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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Hutterites to drive without licences

To ignore high court ruling that requires photographs

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 02/27/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

CALGARY -- A group of Alberta Hutterites says it plans to drive without proper driver's licences rather than violate long-held religious beliefs by posing for the photo required by official government documents.

Months of discussions between the provincial government and the Hutterites in question to find a solution to the legal and religious questions have failed, said Sam Wurz, colony manager of the Three Hills Hutterite Colony.

"We'll have to drive without a licence. That's the plan right now," said Wurz, whose colony has about 100 members, including 20 drivers.

"Our religion is more important -- just to obey God's commands and rule and regulations more than man."

A lengthy legal battle pitted Alberta's official drivers' licence requirements -- which include facial recognition technology -- against the colonies' religious stance against being photographed, based on their interpretation of the Ten Commandments' ban on "graven images."

The Alberta government won the legal saga in a 4-3 Supreme Court ruling against the Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony and Three Hills Colony in July. Since then, the two sides have sought a solution that would allow the Hutterites to continue driving with proper licences. But no agreement has been reached.

Meanwhile, the interim photo-less licences granted to the Hutterites while the legal proceedings unfolded have begun to expire.

Of the 20 members who previously held licences, only a handful still have proper documents, Wurz said. Those are set to expire within a few months. Meanwhile, a number of members continue to drive without a provincial licence, he said.

Several suggestions -- including fingerprint identification, special pouches to hide the photos, and specialized pin numbers -- have been floated as possible ways around the requirements, but none of the ideas was agreeable to both sides.

The province, meanwhile, isn't budging from its photo requirement, said Service Alberta spokesman Cam Traynor.

"We're still open to hearing ideas from the colony leaders on how to accommodate them. None of the ideas they brought forward meets the requirements for an Alberta driver's licence," Traynor said.

"Until there are any new ideas that come forward that would fit within the law, I don't think there's any more room for discussion at this point."

Of the 103 special government licences issued, just 39 are still active.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 27, 2010 C19

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