Privacy

The appellant, a coalition of landlords, appealed the dismissal of its application to quash a municipal residential rental licensing by-law enacted as a pilot project.

The appellant argued the by-law was arbitrary, enacted in bad faith, and ultra vires due to alleged violations of the Charter, the Residential Tenancies Act, and privacy legislation.

The Court of Appeal applied a deferential standard of review to municipal decisions and found the by-law was passed in good faith for valid health and safety purposes.

The court dismissed all constitutional and statutory challenges, concluding the by-law did not restrict marketing, permit unlawful entry, interfere with subletting, encroach on criminal law powers, or require disclosure of protected personal information.

The applicant, the mother of a deceased young person, applied for access to police records relating to her son under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

The records were sought for use in a civil lawsuit against the police regarding the circumstances of the young person's death following a police pursuit.

The court found that the materials constituted records under the YCJA, waived the notice requirement because the young person was deceased, and granted access, finding the applicant had a valid and substantial interest and access was necessary for the proper administration of justice.

Strict conditions were imposed on the use and disclosure of the records.

The accused, charged with historical sexual offences against his second cousin, brought an application under section 278.7 of the Criminal Code for the production of the complainant's third-party clinical and counselling records.

The complainant conceded the first stage of the test, allowing the judge to review the records.

After reviewing the records and balancing the accused's right to make full answer and defence against the complainant's privacy interests, the court ordered limited production of portions of the records that substantively referenced the alleged incidents.

A lawyer representing a mother in an unrelated child protection trial brought a motion seeking the release of a transcript of an assessor's evidence from a prior trial in this proceeding.

The lawyer alleged the assessor misrepresented her qualifications and sought to use the transcript to challenge the assessor's credibility in the unrelated trial.

The court reconsidered its initial dismissal of the motion, finding that under s. 87(10) of the CYFSA, a court order is required to release a transcript to non-parties, including a judge in another proceeding.

The court granted the release of the redacted transcript and the assessor's CV to the judge, parties, and counsel in the unrelated trial, finding a legitimate need and probative value that outweighed any potential harm, given the privacy safeguards in place.

The Chief of Police appealed a youth court judge's decision denying the disclosure of a young person's youth records.

The records were sought by both the prosecuting police service and the subject officer for use in a police disciplinary proceeding, where the young person was a key witness.

The appeal court found that the principle of diminished moral culpability under the Youth Criminal Justice Act does not shield a young person's records from disclosure when they are a witness and their credibility is at issue.

The court set aside the youth court judge's decision and ordered the records produced, subject to publication bans and redactions to protect the young person's identity.

The applicant father brought a motion for temporary primary residence of the parties' eight-year-old son and expanded access to their 16-month-old daughter.

In his affidavit, the father attached nude photographs and graphic text messages of the respondent mother, obtained without authorization from her discarded cell phone.

The court struck the offensive materials from the record, finding them completely irrelevant to the parenting issues and a malicious attempt to humiliate the mother.

The court declined to make major changes to the timesharing arrangement pending an Office of the Children's Lawyer investigation, maintaining the children's primary residence with the mother while slightly expanding the father's access.

On a discovery motion in a personal injury action arising from a trip and fall, the defendant sought extensive electronic, social media, gambling, border, banking, and financing records to test the plaintiff's alleged disability and credibility.

The court held that private Facebook content, device hard drives, electronic documents, internet history, and metadata were not producible on the record because the requests were speculative, insufficiently probative, and engaged substantial privacy interests.

The court nevertheless ordered production of casino card records, United States border entry records, and the plaintiff's portion of a vehicle loan application and purchase agreement, finding those records relevant in the discovery context and proportionate.

Joint bank records and the spouse's border records were refused, and the plaintiff was ordered to re-attend discovery on the produced documentation.

The defendants in a personal injury action brought a motion under Rule 30.06 to compel the plaintiff to produce all post-accident vacation photographs and all content on the private portion of her Facebook account.

The plaintiff claimed loss of enjoyment of life.

The court reviewed the photographs and found they only showed the plaintiff sightseeing, which she admitted she could do, and thus were not relevant to her physical limitations.

The court also held that the request for the entire private Facebook account was a fishing expedition and shockingly intrusive, akin to asking for all personal letters.

The motion was dismissed.