Information & Ethics Committee on Dec. 13th, 2021

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

I vote against it.

[The Clerk]

Thank you.

(Motion as amended negatived: nays 6; yeas 4)

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

The motion is defeated.

Before I go to Monsieur Villemure, I know Mr. Green was up next. He had a motion that he wished to move.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Respecting that some of us are new around the table, and that 2021 annual reports have come out, I have a series of opportunities for us to revisit the different commissioners.

Mr. Chair, through you to the committee, would it be wise for me to break them up, or just to provide them all at once and allow people to vote on them individually?

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

I'm not sure I know the nature of your motion yet.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

My first motion is:

That the committee invite Privacy Commission Daniel Therrien to brief the committee on his 2021 annual report.

Just to give you context, I also have within the same motion invitations to the Information Commissioner, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, and the Commissioner of Lobbying, just so they could provide the committee with briefings on their 2021 annual reports.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

You're asking me if I think this motion should be bundled or voted separately. I would suggest that's entirely up to you, as the mover, and the will of the committee.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay, I'll put them together just to expedite the motion, and if people want to pick them apart they are welcome to do that. I think it will provide us with a good overview, and I'll read it as follows:

That the committee invite Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien to brief the committee—

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, the motion I have in front of me is not what Mr. Green is speaking about. I'm not sure if my colleagues who are attending virtually have a text of the motion as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

I agree with you, Ms. Khalid. I have a different motion that's been circulated, but I suspect—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

My apologies. I got the order mixed up.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Right, I was going to suggest that maybe Mr. Green has another motion coming that is being circulated to you.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Fair enough, I'll wait for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

You are table-dropping the motion, I guess, verbally giving us the motion on the officers of Parliament, or do you have that—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

So that it can be circulated and there is no confusion, I will go with the one that I think is before people, which is:That pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h)(vii), the committee study the use or possible use of facial recognition technology by various levels of government in Canada, law enforcement agencies, private corporations and individuals; that the committee investigate how this technology will impact the privacy, security and safety of children, seniors and vulnerable populations; that the committee examine the impact of facial recognition technology on racialized communities; and that the study include how this technology may be used nefariously, such as a tool for criminal harassment or for other unlawful surveillance purposes; that the committee investigate any possible link, formal or informal, between Canadian law enforcement agencies and private technology corporations or start-ups including, but not limited to Clearview AI and Palantir; that the committee examine the impacts of facial recognition technology and the growing power of artificial intelligence.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

All right, the committee has now heard the motion. It has been distributed in writing, and I hope that an electronic version can be sent to those attending by Zoom. I don't know if they have received that or not.

Have they? It does not appear so.

The motion is in order. It was read into the record and translated, so it is in order.

Go ahead, Mr. Fergus.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'm very conscious of the time and that this is a really important motion. I would just like to indicate that I hope we'll be able to dispense with this business before the end of the meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Is there any other discussion on the motion?

Mr. Villemure.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

The motion is very interesting, but we should consider limiting it to a few meetings, say four meetings. This is a huge topic and I think we should focus on the essence of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

All right, if there is no other discussion—

Perhaps I should be clear. You have posed this motion. Are you moving it now?

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'm sorry, I am moving it, and I am happy to ask for unanimous consent for an amendment to it, namely that it be no more than four meetings.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Is there unanimous consent to amend the motion that Mr. Green has read by adding a maximum of four meetings?

Is anybody opposed?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Could I just ask one quick question?

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

All right, we're down to about three minutes left, so I'm hoping we can just spend—

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Through you, Mr. Chair, I'd like to ask Mr. Green a question.

Does this study also include the notion of deep fakes?