Opposition parties in Quebec are concerned that the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) is relaunching a facial recognition project without public debate. The Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Éric Caire, “think” that a consultation “is a good idea.
In a letter sent to the president of the Transport and Environment Committee on Tuesday, the Liberal Party of Quebec calls for a debate on the project to use facial recognition technology at the SAAQ.
The official opposition was reacting to the relaunch of this project for the management of its citizen photo bank, less than a year after being put on hold by the Minister of Transport due to the SAAQclic fiasco.
Because of the risks associated with this technology, the Commission for Access to Information has also been calling for a public debate for more than three years.
- Listen to the interview with Michelle Setlakwe, Liberal MP and Official Opposition Critic for Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs on QUB:
Hear the experts
The PLQ maintains that this is “a laudable objective”, but that the use of facial recognition technology within the Quebec government raises important issues in terms of privacy protection and in matters of security.
Photo taken from Facebook
“We want to hear from the experts, those who work in the field […] Listen, we’re not against it. For us, modernizing the systems is potentially where we want to go. But, facial recognition, whatever Eric says [Caire] — I spoke with him last year in March — it’s not just about cleaning up the photo bank. Ultimately, it can be used for digital identification and open the door to a whole range of government services. Quebecers need to be reassured,” argues the Liberal spokesperson for Cybersecurity.
The parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, also believes “that we cannot deploy technologies like that without public debate.” The PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, adds that such technology must demonstrate “serious analysis”, that “security and risk issues” should be studied.
Cairo defends the project
Moreover, worried about the impacts of this project, the Commission for Access to Information (CAI) called in a letter for a public debate, from 2021.
The Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Éric Caire, thinks that a public debate, regardless of the form, “would be a good thing”, even if he considers that the SAAQ project “is not a project of facial recognition”, but a document management project. The SAAQ is requesting authorization from the CAI, he reported. He nevertheless admits that facial recognition technology will be used to process the photos.
“We use this technology because it’s faster, it’s more effective, it’s more efficient,” he said. The Commission for Access to Information can “investigate”, “prohibit” and “force an organization to delete an information bank”, he maintains.
The minister added that this same technology could be used for future digital identity, but pleads that he “won’t do it” in the short term.
The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, remained silent on the issue. The interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, believes that the minister is “avoiding responsibility”.
“Geneviève Guilbault, she, like a good Quebecer, “dumped” that at the SAAQ then at Éric Caire, get along, just like the SAAQclic fiasco, it was: “It’s not me””, did he declare.