SUPREME COURT OF
CANADA
Lyons
v. The Queen, [1984] 2 S.C.R. 633
Date: 1984-12-20
Kristine Lyons, John Prevedoros and Brian McGuire Appellants;
and
Her Majesty The Queen Respondent.
File Nos.: 17181, 17193, and 17196. 1983: June 23;
1984: December 20.
Present: Ritchie,
Dickson, Beetz, Estey, McIntyre, Chouinard and Lamer JJ.
ON APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA
Criminal law - Wiretaps - Admissibility of evidence -
Interceptions authorized by court - Installation of device involving trespass
- Whether or not interceptions "lawfully made" - Whether or not evidence
obtained admissible - Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34, ss. 25, 178.1,
178.11(1), 178.12(1), 178.13(1), (2)(d), 178.16(1).
Evidence - Admissibility - Wiretap evidence - Operation to
obtain evidence involving trespass - Whether or not evidence admissible.
Police officers, authorized to intercept appellants’
private communications, entered the residence of one of the appellants without
consent to install a room monitoring device. None of the authorizations made
reference to the manner of installing the device. Later, the appellants were
tried and convicted on a charge of conspiracy to import a narcotic.
Conversations intercepted by the monitoring device were introduced in evidence
at trial and held admissible. The Court of Appeal dismissed appellants’ appeals
but a dissenting judge concluded the evidence of the intercepted communications
inadmissible in that the trespass made the interceptions not "lawfully
made" within the meaning of s. 178.16(1) of the Criminal
Code. The appeals were based on this dissenting judgment.
Held (Dickson and Chouinard JJ. dissenting):
The appeals should be dismissed.
Per Beetz, Estey, McIntyre and Lamer JJ.: Part
IV.1 of the Criminal Code, when read as a whole, clearly contemplates,
requires and authorizes, by necessary implication and unavoidable inference,
the placing of a radio device on the premises where the intercept is to be
made, where the use of radio equipment is authorized for the interception of a
private communication. Modern
[Page 634]
surveillance techniques involve the invasion of
property by directed energy to extract private communications and no express
authorization for such "entry" on the target premises is found in
Part IV.1. Parliament should not be taken to have authorized the use of
procedures and equipment without, at the same time, supplying the public
officers undertaking these duties with the appropriate means and authority to
carry them out.
The process of interception is a single undertaking
carried out on authorization orders of the court and cannot be segmented into
legally consequential and legally inconsequential steps. The evidence cannot be
considered admissible on the one hand, and an attendant trespass, on the other,
be left to be dealt with in later proceedings.
Parliament has broadly empowered the courts to
authorize the use of devices to intercept designated communications. Since many
of the devices allowed by the Code could not otherwise function as
interception "devices", Parliament cast the section broadly so as to
empower the court in its discretion to authorize the placing of a
"device" inside the premises designated in the authorization, whether
or not a trespass might occur and whether or not the owner of the premises was
the person whose communications were to be intercepted. Parliament, however,
foresaw the differences in the magnitude in the potential seriousness presented
by the several interception procedures that Part IV.1 allows the court to
authorize. Section 178.13(2)(d), therefore, by requiring the authorizing judge
to include in the authorization "such terms and conditions as the judge
considers advisable in the public interest", creates a judicial safeguard
to balance the bilateral nature of Part IV.1-the shield from, and yet the
instrument permitting, invasions of privacy. The authorization granted here was
sufficiently broad to empower the law enforcement officers both to plant and
to service the device, even when both activities involved a physical entry into
the targeted premises.
lnterceptions, if "lawfully made", can be
admitted in evidence. The term, however, given its presence in Part IV.1 (a
mini-Code within the codified criminal law) must be interpreted to mean in
accordance with Part IV.1, as opposed to in conformity with all laws. Logical
impossibilities result if "unlawful" is taken to refer to Criminal
Code sections not in Part IV.1, let alone to all other laws. lt was
unreasonable to read s. 178.16 as rendering interceptions inadmissible because
external procedures used in the operation entailed entry which
[Page 635]
may have amounted to trespass. The physical entry
here did not amount to a breach of Part lV.1, and in particular, to a breach
of s. 178.11. Indeed, once Parliament has granted the power to authorize and
once that power has been exercised, the authorized conduct in law would no
longer amount to trespass.
Per Dickson and Chouinard JJ., dissenting:
A private communication that has been intercepted by means of any form of
electronic surveillance is inadmissible pursuant to s. 178.16(1) of the Code
unless the interception was "lawfully made".
Thus, for the purposes of Part IV.1, the manner in which the evidence has been
obtained is determinative of its admissibility.
An authorization to intercept private communications
granted pursuant to Part IV.1 does not implicitly carry with it a right of
entry to private premises and a judge does not possess any authority to include
a right of entry as a term of an authorization pursuant to s. 178.13(2). The
entries made by police to install and maintain the listening device for the
purpose of intercepting the private communications in question were
unauthorized and unlawful.
An interception of private communications accomplished
by means of an illegal entry to private premises is not "lawfully
made" within the meaning of s. 178.16(1)(a). Parliament intended any
breach of the right of privacy protected by Part IV.1 should be lawful in the
widest sense. There is no justification for limiting the terms of s.
178.16(1)(a) to lawfulness in obtaining the authorization or in listening to
and recording the conversation. The whole process of interception including
the installation of the listening device, must be lawful.
As a result of the two covert entries, the
interceptions of conversations were not "lawfully made" within the
meaning of s. 178.16(1)(a) and therefore ought not to have been admitted as
evidence. It follows that, as the appellants were convicted on the basis of
inadmissible evidence, the appeals should be allowed and new trials directed.
