For the last thirty five years of my life, I have avoided carrying identification of any kind, unless there is or was a compelling reason for me to do so (ie: a law that demands that I do). Given my age, there are precious few reasons to do so. Yet even when I was seventeen, it was no different. Back at that age, I got collared to answer the usual questions many, many, many times. Often, just because I was a punk with a mohawk, or they didn't like the looks of me, or because some asshole in the near vicinity decided to bring in every cop in town into the area, all for some stupid stunt or action. To be sure, some of these stunts may or may not have been done by myself or friends. But that is besides the point here, for all I want to get on with is talking about the carrying of identification.
By age seventeen, there were few establishments that ever stopped me at their door, barring me entry due to my age. So I did not need a birth certificate (at that time, acceptable-enough as proof of age at drinking establishments (it had no photo)). My social insurance number was only needed when applying for work (no photo either). My student I.D. card was only required for school events, so it was always in my locker, never in my wallet. It did not have a photo either. I used cash for most financial transactions, and carried it on my person for obvious reasons. But the bank card and the like would only come with me if I knew or foresaw myself in the near future of having need of it. Even then, a bank card or credit card with your name on it really isn't I.D., except to businesses that want to expedite the cash in your card's account into their own account.
In short, there were no reasons to carry personal/material I.D., and this is true today. And if you have a brain, the same goes for the Internet.
Why people insist upon carrying identification they do not need is a mystery to me. I wouldn't bring my social insurance number on vacation, let alone to school, nor would I do the same for my age of majority card (if I had one!), or anything else that I would not need on vacation. The police officers or border guards or immigration officials of Belize, Bahamas, or Britain are unlikely to give a damn about un-recognized identification. They may even interpret offering it to them "as I.D." as an attempt on your part to confuse or otherwise prevent them from ascertaining just who you really are. And the same officers of Canada are no different.
Since citizens of Canada are not required by law to maintain personal identification on their person within Canada, unless they are compelled to do so by law, then all the I.D. that you have on you when you do not need it is simply an excuse for you to surrender it because of some innate need for you to give it to people who have no lawful right to viewing and/or having it. This is not to say that you should offer or provide it to anyone (I know I wouldn't). But merely having it makes it possible for you to do so. Having it also makes questions such as "Do you have any identification?" - a harmless question to ask from a police officer - become much more mentally challenging to you. ie: If you have no I.D. upon you, the answer is not only simple, but so will be your delivery of your answer. There will be no mental anguish on your part over any I.D. you might have had on you because you will be happy to tell the so-and-so asking that "Sorry! I have no I.D. bananas today! Please come again!"
If you are a passenger in a vehicle, you do not have to have identification. The driver will need it, and maybe one other passenger if the driver is to be accompanied by another person that possesses a driver's license. Beyond that, no one else does. So if you are in the back seat, and get pulled over and are asked for I.D., your verbal self-identification, if requested, is all that need be given.
When without I.D. and am quizzed by officers of authority-stripe (those who may have a reason to allow them to ask me such questions), I give the following.
Name? First and last.
Address? The street I live on. Something like "1xx-block of Blah-Blah Street" or just the street name, if its not a very long street. If it makes him/her happy to know precisely, I let them ask for precise details, and will only give address and apartment.
Age? I give it, or the month/year I was born and let them do the math (You can actually see the wheels turning in some!)
Where are you going? / What are you doing? While it may be of no business to an officer asking this question, its a damned simple question to answer. If you want to be obfuscatory or have some internal reason to be non-cooperative, do as you feel you must. Just beware that getting your nose in the cop's face about such things is simply begging for more questions to be asked or for the officer to press/try harder to see if you can be queried further, or worse, much further down at the station.
They do not need your phone number, nor deserve it, unless you want to provide it to them. Any other information about you they can research on their own, without your help. Personally, if something really bad went down, and IF there is a possibility I could help later on (recalling who/what/when/where), I might give my phone number to a cop if he/she wanted AND I wanted him or her to have it.
You do not have to answer any questions, save, perhaps, to identify yourself, if asked (that does not require I.D.). Again, if that is too much to ask, so be it. For me, it has always been, but then, I soon learned it was just as easy to answer two or three ridiculously simple questions rather than answer none, and spend twice as long, or much, much longer, not answering them.
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