The government proudly announced the creation of a 'smart' Quebec driver's license, one that contains personal information in an embedded RFID chip. For those of us technologically impaired, the chip allows information to be transmitted wirelessly to receiving devices, a bit like your 'Bluetooth' phone connection. As you approach the customs booth your personal information is instantly beamed to the border agent's computer screen.I don't know about you, but it makes me a bit queasy knowing that the wallet I'm carrying is transmitting my personal information, 24/7, to anyone around me with a receiving device.
I think I'll pass and keep my old fashioned passport.
Watching Premier Jean Charest on TV, proudly waving around the new, yet familiar blue license reminded me of a story.
Several years ago, a supervisory employee of mine was working temporarily in Toronto when she got into a small fender-bender. When the attractive twenty-something presented her Quebec driver's license to the policeman who was sorting out the mess, he looked her up and down and asked her where she worked. When she answered, he replied that he wasn't familiar with the club.
"Huh?" she thought.
Later that evening, after work, she went out to a Scarborough bar with a couple of co-workers from our local office. After ordering a drink, she was carded by the bartender, who after checking out her blue, Quebec license, asked her the very same question. "Which club do you work in?"
"What the heck is going on?" she asked one of her co-workers.
"He thinks you're a stripper."
I was reminded of the incident, years later while watching an episode of 'Weed's, a cable show about a marijuana dealing mom starring Mary-Louise Parker.
Apparently outside Quebec, an attractive young female Francophone with a blue Quebec license equals a stripper. Oh well.....
