According to two recent Federal Court decisions, privacy
– though protected by the law - is not worth that much
money when it comes to actual damage awards.
While most privacy complaints are resolved through the Office of
the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, some cases are litigated in
court with plaintiffs hoping to receive monetary compensation for
privacy violations. Two such cases are Randall v. Nubodys Fitness
Centres, 2010 FC 681 (CanLII) and Stevens v. SNF Maritime Metal
Inc. 2010 FC 1137 (CanLII).
Randall involved a situation where an employee's
attendance at a fitness club was regularly reported back to his
company which paid half of his monthly fees as part of his benefits
package. While the Federal Court agreed that this constituted a
violation of his privacy rights, the Court did not award any
damages stating that only egregious breaches such as video-taping
and phone-line tapping warranted compensation. In Stevens,
the Federal Court reached the same
