Abstract
In the years 2020–2021, journalists, lawyers, scholars, and civil society actors noticed an unusual spike in the refusal of francophone African immigrants in Québec, Canada. While Immigration, refugee and citizenship Canada’s systemic racism problem were already documented, the novelty appeared to be how standardized and sometimes, “nonsensical” the reasons given to many of the applicants were. This eventually prompted a lawsuit against IRCC in which it was revealed that a new piece of software called “Chinook” had been deployed since 2018, approximately at the same time application refusal started spiking. Online and media-fueled speculations culminated in a broad debate about whether Chinook was an artificial intelligence-based technology. Such controversy, for instance, unfolded during parliamentary consultations in which it was finally disclosed that Chinook was not AI per se., but more of a half-baked automated interface. The present article aims to understand how the performative ambiguity of Chinook informs on the progressive becoming of the Canadian Federal state and its immigration control practices in the current Machine Learning hype. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how the interlacing of public–private partnership, in which the private sector is mobilized to produce AI-driven technology, recursively transforms the exercise of governance and governmentality. We argue, through the Chinook controversy and its unfolding, that there is a shift occurring where AI becomes ever more central in statecraft “anarchitecture” and cybernetic adaptability.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
To produce the description of Chinook, we used a snowball method to acquire pertinent public documents in the Federal State’s website search engine. We also used this method to collect a multitude of journal and blog article, spanning well-established Canadian media such as CBC Radio-Canada, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and Le Devoir, to law firms of individual lawyer blogs. These documents were then condensed in an unpublished report written by Nicolas Chartier-Edwards during the spring-early summer of 2022 for the Project ShapingAI. The description of Chinook found in this present article is thus mostly a condensed version of this unpublished report, actualised with the latest publications on the matter.
Our sampling was indexed to a Zotero library. It is constituted of 10 official government publication on AI, Advanced analytics, softwares and engagements toward the use of these systems; 13 blog publications from different canadian law frims; 22 articles on Chinook and the immgiration refusal spike controversy from different media, including CBC news, Le Devoir, Radio-Canada, Canadian Immigrant, TVA, The Logic, The Toronto Star, The Tyee and Quartier Libre; 3 public consultations held by the House of Commons. An exhaustive and comprehensive reading of these different source material was then summerized in an internal report for the ShapingAI Canada team.
Access to information and privacy online request.
The Pollara report was produced and published by the firm Pollara Strategic Insight in 2019. The report revealed that racist behaviors, ranging from microaggressions to promotion denial, plagued IRCC’s workplace. Of interest to us is the fact that employees warned that such work climate could have an impact on case processing.
Our translation.
The Chinook tool is being re-platformed from Microsoft Excel to the Cloud and is currently under early development internally within IRCC. The current iterations of the Chinook tool allow some spreadsheet headings to be shifted between English and French per user language preference. Re-platforming efforts will see a fully bilingual tool. The re-platforming is expected to be completed by the end of the 2022–2023 fiscal year. (Government of Canada 2022b, paragr.7).
References
Amoore L (2022a) Machine learning political orders. Rev Int Stud. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210522000031
Amoore L (2022b) The deep border. Polit Geogr. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102547
Aradau C, Blanke T (2015) The (big) data-security assemblage: knowledge and critique. Big Data Soc 2(2):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951715609066
Arendt H (1972a) La condition de l’homme moderne. Calman-Lévy, Paris
Arendt H (1972b) La crise de la culture. Éditions Gallimard, Trebaseleghe
Balakrishnan A (2021) Internal IRCC tool to speed processing of immigration applications raises concerns among lawyers. The Logic. https://thelogic.co/news/exclusive/internal-ircc-tool-to-speed-processing-ofimmigration-applications-raises-concerns-among-lawyers/
Beer D (2022) The problem of researching a recursive society: algorithms, data coils and the looping of the social. Big Data Soc. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221104997
Boissonneault A (2022) Rejet des étudiants francophones: le ministre du Travail du Québec interpellé. Radio-Canada. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1872908/pq-lettre-etudiants-francophonesimmigration-pouvoirs-quebec-canada
Boudjikanian R (2021) Federal immigration department employees reporting racist workplace behaviour, says survey. CBC News. October 20. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-refugees-citizenship-racism-1.6217886
Bratton BH (2015) The Stack: on software and sovereignty. MIT Press, London
Canadian Federal Court. (2021). Affidavit of Andie Daponte
CBC Radio (2018) How artificial intelligence could change Canada's immigration and refugee system. CBC Radio. November 18 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/november-18-2018-the-sunday-edition-1.4907270/how-artificial-intelligence-could-change-canada-s-immigration-and-refugee-system-1.4908587
Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l'immigration. (2022). Traitement différentiel dans le recrutement et les taux d'acceptation des étudiants étrangers au Québec et dans le reste du Canada. https://www.noscommunes.ca/DocumentViewer/fr/44-1/CIMM/rapport-8
Crawford K (2021) Atlas of AI : power, politics and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press, New Haven
