Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Mr. Dufresne. I'm very happy to see you here at the committee. I remember when you were the law clerk and parliamentary counsel at the House of Commons. It's a pleasure to see you again.
I liked hearing you talk about your priorities. You talked about optimizing privacy by taking into account all the possibilities offered by digital technology, among other things. I also liked hearing you talk about protecting children's privacy. This is a very important topic.
Many of you don't know this, but before I entered politics, I worked in the retail sector. One thing I hear a lot about right now in this sector is that shoplifting is a very serious problem. It's a very important issue. I'm talking about theft committed by organized groups, not about an individual who picks up an item and goes out the door without paying for it. The problem is more serious, as it involves organized groups. Merchants can use available technology and, for example, install facial recognition tools at the entrance of their business to determine whether a person could be a member of one of these organized groups.
I understand that there has to be a balance. You also said that you work with the president of the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.
On the issue of shoplifting, merchants are being told that they can't really use facial recognition tools. You can imagine that shoplifting is a huge problem. Several people enter the business at the same time, but merchants are unable to organize because they can't use facial recognition tools.
Where is the balance between respecting people's right to privacy and protecting businesses that are experiencing this problem?