[Dalla v. United States, 441 U.S. 238 (1979); United
States v. Scafidi, 564 F.2d 633 (1977), approved; R. v. Papalia (1984),
47 O.R. (2d) 289, considered; R. v. Dass, [1979] 4 W.W.R. 97; Colet
v. The Queen, [1981] 1 S.C.R. 2; Finnigan v. Sandiford and Clowser
v. Chaplin, [1981] 2 All E.R. 267; Morris v. Beardmore, [1981] A.C.
446, distinguished; Goldman v. The Queen, [1980] I S.C.R. 976; R. v.
LeSarge (1975), 26 C.C.C. (2d) 388;
[Page 636]
R. v. Welsh and lannuzzi (No. 6) (1977), 15 O.R.
(2d) 1, 32 C.C.C. (2d) 363, 74 D.L.R. (3d) 748; Clifton v. Bury (1887),
4 T.L.R. 8; Pickering v. Rudd (1815), 4 Camp. 219; Semayne’s
Case (1604), 5 Co. Rep. 91 a; Eccles v. Bourque, [1975] 2
S.C.R. 739; Reference re an Application for an Authorization (1983), 5
D.L.R. (4th) 601, made in response to Re Application for Authorization to
Intercept Private Communications, [1982] 6 W.W.R. 533, 31 C.R. (3d) 31; Re
Anti-Inflation Act, [1976] 2 S.C.R. 373; Lower Mainland Dairy Products
Board v. Turners Dairy Ltd., [1941] S.C.R. 573; Home Oil Distributors,
Ltd. v. Attorney-General of British Columbia, [1940] S.C.R. 444; Black-Clawson
International Ltd. v. Papierwerke Waldhof-Aschaffenburg AG, [1975] 1 All
E.R. 810; Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Realty Co., 283 U.S. 191 (1931); Reference
re Regulation and Control of Radio Communication, [1931] S.C.R. 541; Composers,
Authors and Publishers Association of Canada Ltd. v. CTV Television Network
Ltd., [1966] Ex. C.R. 872; R. v. Steinberg, [1967] 1 O.R. 733; Olmstead
v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928); Berger v. New York, 388
U.S. 41 (1967); R. v. McQueen (1975), 25 C.C.C. 262, referred to.]
APPEALS from a judgment of the British Columbia Court of
Appeal (1982), 69 C.C.C. (2d) 318, dismissing appellants’ appeals from
their conviction by Fisher Co. Ct. J. (1979), 52 C.C.C. 113, for
conspiring to import cocaine. Appeals dismissed, Dickson and Chouinard JJ.
dissenting.
Howard Rubin and E. Ann Cameron, for the appellant Lyons.
John D. Banks, for the appellant Prevedoros. Derek A.
Brindle, for the appellant McGuire.
Douglas J. A. Rutherford, Q.C., and S. David Frankel, for
the respondent.
The reasons of Dickson and Chouinard JJ. were delivered by
DICKSON J. (dissenting)-The question is whether the trial
judge erred in admitting into evidence certain private communications
intercepted through the use of a room monitoring device installed
surreptitiously by police officers in the
[Page 637]
home of the appellant, Kristine Lyons. The case raises, in part,
the very important issues presented in the Reference Pursuant to Section
27(1) of the Judicature Act, Chapter J-1 of the Revised Statutes of Alberta,
1980, as amended, referred by Order in Council (O.C. 84/83) of the Lieutenant
Governor in Council dated the 2nd day of February, A.D. 1983, to the Court of
Appeal of Alberta, [1984] 2 S.R.C. 697 (hereinafter the Wiretap
Reference). Judgment in the instant case was delayed pending hearing of
argument upon, and determination of, the Wiretap Reference. As well,
this Court has considered judgments delivered subsequently in two provincial
appellate courts relevant to the Wiretap Reference and the present
appeals. Judgment in the Wiretap Reference is being delivered
concurrently herewith.
I The Facts
Police obtained a series of authorizations and renewals to
intercept private communications of the appellants and other persons at, among
other places, Kristine Lyons’ home, 1207 Nanton Avenue, Vancouver, British
Columbia. The authorizations and renewals collectively covered the period
between August 25, 1977 and February 13, 1978. All of the authorizations
contained the following stipulation:
The type of private communications that may be intercepted
are all telecommunications and oral communications.
None of the authorizations made reference to the manner of
installing the listening device. Accordingly, none purported to expressly
authorize trespass.
On November 2, 1977 four police officers, with-out consent,
entered the residence at 1207 Nanton Avenue to install a room monitoring
device. They were there about two hours. The transmitter operated continuously
thereafter, and was capable of intercepting not only telephone communications,
but also all conversations within the room. Not all conversations were recorded
by the police. On December 19, 1977, three police officers, without consent,
again entered 1207 Nanton Avenue, to
[Page 638]
change the batteries in the monitoring device. They stayed for
about an hour.
The appellants and one David Fladgate were tried and convicted
before His Honour Judge Fisher on a charge of conspiracy to import a narcotic
(cocaine). At trial, evidence was introduced of ten conversations intercepted
between November 6, 1977 and December 30, 1977 by the above-mentioned
monitoring device.
lI The Court of Appeal Decision
The accused appealed their convictions to the British Columbia
Court of Appeal on several grounds. The appeals of Lyons, Prevedoros and
McGuire were dismissed. The Court was unanimous on all but one of the grounds.
The point of disagreement concerned the issue of whether the trespass to
install the room monitoring device rendered the intercepted private
communications inadmissible in evidence.
Hinkson J.A., Macdonald J.A. concurring, wrote for the majority.
He said the trespass did not vitiate the authorization. While any wrongful acts
committed in the carrying out of the authorization could be the subject of
criminal or civil proceedings, such wrongful acts did not affect the admissibility
of the evidence of private communications.
