Information & Ethics committee  I think the safeguards need to be increased, certainly for children, marginalized groups and first nations in particular. The COVID pandemic has made things worse for all of those populations, and it's important to consider what the trajectory is in order to figure out what kinds of harms could plausibly occur in the years to come, given the shocks we've already experienced.

Information & Ethics committee  No. I would need to take some time to think about where, specifically, the strengthening could occur, but there are some reports—for instance, the UNICEF “Policy guidance on AI for children” of November 2021—that could be very valuable in this context.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. I think you should use a technique called scenario planning. I think for the purposes that you're using it, the Oxford scenario planning approach out of Oxford University is quite useful, because it involves multi-stakeholder engagements and—

Information & Ethics committee  I'll take that. Very briefly, it depends on the contextual environment of governance of the technologies. I also think that the nature of the government within which these technologies are being employed is very important. The legislative governance and other oversight mechanisms can change.

Information & Ethics committee  I have one more paragraph

Information & Ethics committee  A government responding to the “now” in this space will always remain behind the curve. Some technology companies and start-ups are betting that governments won't catch up. Legislators should take steps to correct this impression by instituting guardrails over longer horizons that strengthen Canadians' resilience.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you and members. I will be speaking about facial recognition technology in terms of the individual, digital society and government. I am a consultant in the areas of strategic foresight, scenario planning and global change, and I am an adjunct professor in the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University.