Professor Céline Castets-Renard was recently awarded a Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for a project entitled “Profilage racial et impact des technologies utilisées par la police à Montréal – Saint Michel” [“Racial profiling and the impact of technologies used by the police in Montreal – Saint Michel”]. The project unites Professor Castets-Renard’s University Research Chair on Accountable AI in a Global Context with the Clinique Juridique de Saint-Michel to examine the risks of bias and racial and gender discrimination generated by artificial intelligence technologies.
Specifically, the partnership aims to combat systemic racism and racial profiling in the use of technology by police forces. Team members will document how police in Montreal, specifically in the neighbourhood of Saint Michel, deploy technologies to support them in their work. The team will aim to discover how these technologies function, and what data is used to inform them. The project will then undertake to train the members of the Clinic, especially those specializing in racial profiling, on the risks of bias inherent in these technologies. In bringing transparency to these practices, the project will aid the Clinic in its mission to improve access to justice in Saint Michel, while also informing public policy and the general public about the ever-increasing need for accountable AI technologies.
Joining Professor Castets-Renard as a co-applicant on the grant is Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, Adjunct Professor at the Civil Law Section, and Director of the Inclusive Technology Lab at uOttawa.
The Clinique Juridique de Saint-Michel has just launched a video that explains the new partnership. The video can be viewed on Facebook.
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants provide short-term support for partnered research activities that respond to the immediate needs of organizations in non-academic sectors, facilitating the exchange of unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities.
Congratulations to Professor Castets-Renard and her team on establishing this important partnership.