A hell-fearing Christian fundamentalist farmer has mounted a constitutional challenge to prevent his driver's licence photo being placed in a central data bank.
George Bothwell told a packed press conference in Toronto on Wednesday that the Book of Revelations warns that any such use of an individual's image automatically aligns him with Satan.
"The Bible says that he who worships the beast or receives his image shall drink the wine of the wrath of God," Mr. Bothwell said, quoting several ominous-sounding passages by heart.
"That prophecy was written two millennia ago, when there was really no vocabulary to describe the technology that has come up on this," he said. "The God of the Bible wants individual freedom. This system enforces external control over people."
Mr. Bothwell's lawyer, Clayton Ruby, said the provision allows government bureaucrats too much leeway in deciding whether they find a person's religious beliefs to be sincere.
Far from being a fundamentalist flake, Mr. Ruby argued that his client is a deeply religious man who truly believes he will go to hell if the government stores his photograph in digital form.
Mr. Ruby said the theory is comparable to the beliefs of other fundamentalists.
"I don't think that anyone will dismiss him as a wingnut, because these views are widely held," he said.
Before 1997, provincial bureaucrats allowed Mr. Bothwell to have a Polaroid image attached to his licence. The licencing system then became digitalized, obliging Mr. Bothwell, 57, to renounce his driver's licence altogether.
According to a legal brief Mr. Ruby prepared for Ontario Superior Court, Mr. Bothwell's dilemma has severely constrained his ability to pursue his livelihood as a liquid manure spreader.
"Farming is a very challenging business," it says. "One needs to be very focussed on it to succeed. The stress he feels as a result of having to focus on the issues surrounding his driver's licence — which affect his eternal salvation — distract him and make it very difficult to run the farming operation."
The brief says that Mr. Bothwell — a father of eight — is in the position of having to choose between his religious beliefs and the ability to operate a motor vehicle.
"Because he lives in a rural area, the inability to drive greatly restricts his freedom of movement, his ability to earn a living and his ability to interact with the community," it says.
Mr. Bothwell would be eligible for a religious exemption from the photograph provision if he could show that his viewpoint is endorsed by a religious leader of a congregation to which he belongs.
Mr. Bothwell, however, has no congregation. His interpretation of the Bible is strictly his own and he believes he has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
"George doesn't have a religious leader other than Jesus Christ — who is not about to write a letter of support for him to the Ontario government," Mr. Ruby told reporters.
"We say that even if only one person on Earth has a sincerely held belief, that belief may turn out to be the truth."
Averting his eyes from a bank of cameras throughout today's press conference, Mr. Bothwell anticipated the question on every reporter's lips.
"I feel a little uncomfortable with the technology presently in this room, because I assume you are using digital cameras and recorders," he said. "But that technology is not the danger."
The problem arises not when photographs are taken, but when they are stored and potentially used for unknown purposes.
"The danger is when the central authority captures digital identifiers from people and stores them in a central data base for any authority with the right technology to access," he said.
Mr. Ruby said a ruling in his favour would not open the floodgates to people making all manner of exotic claims about their religious beliefs. Authorities would still have the power to screen out those making ridiculous claims, he said.
"I have an easy road; a very easy road," Mr. Ruby said. "They would still be able to weed out anybody who is not a sincere, religious believer."
Mr. Bothwell, whose farm is located near Owen Sound, has been driving since 1962.
