Edmonton police emails, documents provide new information on Canada-first AI facial recognition bodycam pilot
The CBC’s Taylor Lambert explores the Edmonton Police Service’s controversial AI facial recognition bodycam pilot, part of an American and Israeli backed program with Axon and Corsight AI. Privacy experts weigh in as Canadians learn that the Corsight AI software was developed from experience in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
While Corsight emphasizes that EPS would retain ownership and control of its data, Canadian privacy and data end up collected, processed by a third party. I can’t read that any other way than turned over, stored, and accessible by the Americans and the Israelis.
In 2024, the New York Times reported that Israel had deployed mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza that relied in part on Corsight’s facial recognition technology.
CBC News has not independently confirmed the Times’ reporting, but Gideon Christian, an associate professor of AI and law at the University of Calgary, finds those reports troubling.
“I think the track record of who is providing the technology matters,” he said.
Data shared with Axon will be anonymized “whenever possible,” according to the EPS privacy assessment.
“However, data required to aid in assessing the success or failures associated with the technology will be shared when / if required.”
Christian expressed concern that the qualified language appeared to leave open the possibility of sharing sensitive information with Axon under certain circumstances.
“‘Whenever possible’ is a very loose and ambiguous phrase,” said Christian.
“These are definitely not the kinds of qualifications I would love to see, especially when it comes to sharing of sensitive information collected by a law enforcement agency.”
Axon directed project-specific questions to EPS, but said in a statement that its customers “retain full ownership and control of their data, which is protected through encryption in transit and at rest, strict access controls, audit logging, and agency-defined retention policies.”
So, certainly the EPS would be sensitive to these issues, and be open to the concerns of some of their stakeholders when this project comes to light?
I suppose not because the EPS, recently accused of attacking the criminal justice system by threatening courts and the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, and characterized as engaging in “institutional combat”, leaned into this characterization when answering the CBC’s Access to Information request to EPS.
CBC News also sent several questions to EPS seeking clarification or comment about specific details of the privacy assessment, EPS emails or aspects of the project. EPS did not address those questions, including:
why EPS did not allow time for the OIPC to review its privacy assessment before starting the pilot;
when data might be shared with Axon;
what training is involved for officers reviewing matches, and who provides it;
whether any AI models are trained using images or data collected by EPS.
In response to the initial list of questions from CBC News, EPS said in a statement that the police agency fulfilled its statutory obligations when it submitted the privacy assessment to the OIPC, and has since met with officials to discuss it. “As we’ve said previously, evaluating and mitigating privacy impacts is an important ongoing part of our proof of concept.”
The statement also addressed CBC’s access to information request.
“We’ve provided clear, factual information throughout this process and engaged in good faith,” wrote Wozny in a statement.
“It’s disappointing that, despite this, CBC appears unwilling to reflect on its own ethical responsibilities while continuing to suggest impropriety on EPS’ part.
“Should you have specific, fact‑based questions that require clarification, we’re prepared to respond. Otherwise, we trust that when you proceed with your story, our position will be represented accurately and in full context.”
When asked, Wozny declined to clarify the statement or address follow-up questions and said the EPS would not provide anything more.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/04/07/Lawyers-Group-Wants-Criminal-Probe-Edmonton-Top-Cop/
https://kopitalk.net/c/canada/p/381567/lawyers-group-wants-a-criminal-probe-of-edmontons-top-cop
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