''Hunter v Southam Inc''

984 Year 984 ( CMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – German boy-king Otto III (4-years old) is seized by the deposed Henry II ...

2 S.C.R. 145 is a landmark

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

privacy rights case and as well is the first Supreme Court decision to consider section 8 of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

''.

Background

An investigation was begun by the government under the authority of the ''

Combines Investigation Act The ''Combines Investigation Act'' was a Canadian Act of Parliament, implemented in 1910, passed in 1923 by MacKenzie King, which regulated certain corporate business practices that were anti-competitive. It prohibited monopolies, misleading adve ...

'' into

Southam Newspaper Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is a Canadian media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in newspaper publishing, news ...

. The investigators entered Southam's offices in Edmonton and elsewhere to examine documents. The search was authorized prior to the enactment of the Charter but the search did not commence until afterwards. The challenge was allowed. At the

Alberta Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of Alberta (frequently referred to as Alberta Court of Appeal or ABCA) is a Canadian appellate court. Jurisdiction and hierarchy within Canadian courts The court is the highest in Alberta, Canada. It hears appeals from the ...

, the judge found that part of the Act was inconsistent with the Charter and therefore of no force or effect. The Supreme Court considered section 8 for the first time and upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal.

Reasons of the court

Justice Dickson (as he then was), writing for a unanimous Court, held that the ''Combines Investigation Act'' violated the Charter as it did not provide an appropriate standard for administering warrants. The Court held that the purpose of section 8 is to protect an individual's

reasonable expectation of privacy Expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is related to, but is not the same as, a ''right to privacy ...

, and to limit government action that will encroach on that expectation. Furthermore, to assess the extent of those rights the right to privacy must be balanced against the government's duty to enforce the law. In reaffirming the doctrine of purposive interpretation when reading the Constitution, Dickson goes on to make a fundamental and often quoted statement of the purpose of the Constitution and how it should be interpreted, stating:

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter Et Al. V. Southam Inc. Section Eight Charter case law Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1984 in Canadian case law