Based on today’s experience I have even less confidence that my MP can be relied upon to respond to constituency matters. I get it, constituency office staffers take care of most of those matters. But if my MP’s approach is to confuse/gaslight an earnest comment from a lowly voter, I feel 0 trust.

For anyone wondering, CBSA is overseen by the Department of Public Safety. Zero mention of this department during the conversation, but lots of emphasis that just because a concern has to do with AI does not mean Evan Solomon cares (“I have nothing to do with it.”)

Anyone with Internet access to see Canadian websites can go onto ourcommons.ca to find out when the House will next be sitting and what topics will be tentatively covered on the agenda. I checked when I got home. The House has been adjourned since June 20. Its next sitting: Sept 15. Today is Sept 6.

I clarified that I meant to ask when the House was resuming its sitting. That’s when he said, “Now, they’re in session now.” I felt pretty stupid when he said this because I didn’t think I’d miss something so obvious.

Then he repeated that I should pay attention when the bill is discussed in the House. Since I couldn’t recall when the House resumes its session, I asked him “when will that be?” He sounded incredulous as he replied, “When? I couldn’t tell you the exact time when a bill will be discussed.”

He went on to emphasize that Bill C2 has nothing to do with him, that it’s sponsored by another department (Justice). I was even more confused because I didn’t think CBSA was under the Department of Justice.

I asked him what the government’s view was. That’s when he cited Bill C2, said “it’s currently being discussed” and that I should follow it. (At this point I was quite confused because I didn’t think an agency’s choice to use AI was being discussed as part of this bill about the Canada-US border?)

The Minister of AI and Digital Innovation seemed not to understand my comments, then started a word salad: “usual process”, CBSA agents will “still be doing what they always do”, “no biometrics” unlike in Europe and other countries, “enhancements”, “databases”…

I cited the Sep 3 CBC article on CBSA integrating AI into their screening of people entering Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... and expressed my concern that not enough information has been shared with the public about how AI is planned to be used, or what the results of testing suggest

On a separate note, it was my first time actually encountering the MP of my riding (never once met Bill Morneau or Marci Ien when they represented the riding) so I said hello and asked about a topic that I assumed would be near top of mind for a Minister of AI and Digital Innovation.

I was actually ready to vote Liberal at the next federal election (anything to stop Poilievre from becoming PM) because @mark-carney.bsky.social seemed ok, but no way can I bring myself to support a local candidate whose moral integrity has been so openly questioned.

Interested in seeing what grant funding your state has received through IMLS to get an idea of what you could miss out on? You can see state allotment data, five year plans, and five year evaluations here. www.imls.gov/find-funding...

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), widely used in health sciences for subject cataloguing and article indexing, are also inaccessible. Suddenly I’m wondering if I need a teaching back-up should the official MARC site ever go down. Redirect students to the French translation on marc21.ca?

Oh dear, feel better soon!