Fed CA orders removal of witness names in administrative tribunal decision

On September 30th, the Federal Court of Appeal held that the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board ought not to have referred to witnesses by name in a disciplinary decision about a suspension for “inappropriate acts involving a number of young female subordinate employees.”

This was a second time the matter of the witnesses’ anonymity came before the Court. In 2017, it had held that the Board’s decision to publish witness names was unreasonable and directed the Board to re-weigh the interests at stake.

The Board again declined to refer to witnesses by initials, seemingly put off by the employer’s pre-hearing “promise” to the witnesses that their identities would be protected from publication. What the employer said to the witnesses, the Court held, was not right inquiry. For that and other reasons, it quashed the Board’s second decision as unreasonable and (extraordinarily) substituted its own judgement.

Here are two points of significance:

the Court suggested that the (strict) Dagenais/Mentuck test applied by courts is the test to be applied by administrative tribunals like the Board; and
the Court recognized the public interest in encouraging the reporting of inappropriate sexual behavior by protecting the anonymity of witness, comparing the interest to the interest in encouraging the reporting of sexual assaults.

Canada (Attorney General) v. Philps, 2019 FCA 240 (CanLII).

Privacy, Identity, and Control: Emerging Issues in Data Protection

This post marks the official death of my reading pile, which involved a read of the current edition of the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law – one entitled Privacy, Identity, and Control: Emerging Issues in Data Protection.

I’m admittedly still digesting the ideas, so am just pointing to a good resource for reckoning with the Euro-centric forces that are bound to affect our law. Top reads were “Regaining Digital Privacy? The New ‘Right to be Forgotten’ and Online Expression” and Fiona Brimblecombe & Gavin Phillipson and Information “Brokers, Fairness, and Privacy in Publicly Accessible Information” by Andrea Slane. Check it out.

BCSC denies access to total legal costs spent on ongoing litigation

On July 12th, the British Columbia Supreme Court held that a requester had not rebutted the presumption of privilege that applied to the total amount spent by government in an ongoing legal dispute. Here is the court’s argument for the withholding of such information:

[61] The Adjudicator’s reasoning, adopted by CCF on this review, is in brief that it is clear from the facts available in the public record that the amount of legal expenditure is high. Knowing how high could only confirm this, and no more. This echoes CCF’s submission to the Adjudicator, cited at para. 35 of the Decision, that “knowing whether the total cost to date are ‘$8 million or $12 million or $20 million’ may prove embarrassing for the Province, but will not reveal privileged communications”.

[62] In my view this line of reasoning is not sufficient to discharge the onus of proof to rebut the presumption of privilege, particularly in circumstances of ongoing litigation. I agree that the Cambie Litigation is an important constitutional case, that it is hard fought on both sides and that the amount of legal cost is undoubtedly substantial. However, in my view, an assiduous inquirer, aware of the background available to the public (which would include how many court days had been occupied both at trial and in chambers applications, the nature of those applications, the issues disclosed in the pleadings, and the stage of the litigation for the period covered by the request), would, by learning the legal cost of the litigation, be able to draw inferences about matters of instruction to counsel, strategies being employed or contemplated, the likely involvement of experts, and the Province’s state of preparation. To use the CCF submission quoted by the Adjudicator, the difference between an $8 million expenditure and a $20 million expenditure would be telling to the assiduous inquirer and would in my view permit that inquirer to deduce matters of privileged communication.

British Columbia (Attorney General) v British Columbia (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2019 BCSC 1132 (CanLII)

Advocates’ Society Tricks of the Trade – A Privacy Update

Here are the slides from my Advocates’ Society presentation today. I addressed the following two questions:

Today, is a right-thinking judge (in a non-criminal case) likely to exclude evidence obtained in breach of privacy?
The intrusion upon seclusion tort. What have we learned about elements and defences since Jones v Tsige?

The second question was to honour the birthday of the intrusion upon seclusion tort, which turned six last week. Happy birthday privacy tort!

BC arbitrator admits surveillance that captures “sexual relations” in the office

Vernon Professional Firefighters’ Association I.A.F.F. LOCAL 1517 v Corporation of the City of Vernon is a well argued video surveillance case in which Arbitrator Dorsey held that a fire service properly employed video surveillance in response to a suspicion that documents had been taken from a filing cabinet in the (interim) Chief’s office. The surveillance captured two employees having “sexual relations,” an act for which they were terminated.

The Association’s theory was the decision to employ surveillance was a product of “paranoia and distrust” arising out of bad labour relations. The Employer argued the bad labour relations in its favour, ultimately convincing Mr. Dorsey that protecting its information was one concern, but determining who it believed had accessed the information without authorization was an equally legitimate objective in the context. It’s a decision that turns on its facts, though there are some other notable findings. Namely, Mr. Dorsey found that:

the installation of surveillance in this context was an “indirect collection” of personal information under British Columbia’s public sector privacy legislation (para 79);
the standard for employing surveillance under public sector privacy legislation and a collective agreement ought to be the same (para 239);
having a meeting with staff about the the terminations was a legitimate means of addressing rumors and speculation about the terminations and did not invite a further breach of privacy as alleged (para 93).