Anderson J.A. dissented on this point. He concluded that
authorizations to intercept private communications could not and did not
authorize a trespass. He also held that the installation of the monitoring
device was part of the interception. An unlawful trespass made the interception
not "law-fully made" and this, by virtue of s. 178.16(1) of the Criminal
Code, rendered the evidence of the private communications inadmissible.
Anderson J.A. would have ordered a new trial. The case reaches this Court by
virtue of Anderson J.A.’s dissent on a point of law (s. 618(1)(a) of the Criminal
Code).
[Page 639]
III The Questions At Issue
The trial in this case arose prior to the proclamation of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms . Therefore, the case raises only questions
of statutory interpretation. The reach of Part IV.1 of the Criminal Code, bearing
the rubric "Invasion of Privacy", is at issue.
The majority of the Court of Appeal held that surreptitious entry
to install the listening device did not vitiate the authorization to intercept
communications at 1207 Nanton Avenue. Assuming this conclusion to be correct,
it does nothing to resolve the question of the admissibility of the evidence
garnered as a result of this electronic interception.
In considering the admissibility of evidence of private
communications, the starting point is s. 178.16(1) of the Criminal Code:
178.16 (1) A private communication that has been intercepted
is inadmissible as evidence against the originator of the communication
or the person intended by the originator to receive it unless
a) the interception was lawfully made; or
b) the originator thereof or the person intended by the
originator to receive it has expressly consented to the admission thereof;
but evidence obtained directly or indirectly as a result of
information acquired by interception of a private communication is not
inadmissible by reason only that the private communication is itself
inadmissible as evidence. [Emphasis added.]
For the reasons I have already given in the Wiretap Reference,
it is my view that Parliament did not intend in Part IV.1 of the Criminal
Code to authorize the police to trespass to install a listening device.
Accordingly, an authorization does not implicitly carry with it a right of
entry to private premises. And equally, a judge does not possess any authority
to include a right of entry as a term of an authorization pursuant to s.
178.13(2).
No express authority to trespass to install the listening device
was even purportedly granted in the authorization and renewals obtained by the
police in this case. Since the authorizations do not
[Page 640]
implicitly permit the police to enter a place where they propose
to intercept oral communications, it follows that the two trespasses involving
1207 Nanton Avenue were not lawful.
The question to be resolved is whether the interceptions of
private communications, accomplished by means of the illegal entry to install
the listening device, were "lawfully made" within the meaning of s. 178.16(1)
and hence admissible in evidence.
IV Admissibility of the Intercepted Conversations
ln R. v. Wray, [1971] S.C.R. 272, the majority of
this Court held that the criterion for determining the admissibility of
evidence was its relevance, not the manner in which it was obtained. Thus,
according to the majority, the fact that evidence had been unlawfully obtained
did not affect admissibility unless the evidence was highly pre-judicial and of
trifling weight. If the Wray rule were to apply, the conclusion that the
trespass to install the listening device was unlawful would not affect the
admissibility of the intercepted private communications.
It may be that s. 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms will now modify the rule in Wray. I make no comment one way
or the other on that possibility. It cannot assist the appellants in the
present case. Quite aside from the Charter , however, it is clear that
Parliament has explicitly set aside the Wray rule in the context of
electronic surveillance by enacting s. 178.16(1) (a) which, it will be recalled,
makes a private conversation that has been intercepted inadmissible
unless the interception was lawfully made. For purposes of Part IV.1,
therefore, not only is the manner in which evidence has been obtained relevant
for its admissibility, legality has become the sine qua non for
admissibility.
This Court has previously recognized in R. v. Commisso, [1983]
2 S.C.R. 121, that Parliament has enacted in s. 178.16 an exclusionary
rule which is an exception to the general rule that
[Page 641]
unlawfully obtained evidence is nevertheless admissible. The
issue in that case, simply put, was whether an authorization to intercept
private communications in respect of one offence was sufficient to render
lawful interceptions in respect of a different offence. The majority, speaking
through Lamer J., concluded it was; I wrote dissenting reasons for the minority
concluding it was not.
Of importance for the resolution of this case is the unanimous
agreement of the Court that only those private communications which have been
lawfully obtained may be admitted in evidence. Lamer J. recognized the
important concern for individual privacy that moved Parliament to enact s.
178.16, at p. 125:
In order to discourage unlawful invasions of the privacy of
citizens, Parliament not only made it an indictable offence but also enacted an
exclusionary rule which is an exception to the general rule that unlawfully
obtained evidence is nevertheless admissible.
To much the same effect, I wrote, at p. 134:
The unique legislative treatment of electronic surveillance
is a reflection of its nature. The modern technology is both powerful and
unobtrusive. The technology permits massive invasion of the privacy with ease.
It is also indiscriminate about the content of any communication intercepted.
Parliament has determined that this potential constitutes a threat to
individual freedom and the right to privacy. The evidentiary rule of exclusion
fortifies the stipulation that interceptions of private communications are
illegal unless specified conditions are met.
In R. v. Dass, [1979] 4 W.W.R. 97 (Man.C.A.),
Huband J.A. took another view of this requirement of legality. Although holding
that Part IV.1 did not authorize a trespass, he concluded that evidence
obtained thereby was admissible. The essence of his reasoning appears at pp.
115-16:
The fact that there has been a trespass or some other civil
or, indeed, criminal wrong in the planting of the device does not invalidate
the authorization to intercept, and thus does not render the interception
unlawful. The authorization granted by the court is an authorization to
[Page 642]
intercept private communications. How that authorization is
carried out is not germane to the issue of the admissibility of the evidence
flowing from the interception. If a trespass has been committed, then those
who have committed the trespass will be answerable in some other criminal or
civil forum.
