Welcome to meeting number 12 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, December 13, 2021, the committee is resuming its study of the use and impact of facial recognition technology.
Today’s meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application. So you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
I will remind members in the room that we all know the public health guidelines. I understand that you've heard them many times by now, so I won’t repeat them again, but I will ask you to follow them.
I would also like to remind all participants that no screenshots or photos of your screen are permitted. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly for the benefit of the interpreters. When you are not speaking, your microphone should be on mute. Finally, I would remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses today. From Borealis AI, we have Dr. Alex LaPlante, senior director, product and business development. From the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, we have Dr. Brenda McPhail, director of the privacy, technology and surveillance program. From the Computer Research Institute of Montréal, he have Mr. Françoys Labonté, chief executive officer; and from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, we have Mr. Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator.
Just before I turn it over to the witnesses, for the benefit of committee members, what I've tried to do to minimize the time we lose to change over between panels is to run our witnesses in one panel. We will go through the regular rounds of questions and subsequent rounds as time permits in the prescribed formula for speaker allocation.
With that, I turn it over to our first witnesses, from Borealis AI.
Dr. LaPlante, go ahead.