Arbitrator Dorsey does suggest, problematically in my view, that surveillance evidence ought to be excluded if collected via “an unjustified employer invasion of employees’ privacy rights.” Like many arbitrators, Arbitrator Dorsey frames the power to exclude evidence as discretionary but links the exclusion analysis to one factor above all others – justification. If the exclusion analysis is to be undertaken reasonably, it must encompass “all relevant factors,” including the impact of any exclusion decision on the administration of (administrative) justice and ongoing labour relations.

Vernon Professional Firefighters’ Association I.A.F.F. LOCAL 1517 v Corporation of the City of Vernon, 2018 CanLII 111669 (BC LA).

No civil claim for misappropriated contact information says Ont SCJ

On October 25th the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed certification motions in two actions that claimed damages for the misappropriation of contact information from a hospital information system. The information was taken and used to sell RESPs to the families of newborns.

Most significantly, the Court held there was no viable cause of action for intrusion upon seclusion because the information that was misappropriated did not support a breach that was serious enough to meet the standard established by the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Jones v Tsige. Justice Perell explained:

[151]      I generally agree with the Defendants’ arguments. It is plain and obvious in the case at bar that there is no tenable cause of action for intrusion on seclusion because there was no significant invasion of personal privacy and a reasonable person would not find the disclosure of contact information without the disclosure of medical, financial, or sensitive information, offensive or a cause for distress humiliation and anguish. The contact information that was the objective of the intrusion in the immediate case was not private, there was not a significant invasion of privacy, and the invasion of privacy was not highly offensive to an objective person.

[152]      In other words, in the immediate case, it is not the case that the disclosure of just contact information intrudes on the class members’ significant private affairs and concerns, and in the immediate case, it is not the case that the disclosure of contact information would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and cause her distress, humiliation, and anguish.

[153]      Generally speaking, there is no privacy in information in the public domain, and there is no reasonable expectation in contact information, which is in the public domain, being a private matter. Contact information is publicly available and is routinely and readily disclosed to strangers to confirm one’s identification, age, or address. People readily disclose their address and phone number to bank and store clerks, when booking train or plane tickets or when ordering a taxi or food delivery. Many people use their health cards for identification purposes. Save during the first trimester, the state of pregnancy, and the birth of child is rarely a purely private matter. The news of an anticipated birth and of a birth is typically shared and celebrated with family, friends, and colleagues and is often publicized. The case at bar is illustrative. All the proposed representative plaintiffs were not shy about sharing the news of the newborns.

Much will be said about this judgement. Here are some thoughts.

First. There’s an ambiguity . Justice Perell says there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances and the invasion is not “highly offensive.” How can there be an invasion if there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy? Reading the analysis as a whole, Justice Perell seems to be saying that there is an expectation of privacy (and a privacy breach), but not one that meets the “highly offensive” standard set in Jones v Tsige. This is a first.

Second. Justice Perell doesn’t use the “reasonable expectation of privacy” concept to delineate whether or not there has been an intrusion. I wish he did. For clarity’s sake, I’d like to see a merging of the REP doctrine developed in the Charter jurisprudence with the tort analysis. We’re talking about the same thing.

Third. Justice Perell was able to view the incident through a technical lens, analyzing each data element on its own and not in the broader context. Compare how he viewed the matter to the Toronto Star editors of this article. The difference is amazing.

Fourth. I don’t read paragraph 153 as endorsement of so-called “third-party doctrine.” Rather, it’s a very broad finding about the publicity of contact information. Contact information is too public in its quality to attract the protection of the common law, says Justice Perell. Compare this view to that of the Alberta OPIC, who has found that the loss of e-mail addresses alone (to a hacker, mind you) gives rise to a “real risk of significant harm.” Justice Perell’s finding (consistent with Jones v Tsige) suggests that the privacy statutes offer greater protection than the common law.

Fifth, I can’t help but think we’ll be litigating about what is and isn’t a breach of privacy for an eternity.

Broutzas v. Rouge Valley Health System, 2018 ONSC 6315 (CanLII).

FCA articulates standard for a counsel’s eyes only order

On October 22nd, the Federal Court of Appeal affirmed a counsel’s eyes only order, affirming that such orders are available in Federal Court (despite the impact on the solicitor-client relationship) when there is a “real and substantial risk that is grounded in the evidence.” It based its affirmation on the following analysis of the facts:

The judge noted that Mr. O’Hara was the sole employee of the appellant and the driving mind behind its product development and business decisions. The judge had a well-founded concern that it would be difficult, if not altogether artificial, to expect Mr. O’Hara to completely divorce his mind from that information. Given the small and highly competitive market in which the parties both operate, this would have obvious and significant consequences for the respondents.