... if a trespass is committed the evidence thus obtained will
be admissible (subject to the usual rules governing admissibility), since it
was obtained pursuant to an authorization and thus falls under the second of
the four exceptions to the general prohibition against interceptions contained
ins. 178.11(2).
The installation of the device is not part of the interception.
If the installation is unlawful, in that there has been a contravention of
civil or criminal law in the placement of the device, the lawfulness of the
interception is not affected.
With respect, I cannot agree. In my view Huband J.A.’s
conclusions, which were applied by the majority of the Court of Appeal in this
case, conflict both with the express language of Part IV.l and with the
statutory scheme thereby enacted.
As mentioned earlier, it may well be true, as Huband J.A.
asserts, that a trespass in planting the listening device does not invalidate
the authorization to intercept. At most, however, this would allow the person
making the interception to avail himself of s. 178.11(2) in order to avoid
criminal liability for what would otherwise be an indictable offence under s.
178.11(1). With respect, this does not however lead to the conclusion
that the interception was therefore rendered lawful. I see no reason in the
language or in the purpose of Part 1V.I to read the provision in s.
178.16(1)(a) that an interception must be "lawfully made" as
refer-ring only to lawfulness in obtaining the authorization. On the contrary,
in view of the fact that such evidence is prima facie inadmissible and
that the subsection is to be found in the context of a meticulously articulated
set of provisions permitting only a limited breach of the individual’s right of
privacy, these words should be given their full and literal meaning.
[Page 643]
It seems manifest to me that Parliament intended any breach of
the right of privacy, protected by Part IV.1, be lawful in the widest sense. In
my view, absent a valid consent, the surreptitious physical invasion of a home
when undertaken by police for the purposes of installing, maintaining,
repairing, or removing room monitoring devices renders any private
communication that has been intercepted not "lawfully made", within
the meaning of s. 178.16(1)(a) of the Criminal Code.
In my opinion, it is not possible to separate the installation of
the listening device from the process of listening to and recording
conversations, so as to include only the latter in the process of interception.
This is an artificial and unrealistic distinction. That interception must go
beyond mere listening and recording not only conforms with common sense, it is
a necessary consequence of the wording of s. 178.16(l). The section demands
that the interception be lawfully made. It is the whole process of
interception which is referred to and that must therefore be lawful.
Installation is indispensible to interception. It must on any reasonable
reading be part of the making of an interception. An interception
accomplished by means of an unlawful entry cannot have been "lawfully
made".
The New Brunswick Court of Appeal has recently reached the same
conclusion on the admissibility of any private communication obtained as a
result of an illegal entry: R. v. Hardy (1984), 56 N.B.R. (2d) 417, 146
A.P.R. 417. In Hardy, the authorization given by the judge expressly
permitted the police to enter the Hardy residence "where reasonably
necessary" for the interception of oral communications. The police had
surreptitiously entered and planted a room-monitoring device which allowed them
to intercept the private communications in issue.
Stratton J.A. (Hughes C.J. concurring), decided that Part IV.1 of
the Code did not give any express authority to a judge to authorize a
trespass onto private property for the purpose of installing listening
devices, nor could such authority be
[Page 644]
implied. He concluded the illegal entry of the law enforcement
officers into the Hardy residence rendered the intercepted private
communications inadmissible.
In reaching-this conclusion, he made the following comment,
upon the case at bar and the Dass case, with which I am in respectful
agreement:
As I read these decisions, they seem to turn on a narrow
interpretation of the word "interception" so that the conduct of the
police in installing monitoring devices is not part of the interception. I have
difficulty in agreeing with the interpretation that "interception"
does not include the method of its execution. Rather, I would respectfully
adopt the dissenting view of Anderson, J.A. in the Lyons case that the
"interception" of a private communication includes not merely the
listening to or recording of a private communication but also the means used to
acquire the private communication.
Angers J.A., in separate reasons, decided that it lay within the
power of a judge acting under s. 178.13 to authorize entry, however, the
particular wording of the authorization was not sufficiently clear to satisfy
him that the entry the police had actually made was authorized by the order
grant-ed. He agreed that the interception was not lawfully made and the evidence
was inadmissible.
In R. v. Papalia (1984), 47 O.R. (2d) 289, the
Ontario Court of Appeal did not need to decide the question of whether an
unlawful interception renders the private communication so obtained
inadmissible. The unanimous Court held that an authorization, by necessary
implication, carries with it the power to trespass to install a listening
device and therefore the interceptions in issue were lawfully made. It is
notable, however, that Brooke J.A. agreed with the conclusion of Anderson J.A. in
the instant case, that the installation of the listening device is part of the
interception process.
[Page 645]
V Conclusion
I conclude that, as a result of the two covert entries, the
interceptions of conversations at 1207 Nanton Avenue were not "lawfully
made" within the meaning of s. 178.16(1)(a) and ought there-fore not to
have been admitted as evidence. It follows that the appellants were convicted
on the basis of inadmissible evidence and I would accordingly allow the
appeals and direct new trials for each of the appellants.
The judgment of Beetz, Estey, McIntyre and Lamer JJ. was
delivered by
ESTEY J.-The appellants were convicted on a charge of conspiring
to import cocaine into Canada contrary to s. 423(1)(d) of the Criminal Code
of Canada. The issue raised in this appeal turns on the admission into
evidence of interceptions made pursuant to an authorization granted under s. 178.13
of the Criminal Code. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
need not be addressed as the trial in this case arose prior to its
proclamation. The interception evidence was obtained pursuant to an
authorization issued by Bouck J. on August 25, 1977 and pursuant to a
subsequent authorization issued by Toy J. on December 16, 1977. The appeal
proceeded in the Court of Appeal and in this Court on the basis of an agreed
statement of facts in which the following salient facts are set forth:
On November 2, 1977, police officers entered the residence
of the Appellant LYONS (which was also, on occasion, that of the Appellant PREVEDOROS),
at 1207 Nanton Avenue, in the City of Vancouver, for the purpose of installing
a device which would permit them to monitor and record oral communications
taking place within the premises.
