Damages in Canadian Privacy Breach Cases
The purpose of the Canadian federal Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Documents Act
("PIPEDA") is to establish rules that
recognize both the right of privacy of individuals with respect to
their personal information ("PI"), as
well as the needs of organizations engaged in commercial activities
to collect, use and/or disclose PI for purposes that a reasonable
person would consider appropriate in the circumstances
(substantially similar provincial equivalents have been enacted in
Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec - Manitoba has also passed
legislation, which is expected to be declared substantially similar
to PIPEDA once it has been proclaimed in force). Section 16 of
PIPEDA authorizes courts to award damages, including damages for
humiliation that a complainant has suffered, arising from a breach
of the legislation. Over the past few years there has been an
evolution towards courts awarding greater damages
