(LifeSiteNews) – Air Canada announced Wednesday that it will become the first airline in the country to offer a controversial facial recognition technology that has been blasted by some Conservative MPs as an attempt to monitor a person’s every movement, as a form of digital identification for its customers.
Air Canada said its new “digital identification” program will make it the “first airline in Canada with approval to offer customers the safety and convenience of a new option using facial recognition technology to confirm identification,” according to a press release.
The airline, which is Canada’s largest and receives funding from the federal government, says its pilot project is underway for its customers departing from “Vancouver International Airport (YVR) when boarding select flights to Winnipeg.
The pilot project is also open to customers entering the “Air Canada Café at Toronto Pearson International Airport.”
The Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been open to the idea of travelers using a type of biometric digital ID to prove their identity.
Last year, LifeSiteNews reported that the Trudeau government was working with top airlines and hoping to mandate all travelers use a form of “digital identity documents” complete with facial recognition biometric data for pre-boarding flights.
Canada has already been using facial recognition technology in its airports since at least 2016.
It was shown that in 2021 the Trudeau Liberals secretly scanned millions of travelers’ faces without their consent at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2016.
As for Air Canada, it says it plans to expand its new digital ID pilot project to more Canadian airports and its Maple Leaf lounges.
Craig Landry, executive vice president and chief operations officer for Air Canada, said that the airline is “very excited to now take a leadership position in Canada and test digital identification using facial recognition technology to validate customer identification quickly.”
The airline says that participation in the program is “voluntary.” However, according to Landry, “Our government and Canadian airlines and airports are eager to move forward with innovative solutions and technologies to modernize the traveler journey in airports across the country.”
Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra said that the pilot project has “great potential in making gate boarding easier and faster for Canadian passengers while maintaining strong safety measures.”
The airline says “biometric data is encrypted and stored only on the customer’s mobile phone.”
Conservative MP has been warning for over a year about Canada’s involvement in digital ID travel programs
Air Canada has been part of a world traveler digital ID pilot project for some time.
Last year, through an Inquiry of Ministry, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Leslyn Lewis demanded information from the Trudeau government and Alghabra over its participation in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “Known Traveler Digital Identity (KTDI)” pilot program.
Lewis has been sounding the alarm over the Canadian government’s involvement with the WEF’s KTDI program. She has also blasted Trudeau’s connections to the WEF.
Air Canada, Royal Dutch Airlines, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and the Netherlands Schiphol airport are “pilot partners” of the program.
According to the Inquiry of Ministry, which was signed by Alghabra and dated June 14, 2022, the program started in 2018.
Alghabra indicated the program is a “pilot” that has not yet been implemented but would be “voluntary.”
The document shows that Transport Canada has spent “$428,671 on salaries and $220,830 on non-salaries.”
“Budget 2021 proposed $105.3 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, with $28.7 million in remaining amortization and $10.2 million per year ongoing to Transport Canada to collaborate with international partners to further advance the KTDI pilot project,” the document reads.
Through this action, it was reported that the Trudeau government has a $105.3 million contract with the WEF to create a digital ID system for travel.