On December 19, 1977, police officers entered 1207 Nanton
Avenue for the purpose of replacing the batteries powering the transmitter and
also to look for a place to install another such device.
The police had not obtained permission of anyone connected
with 1207 Nanton Avenue to enter that residence
[Page 646]
on November 2 and December 19, 1977. They relied solely on
the Authorizations and Renewals which they had obtained.
The regularity in substance and in form of the authorizing orders
is not under challenge. The sole issue arising is whether or not the entry into
the premises of the accused Lyons for the purpose of installing a radio
transmitter and subsequently to renew its batteries rendered inadmissible
evidence of the interceptions subsequently made pursuant to these
authorizations.
The authorization of August 25, after setting out the offences in
respect of which private communications may be intercepted, provided:
b) The type of private communications that may be
intercepted are all telecommunications and oral communications.
c) The identities of the known persons whose private
communications may be intercepted are,
(i) Kristine LYONS 1207 Nanton Avenue Vancouver, British
Columbia
The order then continued:
d) The private communications of persons whose identities
are not known as of the date hereof which may be intercepted are,
those persons who resort to or use the premises described in
sub-paragraph (c) hereof, or
those persons who are in communication with the persons
described in sub-paragraph (c) hereof apparently with respect to an offence
mentioned in paragraph (a) hereof
which private communications may be intercepted at any of
the premises hereinbefore described and any place or premises in the Province
of British Columbia resorted to or used by the persons described in
sub-paragraph (c) hereof and in respect of any place of which a general
description cannot be given the manner of interception that may be used is
interception by means of any electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other
device. The private communications of such per-sons as described whose
identities are unknown at the date hereof may be intercepted during the period
for which this authorization is valid notwithstanding that during such period
their identities may become known.
[Page 647]
It will be noted that in subparagraph (d) the order provided that
" …. the manner of interception that may be used is interception by means
of any electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other device". The order
of Toy J. also authorized the interception of the private communications of the
appellant Lyons as well as the appellants Prevedoros and McGuire. This order
differs somewhat from the first authorization in matters not consequential to
these proceedings.
The trial judge admitted ten interceptions made with respect to
the appellants and others from November 6, 1977 to December 30, 1977.
The majority of the Court of Appeal [(1982), 69 C.C.C. (2d) 318]
speaking through Hinkson J.A., after reviewing the judgment of this Court in Goldman
v. The Queen, [1980] 1 S.C.R. 976, concluded at p. 328 that " …. even
where the police have committed a trespass to install a room-monitoring device,
…. the evidence is admissible". The majority also concluded at p. 329:
When in the course of doing so the police commit acts which
amount to wrongful acts, such acts may give rise to civil or criminal
proceedings against them. But such acts do not vitiate the court order
authorizing the intercept. Therefore the evidence is admissible pursuant to s.
178.16(1) of the Code.
Anderson J.A. dissented for the reason that an interception
pursuant to an authorization is only admissible as evidence if it is
"lawfully made" in the words of s. 178.16(1)(a), infra, of the
Criminal Code and that such is not the case where the
interception results from trespass.
In my opinion, an "interception" is only
"lawfully made" if it is made in accordance with the authorization
granted. The "interception" of a "private communication" is
not merely "listening to or recording a private communication" but
includes the means used to "acquire" the "private
communication"... .
Furthermore, Anderson J.A. was of the view that the authorizing
court had no power to authorize
[Page 648]
the police to act in an unlawful manner and consequently,
whether or not the order expressly authorized or implicitly permitted
trespass, the result is the same: the evidence obtained by the interception is
inadmissible. In part this conclusion was reached by interpreting the words
"manner of interception" as they are found in s.
178.13(2)(c) to mean "a lawful manner of interception". The position
in dissent is succinctly stated, at p. 348:
In summary, I would hold as follows:
(I) Private communications are not admissible unless
"the interceptions were lawfully made", namely, in accordance with
the authorizations granted.
(2) The "interception" process includes the mode
of execution or procedure set out in the authorization including the
installation and maintenance of monitoring devices.
(3) A police officer does not act in accordance with an
authorization when he carries out the instructions of the authorizing judge in
an unlawful manner, namely, by unlawfully trespassing to install and maintain
the monitoring devices.
The determination of the issue raised in this appeal depends upon
the construction placed upon Part IV.I, particularly ss. 178.l, 178.11, 178.12,
178.13 and 178.16 of the Criminal Code. These provisions are as follows:
178.1 In this Part,
"authorization" means an authorization to
intercept a private communication given under section 178.13 or subsection
178.15(2);
"intercept" includes listen to, record or acquire
a communication or acquire the substance, meaning or purport thereof;
"private communication" means any oral communication
or any telecommunication made under circumstances in which it is reasonable
for the originator thereof to expect that it will not be intercepted by any
person other than the person intended by the originator thereof to receive it;
[Page 649]
178.11 (1) Every one who, by means of an electromagnetic,
acoustic, mechanical or other device, wilfully intercepts a private
communication is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment
for five years.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to
(a) a person who has the consent to intercept,
express or implied, of the originator of the private communication or of the
person intended by the originator thereof to receive it;
(b) a person who intercepts a private communication in
accordance with an authorization or any person who in good faith aids in any
way a person whom he has reasonable and probable grounds to believe is acting
with any such authorization;
(c) a person engaged in providing a telephone, telegraph or
other communication service to the public who intercepts a private
communication,
(i) if such interception is necessary for the purpose of
providing such service,
(ii) in the course of service observing or random monitoring
necessary for the purpose of mechanical or service quality control checks, or
(iii) if such interception is necessary to protect the
person’s rights or property directly related to providing such service; or
(d) an officer or servant of Her Majesty in right of Canada
in respect of a private communication intercepted by him in the course of
random monitoring that is necessarily incidental to radio frequency spectrum
management in Canada.