Arkipelago Architecture Inc. v. Enghouse Systems Limited, 2018 FCA 192 (CanLII).

GSB finds PHIPA doesn’t govern occupational health information

Neither public nor private sector employees in Ontario have statutory privacy rights. This has been lamented by the IPC itself.

Ontario unions, however, often rely on the Ontario privacy statutes – FIPPA and PHIPA – to forward privacy grievances. This reliance is unnecessary given arbitrators recognize implicit privacy rights, and has caused the jurisprudence to become incredibly muddled. The worst case is the Divisional Court’s Hooper decision, a (non-labour) case that the IPC has effectively said is wrongly decided. I agree. Hooper needs to be challenged and decisively overruled.

In the interim, we’ll have litigation like that in a recent case decided by the GSB. It’s hard to distinguish Hooper, but Arbitrator Dissanyake distinguished Hooper as follows:

It is apparent, therefore, that in each of those cases, the employer was found to be providing some form of health care to its employees. For that purpose it was held that “health care” is not limited to making a diagnosis. It was broader. There is no evidence that the employer in the instant matter provides any health care to its employees even in the broader sense. It does collect some types of health information related to employees, but the purpose is not in any way related to provision of health care. The purpose is to deal with workplace implications of employees’ health issues on the rights and obligations under the collective agreement and legislation.

I suppose the practical lesson for employers is to be very clear about the purpose of the occupational health function, saying things like this:

This white coat you are dealing with is a specialist that is part of our human resources team.
This is about assessing you to meet our human resources needs, not helping you get better.
Sure we’ll keep your information secure and treat it as confidential, but we’ll also use it for all our occupational health purposes, providing our employees and agents with access in accordance with the “need to know” principle.
Please understand. Your personal physician is your source of health care.

Tell your employees. Tell your occupational health staff. Say it loud. Say it proud.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Union) v Ontario (Treasury Board Secretariat), 2018 CanLII 55851 (ON GSB).

Arbitrator upholds driving safety system with in-cab cameras

On May 24th, Arbitrator Saunders of British Columbia affirmed an employer’s implementation of a driving safety system that featured an in-cab camera that recorded continuously, with access to feed limited to certain defined “triggering events” and reasonable cause scenarios.

There’s a good discussion of “sensitivity” and whether Irving Pulp and Paper requires employers to prove a “demonstrated safety problem” to justify the use of any exercise of management rights that touches upon a reasonable expectation of privacy. Arbitrator Saunders said it does not:

I read the Court’s endorsement of Arbitrator Picher’s award in Nanticoke, to reflect an underlying concern about the extreme privacy intrusion occasioned by random drug and alcohol testing. On that basis, it was concluded that an intrusion amounting to “a loss of liberty and personal autonomy” can only be justified by negotiated provisions or by a compelling countervailing interest, such as a demonstrated problem that cannot be adequately addressed by less invasive means. A corresponding level of intrusion is not present on the facts of the present case.

Accordingly, I do not find that Irving posits a dangerous workplace and a demonstrated safety problem as prerequisites in all cases safety is invoked to justify privacy intrusions, much less the intrusion imposed by overt video surveillance. Rather, the existence of safety infractions or the risk of accidents, remain to be factored in the proportionality assessment—the more serious the intrusion, the more compelling the justification required.

Arbitrator Saunders then affirmed the employer’s implementation based, in part, on a finding that the employer’s utilization of employee images was “confined to intermittent safety-related events and is only viewed to advance legitimate incident-based objectives.”

Lafarge Canada Inc. v Teamsters, Local Union No. 213, 2018 CanLII 69607 (BC LA).

Transparency, open courts and administrative tribunals: implications of Toronto Star v AG Ontario

Here’s some commentary I submitted in support of my panel appearance on Wednesday at the above-named OBA conference.

It appears there are not too many fans of the Toronto Star decision among administrative tribunal practitioners, though the tribunals themselves seem to be more ambivalent. I’m among those who don’t like the policy implications of Toronto Star. For insight please read my commentary.

On Wednesday I spoke about the practical impact of practicing under truly presumptive, court-like openness in which no adjudicative decision (with due process rights) stands between a requester and a client’s filings. In short, it will invite the application of a new analysis prior to making any filing. What in here is confidential? Can I compromise – making my client’s case without it? At what cost? Is it better to seek a confidentiality order of some sort? At what cost? Does the media require notice of my motion? At what cost? Did I mention cost?

I encouraged tribunal staff in attendance to think about how critical a concern privacy has become and how individuals expect and are owed, at a minimum, due process. In my view requiring applications for access (made on notice) is a model for access that’s more consistent with the object of administrative justice – specialized, low cost, accessible justice.