Champagne SR (2021) Un outil informatique mis en cause dans la hausse des refus de permis d’études. Le Devoir, November 26. https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/650031/immigration-un-outil-informatique-mis-en-cause-dans-la-hausse-des-refus-de-permis-d-etudes
Chevance S (2022) Ottawa recrute plus d’employés pour tenter de venir à bout des longs délais d’immigration. Radio-Canada, August, 24. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1907692/immigration-canada-demandes-delais-ircc-residence-permanente-pandemie
Chouliaraki L, Georgiou M (2022) The digital border: migration, technology, power. NYU Press, New York
Farrell H, Fourcade M (2023) The moral economy of high-tech modernism. Daedalus 15(1):225–235. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01982
Fontaine P (2021) Hausse des refus de permis d’études pour les étudiantes et étudiants étrangers francophones. Quartier libre. https://quartierlibre.ca/hausse-des-refus-de-permis-detudes-pour-les-etudiantes-etetudiants-etrangers-francophones/
Foucault M (1997) «Il faut défendre la société». Cours au Collège de France. 1976. Seuil/Gallimard, Paris
Foucault M (2001) Dits et écrits II. Gallimard, Paris
Fourcade M (2021) Ordinal citizenship. Br J Sociol 72(2):154–173. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12839
Fourcade M, Gordon J (2020) Learning like a state: statecraft in the digital age. J Law Polit Econ 4(1):78–108. https://doi.org/10.5070/LP61150258
Fourcade M, Healy K (2017) Seeing like a market. Socio-Economic Review, 15(1). 9-29. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mww033
Gerami Law (2022) The use of AI within the IRCC. Gerami Law PC. https://geramilaw.com/blog/theuse-of-ai-within-the-ircc.html
Greenwald G, MacAskill E, Poitras L (2013) Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations. The Guardian, June 11. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
Government of Canada (2005) Privacy impact assessment summary—global case management system. Privacy Impact Assessment Summary—Global Case Management System—Canada.ca
Government of Canada (2021a) COW—third-party vendors. COW— Third-Party Vendors—June 10, 2021—Canada.ca
Government of Canada (2021b) Responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/digital-government-innovations/responsible-use-ai.html
Government of Canada (2022a) Advanced data analytics to help IRCC officers sort and process temporary resident visa applications. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/analytics-help-process-trv-applications.html
Government of Canada (2022b) LANG—Chinook development and implementation in decision-making—March 28, 2022. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/transparency/committees/lang-mar-28-2022/chinook-development-implementation-decision-making.html
Halpern O (2022) The future will not be calculated: neural nets, neoliberalism, and reactionary politics. Crit Inq 48(2):334–359. https://doi.org/10.1086/717313
Han B-C (2016) Psychopolitique: le néolibéralisme et les nouvelles techniques de pouvoir. Circé, Strasbourg
Han B-C (2022) La fin des choses: bouleversements du monde de la vie. Actes sud, Lonrai
Heidegger M (1958) Essais et conférences. Gallimard, Domont
House of Commons of Canada (2022) Evidence—CIMM (44-1)—No. 3. Evidence—CIMM (44-1) —No. 3—House of Commons of Canada (ourcommons.ca)
Hui Y (2016) On the existence of digital objects. University of Minnesota Press, Bolton
Land N (2018) Fanged noumena: collected writings 1987–2007. Urbanomic, Padstow
McKelvey F, Neves J (2021) Introduction: optimization and its discontents. Rev Commun 21(2):95–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2021.1936143
Morozov E (2015) Le mirage numérique: pour une politique du Big Data. Les prairies ordinaires, Paris
O’Kane J (2022) Sideways: the city google couldn’t buy. Random House Canada, New York
O’Neil C (2017) Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Crown
Plant S (1996) No plans. In: Pearce M, Spiller N (eds) Architects in cyberspace. Academy Press, London, pp 36–37
Rappin B (2018) Algorithme, management, crise : le tryptique cybernétique du gouvernement de l’exception permanente. Quaderni 96:103–114. https://doi.org/10.4000/quaderni.1182
Roberge J, Morin K, Senneville M (2019) Deep learning’s governmentality: the other black box. In: Sudmann A (ed) The democratization of artificial intelligence, vol 1, p 123–142. transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839447192-008
Roberge J, Dandurand G, Morin K, Senneville M (2022) Les narvals et les licornes se cachent-ils pour mourir ? De la cybernétique, de la gouvernance et d’Element AI. Réseaux 232–233(2–3):169–196. https://doi.org/10.3917/res.232.0169
Schué R (2022) Pourquoi des délais aussi longs dans les dossiers d’immigration au Québec? Radio-Canada, April 29. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1879543/immigration-canada-quebec-delais-residence-permanente
Star SL (1999) The Ethnography of Infrastructure. Am Behav Sci 43(3):377–391
Tao WW (2022) Chinook is AI—IRCC’s own policy playbook tells us why. Vancouver Immigration Blog, February 9. Chinook is AI—IRCC's Own Policy Playbook Tells Us Why—Welcome to Vancouver's Immigration Blog (vancouverimmigrationblog.com)
Thompson E (2021) U.S. technology company Clearview AI violated Canadian privacy law: report. CBC News, February 3. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/technology-clearview-facial-recognition-1.5899008
Van Dijck J (2014) Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: big data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveill Soc 12(2):197–208. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776
Wiener N (2013) Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Martino Publishing, Mansfield
Willis A (2021) Big Data company Palantir looks at expansion into Canada’s health care sector. The globe and mail, May 25. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-big-data-company-palantir-looks-at-expansion-into-canadas-health-care/
Zuboff S (2020) The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Public Affairs, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Chartier-Edwards, N., Blottiere, M. & Roberge, J. AI statecraft heating-up: the automation of governance through Canada’s Chinook case study. AI & Soc (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-01903-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-01903-5