178.12 (1) An application for an authorization shall be made
ex parte and in writing to a judge of a superior court of criminal
jurisdiction, or a judge as defined in section 482 and shall be signed by the
Attorney General of the province in which the application is made or the
Solicitor General of Canada or an agent ….
(b) the Attorney General of a province personally, in
respect of any other offence in that province,
[Page 650]
and shall be accompanied by an affidavit which may be sworn
on the information and belief of a peace officer or public officer deposing to
the following matters, namely:
c) the facts relied upon to justify the belief that an
authorization should be given together with particulars of the offence;
d) the type of private communication proposed to be
intercepted;
e) the names, addresses and occupations, if known, of all
persons, the interception of whose private communications there are reasonable
and probable grounds to believe may assist the investigation of the offence, a
general description of the nature and location of the place, if known, at which
private communications are proposed to be intercepted and a general description
of the manner of interception proposed to be used;
178.13… .
(2) An authorization shall
(a) state the offence in respect of which private
communications may be intercepted;
(b) state the type of private communication that may be
intercepted;
(c)state the identity of the persons, if known, whose
private communications are to be intercepted, generally describe the place at
which private communications may be intercepted, if a general description of
that place can be given, and generally describe the manner of interception that
may be used;
(d) contain such terms and conditions as the judge considers
advisable in the public interest; and
(e) be valid for the period, not exceeding sixty days, set
forth therein.
178.16 (1) A private communication that has been intercepted
is inadmissible as evidence against the originator of the communication or the
person intended by the originator to receive it unless
(a) the interception was lawfully made; or
(b) the originator thereof or the person intended by the
originator to receive it has expressly consented to the admission thereof;
[Page 651]
but evidence obtained directly or indirectly as a result of
information acquired by interception of a private communication is not
inadmissible by reason only that the private communication is itself
inadmissible as evidence.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the judge or magistrate
presiding at any proceedings may refuse to admit evidence obtained directly or
indirectly as a result of information acquired by interception of a private
communication that is itself inadmissible as evidence where he is of the
opinion that the admission thereof would bring the administration of justice
into disrepute.
(3) Where the judge or magistrate presiding at any
proceedings is of the opinion that a private communication that, by virtue of
subsection (1), is inadmissible as evidence in the proceedings
(a) is relevant to a matter at issue in the proceedings, and
(b) is inadmissible as evidence therein by reason only of a
defect of form or an irregularity in procedure, not being a substantive defect
or irregularity, in the application for or the giving of the authorization
under which such private communication was intercepted,
he may, notwithstanding subsection (1), admit such private
communication as evidence in the proceedings.
Part IV.1 was introduced into the Criminal Code by
1973-74 (Can.), c. 50. There were substantial amendments enacted in 1976-77
(Can.), c. 53. That which concerns this appeal is the amendment to
s. 178.13(2), supra, which prior to 1977 read:
178.13.. .
(2) An authorization shall
…
(c) state the identity of the persons, if known, whose
private communications are to be intercepted and where the identity of such
persons is not known, generally describe the place at which private
communications may be intercepted or, if a general description of that place
cannot be given, generally describe the manner of interception that may be
used;
It will be seen that prior to the amendment, it was only
necessary to describe the place where the
[Page 652]
interception was to be undertaken where the identity of the
persons whose private communications were to be intercepted was unknown. More
importantly, it was only necessary to generally describe the manner of
interception when the place of interception could not be given. Under the
present form of the subsection, all this information must be given and the
obligation to advise as to the manner of interception is not conditional upon
any other knowledge or information in the possession of the person seeking the
authorization. This would appear to reveal a much more specific legislative
intent with reference to the breadth of authority assigned by Parliament to
the court in granting interception authorizations, and a commensurate
entitlement in and a burden on the court to know the scope of investigation to
be authorized.
The plan of Part IV.1, the "Invasion of Privacy"
provisions of the Criminal Code, is directed both to protecting, and to
invading, the privacy of the individual. The very presence of Part IV.1 in the Code
is a recognition of these opposing needs in relation to criminal law which,
of course, falls exclusively in the domain of Parliament under s. 91(27) of the
Constitution Act. By the 1973-74 enactment of Part IV.l, Parliament
extended to the Criminal Code some provisions with reference to
interception of communications which thereto-fore were found in part in the Radio
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. R-1, and these coupled with extensive provisions which
take a much broader approach to the matter of privacy form a mini-Code, Part
IV.1, under the heading "Invasion of Privacy".
Much has been written about the proper construction and
application of Part IV.l of the Code. lt is unnecessary to review the
ground covered by this Court in Goldman, supra, and by the Ontario Court
of Appeal in R. v. LeSarge (1975), 26 C.C.C. (2d) 388, and R. v.
Welsh and lannuzzi (No. 6) (1977), 15 O.R. (2d) l, 32 C.C.C. (2d) 363, 74
D.L.R. (3d) 748. The very issue facing the Court in this appeal arose in the
Manitoba Court of Appeal in R. v. Dass, [1979] 4 W.W.R. 97 where that
Court concluded (per Huband J.A., at p. 115):
[Page 653]
The fact that there has been a trespass or some other civil or,
indeed, criminal wrong in the planting of the device does not invalidate the
authorization to intercept, and thus does not render the interception unlawful.
