Provincial Private Investigators and Security Guards Acts
| Author | Norman J. Groot |
| Pages | 15-97 |
CHAPTER
2
SECURITY GUARDS ACTS
Legislation pertaining
to
private investigators
falls
under provincial jurisdiction.
In
Alberta,
Manitoba,
Newfoundland,
New
Brunswick,
Ontario,
Prince Edward
Island,
Saskatchewan,
and the
Yukon,
the
legislation
is
known
as the
Private Investigators
and
Security Guards
Act.
In
Nova Scotia
it is
entitled
An Act to
Provide
for
Private Investigators
and
Private Guards.
Quebec's legislation
is
entitled
An Act
Respecting Detective
or
Security
Agencies,
and
British Columbia's
is
entitled
the
Private Investigators
and
Security Agencies
Act.1
For the
sake
of
simplicity, this book will
refer
to
each province's
or
territory's legislation
as the
"Act"
or the
"PISGA"
for
short. Where
the
Yukon Territory
is
included,
it
will
be
refer-
enced
as a
province. Finally, where
the
term "registrar"
is
used
in the
commentary,
it
shall
include
reference
to the
respective provincial registrar, administrator, inspector,
or
com-
missioner.2
The
Northwest Territories does
not
have
any
legislation pertaining
to
private investiga-
tors.
An Act
entitled
the
Locksmiths, Security Guards
and
Other Security Occupations
Act,3
which
was to
apply
to
private investigators among others,
was
enacted
by the
territorial leg-
islature
but it was
never brought into
force.
It was
later revoked
by the
Reform Measures
Act.4
1
R.S.A. 1980,
c.
P-16;
R.S.B.C. 1996,
c.
374; R.S.M. 1987,
c.
P132;
R.S.N.
1990,
c.
P-24;
R.S.N.B.
1973,
c.
P-16
consolidated
to 31
March
1997; R.S.N.S.1989,
c.
356; R.S.O. 1990,
c.
P.25; R.S.P.E.I. 1988,
c.
P-20;
R.S.Q.
1977,
c.
A-8;
R.S.S.1997,
c.
P-26.01;
S.Y. 1988,
c. 23 as
amended
by
S.Y. 1998,
c. 22.
2
For a
more in-depth explanation
of the
various titles used,
see
Section
2.4 —
Administrative
Law
Principles.
3
R.S.N.W.T. 1988,
c. 103
(Supp).
4
S.N.W.T.
1998,
c.
21,
s. 18. No
regulations
were ever
prepared
for
this
Act. Reference
>.
15
INVESTIGATORS
AND
PROVINCIAL PRIVATE
16
CANADIAN
LAW AND
PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS
The new
territory
of
Nunavut
does
not
have
any
such
law
either,
as the
legislation
in the
Northwest Territories
was
revoked prior
to the
creation
of the new
territory.5
Because
the
source
of
this
law is
mostly statutory
in
nature, consideration
was
given
to
including
the
legislative extracts
in
this book. However,
due to
space constraints
and in
recognition that legislation
can be
difficult
to
read, overviews
of the
legislation
are
includ-
ed
instead. Footnotes will
inform
the
reader
if
direct reference
is
necessary.
Notwithstanding this omission, although reading legislation
may be
cumbersome
for the
uninitiated,
it is
often
the
preferable approach, especially when
the
legislation
is
complex.
As
there
are
often
multiple interpretations
to the
same provisions,
any
discussion
of
what
the law is
cannot
be
made without direct
reference
to
what
the
statute
says.
This
is
espe-
cially true when comparing similar provisions
of the
various provincial Acts.
It is
therefore
suggested that students
of
this text acquire their
own
copy
of
their respective
Act.6
Another reason
for
reviewing
the
legislation
of
each province
is
because increasingly
in
today's society, investigations cover wider geographical areas. Investigations
that
com-
mence
in one
province
often
continue into other provinces,
or
even
foreign
countries.
As
the
jurisdiction
of the
legislation pertaining
to
private investigators
is
provincial, private
investigators will
find
that, when operating
in a
province
not
their own, they will
be
bound
by
the
laws
of the
province
in
which they
are
operating. Accordingly,
it is
imperative that
a
private investigator become
familiar
with
the
laws
of
that province. Although most
provincial Acts contain similar legislative provisions, there
are
some significant
differences
that this chapter will
try to
impress upon private investigators
to
assist
in
avoiding ex-ter-
ritorial
liability.
One
more reason
to be
familiar
with
the
legislation
of
other provinces
is
because
of the
new
federal
privacy legislation. This legislation, reviewed
in
Chapter
5 of
this book, makes
the
fee-based
transfer
of
private information across provincial boundaries illegal
if the
sub-
ject
of
that information does
not
give express consent.
