Here is an article about Canada's first excursion into creating a police state. Not a very pretty picture.
Racial profiling and border control in the late-1800s and early-1900s wasn’t done by computers or through facial recognition tech, but what the government did use to target Chinese people was considered cutting edge at the time — for example, certificates with photo ID. And as late as 1950, border officials used X-rays on young Chinese as a way of ensuring they weren’t cheating the age limits for family reunification programs.
And there was the paperwork. Systemic racism, as it turned out, required a lot of paperwork.
Chinese immigration certificates were the government’s way to monitor and contain the Chinese people who remained in Canada after the transcontinental railway was completed in 1885. There were different certificates for different purposes, from ID to travel authorizations. Each was known by a “C.I.” code in the header.
Library and Archives Canada has immigration case files with details of certificates, but they are not public due to strict privacy policies.
As for certificates themselves, some are in public archives, but the majority have likely been lost or thrown out, perhaps unknowingly by descendants or purposefully by bearers who’d rather forget the past. Upon gaining citizenship, some Chinese Canadians burned the discriminatory papers that for years held a tight grip on their lives.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/07/01/Chinese-Canada-Numbered-Interrogated-...