{"id":12008,"date":"2026-03-20T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccla.org\/?p=12008"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:07:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:07:50","slug":"ccla-intervenes-in-kawall-on-police-use-of-intrusive-facial-recognition-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccla.org\/fr\/intimite\/ccla-intervenes-in-kawall-on-police-use-of-intrusive-facial-recognition-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"CCLA Intervenes in Kawall appeal on police use of intrusive facial recognition technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The CCLA appeared at the Ontario Court of Appeal in support of its intervention in R v Kawall<\/em>, COA-23-CR-0779, an appeal that poses key questions regarding whether the constitutional and regulatory framework for protection of anonymity will be able to keep pace in the face of emerging surveillance technologies.<\/p>\n

Particularly at issue is the complex interaction between Ontario\u2019s regulatory framework for carding\u2014adopted to address arbitrary and often discriminatory<\/a> police records compiled on individuals in a community who are not suspected of any crime\u2014and facial recognition technologies.<\/p>\n

In general, facial recognition technologies have far-reaching implications for policing. Their unchecked adoption would mean an end to anonymity in public places, while their persistent tendency towards bias (and often discriminatory bias) threatens to have wide-ranging societal costs.<\/p>\n

La Kawall<\/em> appeal will not address all challenges posed by this technology, it will provide some important guidance regarding the role (and limitations) that the chartes<\/em> and regulatory instruments can play in providing the important checks and balances that emerging technologies require.<\/p>\n

Dans Kawall<\/em>, police took a photograph of an individual in a parking lot without any basis, for the sole purpose of compiling identifying information on the person.<\/p>\n

About three weeks later, an offence was captured on a low-quality video<\/a> with two suspects, one of which was unidentified as Mr. Siddiqui. Police eventually associated the initial photograph with the unidentified suspect on the basis<\/a> that the suspect had \u201cthe same height and same hair\u201d and was seen interacting with Mr. Siddiqui<\/a>. Police then used facial recognition technology to put a name to the photo, and Mr. Kawall became the second suspect.<\/p>\n

This scenario raises a number of key questions.<\/p>\n

The Court will need to decide whether a specific regulation brough in to reduce racial profiling prohibits police from photographing people in the way Mr. Kawall was photographed.<\/p>\n

In the wake of public concern over the insidious and disproportionate impact that the practice of cardage<\/a> has on Indigenous, Black and other racialized people, Ontario adopted a regulation<\/a> prohibiting police from collecting identifying information from people in the absence of verifiable grounds to suspect they are engaged in criminal activity (the Carding Regulation<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Does photographing someone in a face-to-face encounter mean that the person is providing information for the purpose of identifying the individual, as prohibited by the Carding Regulation? In its intervention, CCLA argued that it should, particularly in light of police access to facial recognition technologies.<\/p>\n

It has been conseill\u00e9<\/a> that Carding Regulation should be amended to exclude \u201cgeneral video surveillance or the incidental photographing or recording of an individual\u201d from its general restrictions on asking people for identifying information.<\/p>\n

But in this instance, the photograph was far from incidental or of a general nature. Police photographed Mr. Kawall in the context of a direct \u201cface to face\u201d interaction with the explicit intention<\/a> of compiling a dossier on him without any reasonable basis to suspect Mr. Kawall was involved in an offence. Police did so knowing that they now have the ability to put a name to the photo at any time in the future using their facial recognition capabilities. People being photographed in the street are also increasingly aware that police have facial recognition technology at their disposal.<\/p>\n

In CCLA\u2019s view, this clearly amounts to technological carding. Police did not ask Mr. Kawall for his name or ID because they didn\u2019t have to\u2014a photo is enough in the age of facial recognition technologies. And the impact on Mr. Kawall is just as insidious as if police demanded his name rather than snapping a photograph of him, raising all the concerns and societal costs that the Ontario regulation sought to address.<\/p>\n

More generally, the Kawall<\/em> appeal is focused on the taking of a photograph of a person in public, against the backdrop<\/a> of Ontario police\u2019s current facial recognition capabilities.<\/p>\n

Use of facial recognition technology by police in general raises significant questions<\/a> regarding people\u2019s ability to move in public anonymously, a right that we have historically taken for granted. Police forces in Ontario are already using this highly intrusive technology\u2014albeit in a more limited manner<\/a>\u00a0that does not currently allow for identification of tout<\/em> person in Canada.<\/p>\n

In CCLA\u2019s view, police’s facial recognition capabilities cannot be ignored when assessing the scope of constitutional privacy protection that people can expect in public spaces.<\/p>\n

With that consideration in mind, the Kawall<\/em> appeal offers the court an opportunity to recognize the threat posed by this facial recognition and take steps to ensure our constitutional protections keep pace with technological developments in surveillance.<\/p>\n

CCLA is extremely grateful to Travis Walker, Imran Ahmad and Humna Shaikh of Norton Rose Fullbrith for their excellent pro bono <\/em>repr\u00e9sentation dans cette affaire.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t

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\u00c0 propos de l\u2019association canadienne sur les libert\u00e9s civiles<\/h3>\n
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L\u2019ACLC est un organisme ind\u00e9pendant \u00e0 but non lucratif qui compte des sympathisant.e.s dans tout le pays. Fond\u00e9 en 1964, c\u2019est un organisme qui \u0153uvre \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9chelle du Canada \u00e0 la protection des droits et des libert\u00e9s civiles de toute sa population.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pour les m\u00e9dias<\/h3>\n
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Pour d'autres commentaires, veuillez nous contacter \u00e0\u00a0media@ccla.org<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pour les mises \u00e0 jour en direct<\/h3>\n
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Veuillez continuer \u00e0 vous r\u00e9f\u00e9rer \u00e0\u00a0cette page<\/a>\u00a0et \u00e0 nos plateformes de m\u00e9dias sociaux. On est dessus\u00a0Instagram<\/u><\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/u><\/a>, Twitter<\/u><\/a> et Ciel bleu<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CCLA appeared at the Ontario Court of Appeal in support of its intervention in R v Kawall, COA-23-CR-0779, an appeal that poses key questions regarding whether the constitutional and...","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,11,88],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-face-surveillance","8":"category-privacy","9":"category-surveillance-technology"},"yoast_head":"\nCCLA Intervenes in Kawall appeal on police use of intrusive facial recognition technologies - 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