Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence
Université de Montréal (with Fonds de recherche du Québec) · 4 December 2018
A Quebec-led set of ten principles asking AI developers to respect well-being, autonomy, privacy, and the environment. Widely cited, but it binds no one and Canada's attempt at an AI law lapsed in 2025.
What it calls for
- Fairness non discrimination
- Privacy
- Human oversight
- Environmental accountability
- Transparency
- Benefit sharing
Scope
10 principles; open to individuals and organisations (thousands of individual signatories; dozens of Quebec/Canadian organisations)
What actually happened
The declaration influenced Canadian discourse (Montreal's Algora Lab and Mila cite it) but Canada's proposed AI and Data Act (Bill C-27) died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025, so no Canadian statutory framework implementing its principles exists (https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-27). Looked for: a follow-up implementation report from the declaration's secretariat; the site remains a static signatory page.