The Canadian government must enact an immediate ban on the use of
facial recognition surveillance for all federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, says a
group of 31 Canadian and international organizations and 46 individuals active in protecting
privacy, human rights and civil liberties. The call came in an open letter sent this morning to
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair.

Studies have shown the racial biases in facial recognition surveillance, with leading technology
mis-identifying Black, Asian and Indigenous faces 10 to 100 times more than white faces. As the
letter points out, at a time when society is pushing to address systemic racism in policing,
adopting a technology that is known for its racial biases is a move in the wrong direction.

The press release can be found here.

The open letter can be found here.