A 96-year-old Canadian woman has been told she can't get a photo-ID provincial healthcare card unless she has other photo ID, which she doesn't have.

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Elizabeth Stead of Ottawa is in a dilemma since losing her Ontario provincial health card, which must be shown for every medical procedure covered by universal healthcare, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

She discovered her card was missing at a clinic and staff helped her arrange for a 90-day temporary replacement.

Stead told the CBC she has an expired passport from 1992, but the photo was too old to be allowed. Her citizenship papers and marriage licenses don't have photos, so aren't valid either, she said.

Ironically, her son Richard Stead is a former government employee who worked at collecting and managing photo identification systems.

"I would've been ashamed if I ever designed a system that treated elderly people the way that my mother's being treated," he said. "I think they need to apply a test of reasonableness."