Evidence of meeting #13 for National Defence in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was threat.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
I'm going to pave the way somewhat for our next study.
You mentioned recruitment. Should the Canadian Armed Forces reconsider its recruitment requirements when seeking out people with specialized skills?
Should the armed forces get rid of training components that focus more on technical skills or on‑the-ground operations? Should it avoid sending people on postings, which are a deterrent for many?
Should the armed forces put more focus on skills than on general military training?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
When very specialized skills are needed, people want assurance that they are going to stay in their position for a number of years.
Remuneration is another important consideration. Even though those who consider a career in the armed forces are not motivated by money, it's still important to offer them competitive pay vis‑à‑vis the private sector, which has the ability to pay people in the field very well. It's important to think about the system for compensating people with these special skills.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
In your opening statement, you brought up digital sovereignty. Can you clarify what you mean by that?
Do you mean that digital matters should be the domain of the government?
Does that open the door to co‑operation with the private sector?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
When I talk about digital sovereignty, I'm talking about Canada developing its own businesses and capacity so that it can produce Canadian technologies and services in response to strategically important technological needs. This means helping to build Canadian companies and industries with the ability to not only sell their products outside the country, but also supply our armed forces with technologies we can have full confidence in.
Bloc
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
That's right.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
I see. Thank you.
I'm almost out of time, but there may be enough for you to answer my next question.
When the experts analyze cyber-attacks that are ransom-based versus those that seek to destabilize a country, are they looking for the same things? Do they analyze the attacks in the same way? Do the cyber defence teams require the same skills in both cases?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
Yes, the same skills are required to carry out the same type of analysis in determining the appropriate response. The only exception is that, in cases involving ransom, negotiating skills can come into play, but more in the private sector.
Liberal
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you so much.
Professor Dupont, I was really taken with your description of some of the technologies that are moving forward. I was feeling as old as our chair—
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
—in terms of the neural interfaces. I would like to hear a lot more about that.
Can you expand on those technologies that you were describing?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
When I was talking about a neural interface, it's a new brand of technology trying to connect human brains to machines in order to communicate faster between those two components. For example, Elon Musk is investing a lot of money in a company called Neuralink, which is trying to implant electrodes into human brains in order to communicate much faster, and in a more effective way, with computers. The initial aim is to blend artificial intelligence with human intelligence.
This is not science fiction. This is what's happening right now in research and development.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I believe I've heard about that. It's the ability to bypass some of the misconnections sometimes. For instance, if someone has been in an accident and their spinal cord isn't working in the way it should, it is then bypassed through those neural links. Is that what you're talking about specifically? Is that one of the examples of what you are basically talking about?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
That is one of the examples. It is one of the early use cases, but the applications will be much broader than that.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Can you expand on that in terms of defence and weaponization? Are you talking about that in terms of the defence industry?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
Yes. We could be thinking about implanting neural interfaces in the brains of soldiers to make them much more effective combatants.
NDP
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
It's hard to know, because it's all very sensitive and confidential. This is being developed at the moment. There are papers and documentaries. Investors are investing millions of dollars in these technologies. This is coming for sure.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Considering Tesla's inability to make self-driving technology as quickly as it had wanted, I imagine there are quite a number of bumps along the road, no pun intended.
Do governments around the world, internationally and in Canada, have legislation in place? Are they close to providing protections from this new kind of technology that you're talking about—not just the neural link but the other technologies you were talking about?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
I'm not aware of legislation being brought forward. I'm sure those technologies would be regulated by public health and pharmaceutical regulatory frameworks.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
You referred to referred to Dr. Leuprecht's discussions—and here Madame Normandin always takes my questions—about recruitment, retention, and the competition that the Canadian Armed Forces and our security forces face from corporate institutions for the unfilled cyber positions within our institutions. A lot of that recruitment and retention is actually discussed in the documentation from DND entitled “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, but it was also written several years ago.
Is that still in line with what we need? Does that need to be updated? Where are we at in terms the direction the government is headed in terms of recruitment retention?
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, Université de Montréal, As an Individual
I think the needs are still very acute. The types of profiles we need are pretty much the same. We need technically trained people. They are in very high demand, not only from the private sector in cybersecurity but from other sectors in AI development and video games. All the IT industries are hungry for all those people, and they're competing ferociously to attract those talented people.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you, Ms. Mathyssen, for that wonderful set of questions on neural links. We can hardly wait for Ms. Gallant's five minutes of questions.
Ms. Gallant, you have five minutes.