''Hunter v Southam Inc''

984 Year 984 ( CMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – German boy-king Otto III (4 years old) is seized by the deposed Henry II, Duke of Bavaria ("the Wrangler"), wh ...

2 S.C.R. 145 is a landmark

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

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'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

''.

Background

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

Combines Investigation Act The ''Combines Investigation Act, 1923'' (), was a Canadian Act of Parliament that regulated certain anti-competitive corporate business practices. It prohibited monopolies, misleading advertising, bid-rigging, price fixing, and other means of ...

'' into

Southam Newspaper Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is an American-owned Canadian-based media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in Engl ...

. 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 Court system of Canada#Appellate courts of the provinces and territories, Canadian appellate court that serves as the highest appellate court in 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 In United States constitutional law, reasonable 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 U.S. Constitution. It is related to, ...

, 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