Electronic Surveillance: Section 8 and the Evisceration of Part VI

• Author: Susan Chapman & Bianca Bell
• Pages: 218-239



ElectronicSurveillance

SE CT ION AND

TH E EV I SCE RATI ON O FPA RT V I

Susan Chapman* & Bianca Bell**

Grounded in man’s physical and moral autonomy, privacy is essential for

the well-being of the individual. For this reason alone, it is worthy of

constitutionalprotectionbutitalsohasprofoundsignicancefor

the public order. The restraints imposed on government to pry into the

lives of the citizen go to the essence of a democratic state.

JusticeLaForestinR v Dyment, SCR

A. INTRODUCTION

marksthetenyearanniversaryofthereleaseoftherstgeneration

AppleiPhone While mobile phones and ot hersm artphones certain ly

existedbefore therelease ofthe iPhoneAppleundoubtedly beganthe

fundamentalshiftint hewaythemodernworldwouldinteractTherise

ofthemobilephoneand morespecicallythe smartphonehasforever

changed the nature of commu nications With more Canadian house

holdssubscribing exclusivelyto mobilewireless services percent

than toexclusivelywirel ineielandline telephoneservices per

centthere arenow billionsof textmessages sentper day Canadians

 SusanChapmani saPartneratUrselPhill ipsFellowsHopkinsonLLP

 BiancaBellisanA ssociateatUrselPhill ipsFellowsHopkinsonLLP

 CanadianRadio televisionandTelecommunicat ionsCommissionCommun ica

tionsMonitoringRe portExecutiveSummaryFebruaryonline

wwwcrtcgccaeng publicationsre portspolicy monitoringcmrsht mexi

Electronic Surveillance

areusing theirmobilephonesto sendtextmessagesiMessagesSnap

chatsBlackBerrymessagesFacebo okmessagesKikmess agespictures

and more There is also no question that the elect ronically messaged

conversationis quicklyovertak ingthe oncecommon telephonecal las

thepreferredmethodofcommunicationforanewgeneration

Unsurprisinglymobile phones are now havens for valuable data

includingnotonlythe contentofcommunicationsbutalsothe location

andusagedataassociatedwitht hedeviceDigitaldatai screatedoften

unknowingly andwithouttheu nderstandingthatit mayremainin re

coverableformdespiteaemptstodestroyitFurth erdepen dingo nthe

congurationsand activeconnections ofagivendevice therecouldbe

dataaccessibletothedevicefromot herpeopleothernetworksoreven

othercountriesAllof thi sin form ation isbe comi ngin crea sing lyinv alu

ablein crimina linvestigations andwhile technology has advancedat

anunprecedented pacethelaw concerninghow technologyis usedin

realityandhowthedataitproducesshouldbeprotectedhasmostcer

tainlynot

Common privacy concerns with respect to mobile phones are

whether telecommunications companies wil l store sent and received

messagesif so whethert hosestorage sitescould ever behacked and

thecommunicationsleakedandmoreconcerningwhetherthestorage

sitescouldeverbe accessedbythe policeandused againstsomeonei n

criminal pro ceedings On some electronic platforms the host ass ures

usersthat theirmessagesw illdisappeara ftertwentyfourhours other

companiessuggestthatmessagess entthroughtheirplatforma renever

savedonanyserverandthereforeuntouchablebythepoliceSometele

communications companies on the other ha ndsuggest t hatt hey do

notkeeprecordsoftextmessagesoncethetransmissionprocesshasoc

curredT helandscapeof electroniccommun icationisvaried complex

andstillrapidlyevolvingleavingboththecourtsandtheCriminal Code

scramblingtocatchup

Thi schapte rwhichw illult imately concludet hatthe lawsfailu reto

keeppace withcha ngingtech nologiesisleadi ngtot heevisceration of

the Criminal Co desInvasionofPrivacyprotectionswill rstprovidean

 SusanMagotiauxOutofSyncS ectionandTechnologicalAdvance mentinSu

premeCourtJurispr udenceSupreme Court Law ReviewdMagotiaux

 Ibid.

 Ibid.

 Criminal CodeRSCcCCode