Can an employer submit as evidence contents of an employee's
personal email box that are obtained as part of an investigation?
In certain circumstances, it can, according to the recent Quebec
Superior Court ruling by Justice David R. Collier in Pneus
Touchette Distribution inc. c Pneus Chartrand
inc.1
Facts
A tire distribution company sued a former employee and three
other co-defendants for unfair competition. It also claimed that
the former employee had passed on confidential information to the
competition via his personal email address.
An investigation by an IT services company revealed that the
defendant had been using his office computer to redirect certain
messages and documents electronically to a Hotmail address. The
defendant had allegedly then used that Hotmail address to send that
privileged information to a competing firm. The employer wanted to
submit the expert report in order to support its position and show
how the scheme worked, but the former
