My name is Amanda Silvera, a professional voice actor and founder of the Society of Biometric Identity Rights. My voice and likeness were cloned using artificial intelligence without my consent and used for unauthorized commercial purposes and in harmful contexts.

This incident demonstrates a critical vulnerability: Canadian law provides no direct legal recourse for the non-consensual appropriation of an individual's biometric identity.

The Inadequacy of Current Canadian Law

Existing legal frameworks are not designed to address this specific harm:

· Copyright Law protects fixed works, not innate human attributes like a voice or face.
· Privacy Law focuses on data collection, not the creation of synthetic clones from that data.
· Defamation Law addresses damage to reputation from false statements, not the fundamental violation of identity theft itself.

This legislative gap leaves victims without a clear path to justice and fails to establish necessary prohibitions to deter bad actors.

International Precedent and Canadian Inaction

Other jurisdictions are acting to close this gap, while Canada lags:

· Tennessee, USA: Enacted the ELVIS Act, explicitly protecting voice and likeness from AI cloning.
· Denmark: Has proposed a landmark amendment to grant individuals a direct right over their own face, body, and voice.
· Australia: Has introduced bills to criminalize the creation and distribution of non-consensual deepfake intimate imagery.

Canada must act to protect its citizens and ensure its digital economy is secure and trustworthy.

The Required Solution: A Biometric Identity Rights Act

We petition the Government of Canada to enact a Biometric Identity Rights Act. This legislation must establish:

1. A Foundational Right: Legally recognize an individual's inalienable and exclusive right to the commercial and representational use of their own voice, face, and likeness.
2. A Clear Prohibition: Create a specific cause of action against the creation, distribution, or monetization of AI-generated biometric clones without prior, informed, and explicit consent.
3. Effective Enforcement: Provide for statutory damages to facilitate private enforcement, injunctive relief for rapid takedowns, and a framework for platform accountability.
4. A Future-Proof Framework: Define "biometric identity" in a manner that can be expanded by regulation to include future traits, ensuring the law remains relevant.

Call to Action

This is a non-partisan issue of human dignity, economic security, and public safety. The unchecked misuse of biometrics threatens individual autonomy and undermines trust in our digital infrastructure.

We call on journalists and influencers like Evan Solomon to investigate this critical policy gap.

We call on all Parliamentarians to champion this legislation.

We, the undersigned, urge the immediate creation and passage of a Biometric Identity Rights Act to protect the fundamental right of all Canadians to their own identity.