates online.

"If the federal government hurried up with a national vaccine passport, it would cut down on the opportunity for forgeries and alternatives as well as provide an effective and efficient standardized and convenient passport for all Canadians," said Davies, the NDP's health critic in the last Parliament.

Davies said the federal government should show more leadership and stop pointing to provincial jurisdiction over health as an excuse not to act.

"Dithering and delaying and dancing on the head of jurisdictional pins is ridiculous at this point," said Davies. "We need a totally secure passport for Canadians and who is more ideally situated to create that than the national government?"

Davies said the prospect of fake Canadian vaccination certificates being offered for sale is worrying because it could undermine confidence in the health system.

"We should nip this in the bud. We're seeing early examples of these forgeries ... I think we've got to jump on this now before it becomes a much larger problem," he said.

A CBC News investigation found that sellers online in places like Telegram and the dark web are offering what they claim are fake vaccination certificates for several different Canadian provinces. Sellers also claim to be able to add fake vaccination data to official health department websites — a claim challenged by provincial health departments contacted by CBC News.