Rights Of Action For Breach Of Privacy In Canada

This story was first published in issue (2012) 8(5) of the Privacy Law Bulletin by LexisNexis.

Following the Australian Law Reform Commission's inquiry on the effectiveness of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the federal government released an Issues Paper¹ that invited public consideration of whether a statutory cause of action for invasion of privacy should be introduced in Australian law. To foster discussion, the paper presented the state of the law in comparable common law jurisdictions, including Canada. Because the right to privacy in Canadian law is a complex product of common law and both federal and state (provincial) legislation, the paper could only touch upon certain aspects of it. This article purports to give a more complete overview of the causes of action for breach of privacy under Canadian law.