SELECTED CASE LAW
ONTARIO:
In 2017 ONCJ 58, Mr. M, a 47-year-old actor, placed a BlueRay Player equipped with a hidden camera in his apartment that he rented out. He had constant access to the live stream via an internet transmission and pointed at the living room space. He rented that apartment to two women in their 20s, despite not being allowed to rent out the space according to his lease, and did not tell the women about the hidden camera. At the trial, he claimed that he had installed the camera for security purposes. However, his text messages to them alerted him to the fact that he was somehow watching them from inside the apartment and one of the tenants dis-covered the camera. The court stated:
Does the lawful enjoyment of residential premises includes a right to be free of surreptitious surveillance, or as [Mr. M]called it a nannycam, a security camera hidden in the middle of the living space, set up to be available to his remote viewing at any time? Can [Mr. M] claim an honest belief in a state of fact, which amounts to a colour of right? In my view the answer is clearly no, as the right to privacy is no-where as significant as in one’s home.[1]
He was convicted of two counts of mischief to private property. We did not locate a sentencing decision.
[1] At para 54.
Criminal Offence(s): Mischief in Relation to Data