Industry committee  If I may, I'll jump in on Mr. Bailey's earlier point about the fact that AI, in whatever way it is going to be used in the future, is governed by the law. When we are talking about your question about how to ensure its lawful use, we are all cognizant of the fact that we do have pre-existing laws that already govern any use of AI.

Industry committee  I'm happy to and happy to hand it to Jonathan. Not to get too legal, but under the current framework a policing operation is going to take place under international human rights law and domestic human rights law. That's where Canada has taken its international obligations and has brought them into how we legislate.

Industry committee  Just to pull in an analogy from my area of work, under international and humanitarian law there's article 36 that asks for a weapons review. It talks about the review of weapons and of the means and methods of warfare, and that review has to take place before to ensure that the weapon, the means and methods can, in fact, be used in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Industry committee  I'm going to give the floor to Jonathan first, and then I'm happy to weigh in.

Industry committee  Thank you.

Industry committee  Our second major concern is that the bill includes the exemptions, as you already know, for the Minister of National Defence and the director of CSIS, as well as the chief of the CSE and other government positions, so while the bill's focus is on preventing harm by private industry, the bill does offer you a critical opportunity to reduce the risks of AI even further by providing clarity and certainty that AI uses by those who are currently exempted are currently regulated by pre-existing laws.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can connect some of the dots there. One, I can confirm that the Canadian Red Cross has been asked to participate in the government process in order to develop the legislative guidance—that's not the technical term, but it's the instruction to civil society. Because of the confidential nature of that engagement, I can't speak to anything further beyond that, to the specifics, but we also look forward to the clarity that hopefully will flow from that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Are you asking if they should be subject to the exemption?

Foreign Affairs committee  Pardon me. If there's a clear carve-out, it delineates and cuts off that work, and it means that our work and efforts can be spent more on the response. Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's an interesting point. I'll turn to my colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross as well. We work as part of a federation and as part of a global movement. We are always working with our partner national society and all the local law that applies in that particular jurisdiction.

Foreign Affairs committee  As a lawyer, I never want to say “always”—we like the phrase “it depends”—but at an initial point, yes, absolutely. When you're talking about the delivery of food and medical assistance to the civilian population, those who shouldn't be impacted by the sanctions in the first place, they should absolutely be included.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. My colleague Alain will take the lead on that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. Thank you very much. Echoing the comments of my colleagues, I will build on what Austin said. Where we have experienced the impact of sanctions is that the very people we're concerned about protecting.... It's the civilian population that is really at the hands of those individuals—the designated groups, the designated individuals and the governments themselves.