As
such,
it may
become necessary
for
investigative agencies that acquire private information
on
subject
parties
in one
province which they intend
to
sell
in
another province
to set up an
agency
in the
province
where
the
information
is to be
sold.
The
reason
for
this
is
because current
federal
privacy
legislation does
not
prohibit
the
non-fee-based
transfer
of
information across provincial
boundaries. Therefore,
to
sell
the
impugned information,
a
private investigative company
may
be
required
to
transfer
the
information
at no
expense
from
the
province where
it was
acquired
to an
agency
it
owns
in the
province where that information
is to be
sold.
To
reit-
erate, operating
in
another province will require familiarity with
that
province's
PISGA
legislation.
As
mentioned, investigations today
often
not
only
go
beyond
the
province
in
which they
commence,
but
also lead into
foreign
countries. This book does
not
review
the
laws
of
for-
eign states.
If
information
of
this nature
is
required, advice should
be
sought
from
foreign
authorities
or from
appropriate
foreign
legal counsel.
5 On 1
April 1999, Nunavut assumed
the
laws
of the
Northwest
Territories
as its
own,
and no
legislation
existed
pertaining
to
private investigators. Reference
6
There
is
very
little
case
law
reported
on the
various
provincial
Acts.
One
registrar
reported
a
reason
for
this void
of
case
law is
because
in his five
years
of
conducting
licensing
hearings,
a
written
decision
was
never requested,
and
accordingly
he
never
had a
decision
reviewed.
CHAPTER
2:
Provincial Private Investigators
and
Security
Guards
Acts
17
Although this chapter
is
confined
to
licensed
private investigators, many
of the
com-
ments will relate directly
to
security personnel
as
well.7
Furthermore, notwithstanding that
the
focus
of
this book
is on the
private sector investigation industry,
occasionally
cases
are
discussed wherein security personnel were
the
focus
of the
court's attention.
Finally,
attention
should
be
drawn
to the
distinction
between guidelines,
statutes
and
regulations. Although most
of the
authority
referenced
in
this chapter
is
statute, regulato-
ry,
and
case law, occasionally
a
registrar's
internal
guidelines
are
cited. These guidelines
are not
law,
are
subject
to
frequent
change,
and are
occasionally
not
followed
if the
facts
of
the
specific case merit
an
exception. Accordingly, where
a
registrar's
administrative
guidelines
are
cited, contact should
be
made with
the
respective provincial registrar
to
determine
if
they apply
to the
individual
case.8
2.1
PERSONS
AND
ACTIVITIES
SUBJECT
TO THE ACT
This section will discuss
what
activities
are
included
and not
included
in the
definition
of a
private investigator;
why
it is
important
to
know what activities
are
included
in the
definition
of a
private
investigator;
which types
of
occupational groups
are
exempt
from
requiring
a
private investigator's
licence;
and
which types
of
occupations
are in
conflict
of
interest with that
of
holding
a
private
investigator's licence.
2.1.1
DEFINITION
OF A
PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR
The
term "private investigator"
has
been
defined
in a
number
of
different
ways
in the
var-
ious provincial
Acts.9
It is
important
to be
familiar
with
the
term "private investigator"
because only those activities that
fall
within
the
definition require licensing under
the
PISGA.
Furthermore,
as
indicated
in the
introduction
to
this chapter,
the
importance
of
being
familiar
with
the
differences
in
each provincial
Act
becomes apparent when investi-
gating outside
of the
province
in
which
one is
licensed.
For
discussions
of
issues relating
to
security personnel,
see
C.D.
Shearing
&
P.C.
Stenning,
Private Security
and
Private Justice
— The
Challenge
of
the
80s:
A
Review
of
Policy Issues
(Montreal:
The
Institute
for
Research
on
Public Policy, 1983);
F.
Jefferies,
ed.,
Private Policing
and
Security
in
Canada
(Toronto: Centre
of
Criminology, University
of
Toronto, 1973);
and
C.D.
Shearing
&
P.C. Stenning,
Search
and
Seizure Powers
of
Private Security Personnel:
A
Study Paper
(Ottawa:
Law
Reform
Commission
of
Canada, 1979).
Provincial registrars requested that General Guideline section numbers
not be
cited
as
they
are
subject
to
frequent
change.
In
British
Columbia,
the Act
often
uses
the
term "security employees"
and
"security business-
es"
when
referring
to
private investigators
and
private investigative agencies
and
other occupa-
tional groups covered
by the Act
such
as
security guards
and
locksmiths.
7
8
9
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