"If you don't provide ID to a police officer, how would he know that there weren't wants or warrants for your arrest? You can be detained until your identity is established. If they didn't do this then criminals could just make up a name and say they didn't have an ID. **********? "

I have never heard of such a thing, certainly not in a free country such as Canada. In Ontario, for bike traffic tickets you are only required to identify yourself... i.e. provide your name and address. Of course lying about it would be obstruction of justice or some such and probably a bad idea on balance. In general I thought the idea was that police needed some legal grounds to detain you.

There are a couple of threads in the safety and advocacy forum dealing with insurance issues.