The authorization granted by the court is an authorization to intercept private
communications. How that authorization is carried out is not germane to the
issue of the admissibility of the evidence flowing from the interception. If a
trespass has been committed, then those who have committed the trespass will be
answerable in some other criminal or civil forum.
With respect, I do not accept the reasoning which leads to this
conclusion. The process of interception is a single undertaking carried out
under the authorization orders of the court and cannot be segmented into
legally consequential and legally inconsequential steps. The interception must
be carried out in conformity with the Code and the orders issued
thereunder in order to qualify the material received on interception for
admission as evidence. The evidence in issue here may therefore be admissible
under the provisions of s. 178.16 if the Court is empowered, expressly or by
necessary implication, to authorize the placing of the transmitting device by
entry into these private premises and if the authorization here expressly or by
necessary implication grants authority so to do. Neither Part IV.1 nor the
orders herein issued expressly authorize entry by the officers into the
premises mentioned in the order for the installation of the radio device. The
question therefore reduces itself to this: can the terms of Part IV.1 and the
authorizations be properly construed as permitting the installation of this
radio device in the manner outlined above? Presuming the implied authority can
properly be found in the sections of the Code and the court orders, the
evidence would be admissible.
For convenience I repeat the definition of "private
communication" in s. 178.1 of the Code:
"private communication" means any oral communication
or any telecommunication made under circumstances in which it is reasonable
for the originator thereof to expect that it will not be intercepted by any
[Page 654]
person other than the person intended by the originator
thereof to receive it.
That definition includes the word "telecommunication"
which in turn is defined in the Radio Act, supra, s. 2, the Interpretation
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. I-23, s. 28, the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission Act, 1974-75-76 (Can.), c. 49, s. 2 as:
"telecommunication" means any transmission,
emission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images or sounds or
intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, visual or other electromagnetic
system.
In s. 287(2) of the Criminal Code the words "by
wire" are omitted. The offence of interception of a private communication
refers to interception "by means of an electromagnetic, acoustic,
mechanical or other device". The expression "electromagnetic,
acoustic, mechanical or other device" was in turn defined in s. 178.1 as:
"electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other
device" means any device or apparatus that is used or is capable of being
used to intercept a private communication....
The definition of "telecommunication" refers to the
" . . . reception of . . . sounds . . . by . . . radio, visual or other
electromagnetic system".
It was not argued that the transmitter planted by the police in
the premises of the appellant Lyons was not "an electromagnetic ...
device". It was also not challenged that the operation of the device
produced a transcript of a "private communication".
It is also either agreed or not contested that the authorizations complied with
paras. (a) and (b) of s. 178.13(2); and that each order authorized the
"interception by means of any electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical or
other device".
This then brings one to s. 178.16 to determine whether or not the
intercepted private communication is admissible as evidence "against the
originator of the communication". Admissibility only
results if:
[Page 655]
(a) the interception was lawfully made; or
(b) the originator thereof or the person intended by the
originator to receive it has expressly consented to the admission thereof.
We are concerned only with para. (a) and particularly with the
words "lawfully made". We are not concerned with subs. (3) of this
section because it was not argued nor indeed could it have been argued in these
circumstances that an unauthorized entry, if that is the correct description
in law of the action taken here, is "an irregularity in procedure".
The second issue therefore reduces itself to an interpretation and application
in the circumstances of this appeal of the words "lawfully made". In
reality this is only an independent issue if the words mean something other
than `made in accordance with Part IV.1 of the Code’.
Before examining these Code provisions in detail a word
should be said about trespass, a subject prominent in the submissions in this
Court and in the judgments below. Trespass, in its broad scope, is but one of
the considerations which must be taken as having been within parliamentary contemplation
in the adoption of these extensive measures. Trespass in its most ancient
form, more properly trespass vi et armis (by force and arms), involved
direct interference with the person. Eventually other forms of trespass, in
particular trespass quare clausum fregit (involving the physical act of
breaking the "close" around the individual’s land or premises), and trespass
de bonis asportatis (relating to personal property) were developed to cover
certain particular wrongs. The action for trespass gradually expanded to
embrace wrongs suffered as the result of the exercise of indirect force. The
ancient form of trespass also gave rise to the "action on the case"
and from this the concept of intellectual trespass developed, thus further
extending the plaintiff’s rights with respect to indirect or non-physical
wrongs. From the fertile ground of trespass likewise sprang the action in assumpsit
from which in turn came the present action in contract. In the simple
Anglo-Saxon community the breach of a recognized right was a
[Page 656]
trespass, including the right to rely on another’s promise.
Eventually, trespass was narrowed down in the common law to the
immediate damage caused by the act complained of, whereas consequential injury
was identified as an action upon the case: Fifoot, History and Sources of
the Common Law: Tort and Contract (1949), at p. 185; Fleming, The Law of
Torts (6th ed. 1983), at p. 15. In the circumstances arising in this case,
one must be concerned with the consequences, if any, of trespass above the
surface of the land, that is in open space. Whether mere entry into air space
amounts to trespass has been a matter of some debate in the law. An earlier
general rule stating that an action did arise under the maxim that breach of
the close includes its vertical extension has been referred to as a
"fanciful phrase" of "dubious ancestry":
Fleming, The Law of Torts, supra, at p. 42. It has, for example, been
deter-mined that firing objects across property in air space was not actionable
unless as a nuisance: Clifton v. Bury (1887), 4 T.L.R. 8; whereas
if the object and, perhaps, in the alternative, the force, contacted a surface,
the action was in trespass: Pickering v. Rudd (1815), 4 Camp. 219, at p.
