I Know Who Smashed the Mila Institute. And I think you do too. Just before quarter to midnight, Tuesday September 15, the Mila Institute in Montreal is smashed. An office that boasts “Ethical” AI, that tells us its mission is to develop safe artificial intelligence for public interest, to work on health and the environment and climate change, to promote open science and collaboration.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info On the night of Wednesday, August 5, the windows and door of a residence were broken, and a Microsoft office was targeted with Molotov cocktails. This action targeted the official residence of the founder and the headquarters of Munera Intelligence. Munera develops AI-powered drones that will watch over our streets with AI technology following an agreement with the City of Montreal announced in June. The windows and door of Dominic MacDuff-Auger were destroyed. ...
About a month ago, without any announcement, a large camera tower was placed in the middle of Marche Maisonneuve, Hochelaga. The tower was a new tool of AI camera surveillance developed by the local enemy company GardaWorld. These towers of control are being rolled out all over North America by the thousands by the company’s new subsidiary ECAM. Enraged by the continued encroachment of surveillance technology in our lives and emboldened by a winter full of attacks on cameras in the city, we decided to do something about it. ...
In the spirit of all those May Day expropriations that came before, we entered Mamie Clafoutis’ St. Denis location and filled our bags this morning in total rejection of the encroaching gaze of surveillance and and the false gods of capitalism. Partnering with retail tech startup Leav, Mamie Clafoutis boasts that it is “pioneering a new era of automated smart stores.” This is the beginning of the same Amazon Go model that has already infected other cities, praised by media as innovation. Registering with a facial scan on their app can get you the ‘privilege’ of buying bread 24/7 in these automated, cashless bakeries. ...
Over the weekend in Hochelaga, a company van belonging to ARA Robotique was burned. ARA’s drones are equipped with advanced sensors and AI for real-time data analysis. Last year, the Quebec government awarded ARA and Laflamme Aero a subsidy of $8.8 million. These two companies produce drones and remotely controlled helicopters designed to enhance border surveillance. The Quebec subsidy aligns with pending federal legislation aimed at intensifying Canadian border monitoring, as well as calls from the Trump administration for Canada to strengthen its border security. ...
PDF Posters: 1 , 2 JOIN THE CAMOVER OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2025 It feels rare to walk through the streets of the city without staring into the eyes of a camera at every turn; the surveillance state is pounding its fist implementing new AI technologies, such as the SPVM’s new contract adopting BriefCam. New announced features of the BriefCam Nexus system include: -Multi-Camera Search -Video Synopsis of a person’s comings and goings over a period of time -Facial Recognition -License Plate Recognition -Search by trait (physical or vehicle description) -Generate alerts on individuals and geographical alerts. ...
As crises multiply, technology companies continue to take advantage of them to reap record profits — not only contribute to the proliferation of crises, but also to profit from them. Last night, an autonomous group sabotaged Microsoft’s Montreal facilities located in the artificial intelligence cluster in the Marconi-Alexandra sector. Let’s not kid ourselves. Microsoft is complicit in numerous crimes against humanity. From its collaboration with the Israeli government in the genocide of the Palestinian people to its impact on gentrification and the displacement of tenants in the Parc-Extension neighborhood, to its significant contribution to climate change in the frantic race for artificial intelligence, its active participation in the technological arms race of surveillance, and its numerous partnerships with police services, the American multinational represents the new enemy to be defeated. ...
[PRINT] Note from the No Trace Project: This text is a case study of video surveillance in France, and most of its content is based on the French context. However, we believe it can be useful to an international audience because understanding how video surveillance works in France can help to understand how it works in other places, and because a lot of technical, general information is scattered throughout the text. ...
Most expect to be captured on video when walking through downtown streets, which are often littered with traditional types of security cameras, such as the dome cameras, bullet cameras, or the newer remote controlled PTZ (Point, Tilt, Zoom) cameras. Previously, this was less expected in residential neighborhoods, which now have an increasing amount of home surveillance systems like Amazon’s Ring or Google Nest cameras. Police departments have seized on the increasing popularity of these devices and struck deals with their parent companies to directly incorporate them into existing surveillance networks and access data without the knowledge or permission of the camera owner. Some doorbell style cameras offer forms of audio surveillance as well: Amazon’s Ring cameras, easily spotted by their ominous glowing circle, can reportedly capture conversation-level audio from up to 25 feet away. Ring has partnered with more than a thousand police departments across the United States . Some police departments even ran pilot programs that enabled them to constantly live-stream from residents’ doorbell cameras. ...
This May Day, Montreal’s annual anti-capitalist demonstration organized by the CLAC gathered in Jarry Park under the theme “No old normal, no new normal”. It was a sunny late afternoon, and the energy was high amid the banners and black flags as the demo began to snake through the residential streets of Villeray. Heading west on De Castelnau, fireworks were set off, and construction cones were used to block the road behind us. The cops seemed confused about the route we were taking, which meant that there were less of them in our near vicinity. Dropping south onto Jean-Talon, the demo continued west through the viaduct beneath the St-Jérôme commuter rail line. ...
The Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC) denounces the violent repression of its demonstration again this year. Indeed, the SPVM proceeded, as usual, to unjustified and brutal arrests. The police used truncheons and tear gas to silence the people who are tired of being exploited every day to enrich the nauseating bourgeoisie and their companies that profit from COVID-19. Several people were injured and the police even destroyed the cell phone of one participant. ...
PDF – Print (11 x 17) Poster text: Fire to the Cybernetic Prison It’s never too late to resist Artificial Intelligence AI labs, recipients of several $100M in government funding, are working to put “machine learning” algorithms in the service of a long list of industries. Under an “ethical” facade, some applications will simply allow well-placed capitalists to further enrich themselves. Others aim to reinforce repression, whether detecting shoplifters at the supermarket with automated video surveillance, developing facial recognition tools that work even on partly covered faces, or “predicting” crime or the probability of a prisoner re-offending. ...