Social Insurance Number

It used to take a week to get a social insurance number for a new asylum seeker.

Montreal-based Desjardins said in June that unauthorized use of internal data by an employee led to breach of personal information, including social insurance number, address and details of banking habits.

Over the next few weeks, refugee settlement workers will also help her get health insurance, a social insurance number and bank account.

"There's no contract, we don't ask for your social insurance number, you don't have to do a urine test, we don't ask for your birthday or your first-born, nothing like that," Dobbin said.

"But I don't have a Social Insurance Number or a bank account," Hershie said.