220, per Lord Ellenborough. In more modern writings, the action of
trespass has been assigned to a lesser function in the field of tort giving
rise to a remedy only for material damage sustained by an occupier as the
direct result "of another’s activity involving an entry,
whether personal or by means of animate or inanimate objects":
Fleming, The Law of Torts, supra, at p. 36. Trespass is largely the subject
of civil law rather than criminal law (see Glanville Williams, Textbook of
Criminal Law (1978), p. 894).
We are not here directly concerned, be it remembered, with
determining whether the con-duct of those who invoked the authorization order
and intercepted these personal communications was either tortious or criminal.
We are only concerned
[Page 657]
with the admissibility of the information thereby harvested.
lt is generally an acceptable starting point in examining
legislation involving the invasion of individual rights to restate Semayne’s
Case (1604), 5 Co. Rep. 91 a. The invasion here is of privacy and this
concerns both the personal aspects and the property aspects of privacy. The
inviolable nature of the private dwelling is a basic part of our free society.
This concept has long been a bulwark against tyranny of the state be it
organized as an absolute monarchy or as a democratic state under a
constitutional monarch. Indeed for three hundred years the concept that a
person’s home is his castle has been the defence of the citizen in an endless
variety of challenges brought against him in the name of the state. Semayne has
been the shrine of his or her privacy. The concept recognizes an internal
security but also an external dependence. The home is not a castle in
isolation; it is a castle in a community and draws its support and security of
existence from the community. The law has long recognized many compromises and
outright intrusions on the literal sense of this concept: for example, the right
of the community to search on proper authorization; the right of pursuit; the
right of eminent domain; the right of the community in applying zoning
restrictions and safety standards; the compulsory participation in community
established health facilities including sewer and water systems; and many more.
Most of these intrusions carry inspection rights of varying modes and degrees.
As Dickson J. (as he then was) put it in Eccles v. Bourque, [1975] 2
S.C.R. 739, at p. 743:
there are occasions when the interest of a private
individual in the security of his house must yield to the public interest, when
the public at large has an interest in the process to be executed.
The community interest in crime detection and suppression also
inevitably entails intrusion on the castle concept. Part IV.1 is a recognition
of the technical realities of the age of communications as they affect crime
detection and prevention in particular,
[Page 658]
and the right to privacy in general. It represents a balance
selected by Parliament of these conflicting concepts and interests. Intrusion
into privacy is an obvious and inevitable concomitant of an authorized crime
detection procedure. Explicitness is a requirement before legislation may
properly be found to be intrusive of these basic rights. However, the need to
express the obvious is not present in the canons of statutory interpretation.
There are four general interception procedures available under
the definition of authorized devices under Part lV.1 which are widely discussed
in the literature in this country and in the United States concerning the
subject of interception of personal communications. These four procedures are:
(a) telephone wiretapping;
(b) radio eavesdropping;
(c) acoustic eavesdropping, active and passive; and,
(d) microwave and laser beam eavesdropping.
Telephone wiretapping in some forms requires personal entry by
the interceptor into the designated premises for the purpose of installing
equipment. Radio eavesdropping, involving the use of transmitters, necessarily
involves personal entry into the designated premises for the purpose of their
installation in the vicinity of the anticipated personal communications.
Active acoustic devices and microwave and laser beam eavesdropping necessarily
entail the direction into and onto the designated premises of energy in the
form of electromagnetic waves, or acoustical waves in the case of acoustic
devices. Thus, all forms of eavesdropping (other than passive acoustic
eavesdropping by means of parabolic and other like microphones) entail either
the personal entry into the premises by the interceptor or his collaborators
for the purpose of installing equipment; or the invasion of the premises in
question by directing at those premises energy in the form of electromagnetic
waves. It should be added in connection with acoustic interception that
acoustic eavesdropping,
[Page 659]
unassisted by long-range reception devices, also entails personal
entry into premises or onto the land immediately adjoining for the purpose of overhearing
conversations. That is the procedure of interception of personal communications
in its oldest and most basic form.
Where the intercept is done by means of intercepting telephone
wires leading to and from the premises, no personal entry by the interceptor is
necessarily made into the named premises. For an interception to be made by
means of a radio device, the device, a small transmitter, must be placed inside
the premises where it is anticipated that the private communication, that is
the conversation, will take place. A hybrid intervention occurs where personal
entry is made into the premises for the purpose of inserting a device into the
telephone instrument on the premises which enables the interceptor, by
thereafter directing electrical energy into the building over the telephone
wires as and when desired, to "electrically remove" the telephone
from its hook and thereby convert the telephone into a room listening device
similar to a radio bug. Thereafter, the device can be turned on and off
repeatedly and indefinitely without any further personal entry by the interceptor.
Where the private communication is picked up and recorded by acoustical means,
that is by long-range directional acoustical devices, no personal entry is
necessarily required depending on the situs of the conversation being
intercepted. New modes of physical entry occur where the private communication
is intercepted by means of devices such as "coherent lasers"
employing electromagnetic forces beamed onto and into buildings which record
and translate vibrations on window panes or walls so as to intercept
"private communications" taking place inside the building. No
personal entry by the interceptor is required. (See Studies for the National
Commission for the Review of Federal and State Laws Relating to Wiretapping and
Electronic Surveillance, Washington: 1976 ("NWC Commission
Studies"), at p. 182, and Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropaedia,
Ready Reference and Index, vol. III, at p. 841). Technically this is an entry
into or a trespass against the
[Page 660]
premises in question, particularly if the sensor is physically
attached to the outer wall of the premises or a common wall between the
premises and another property. It would be a strange result indeed if a court
were required to construe the words of the section in such a way as to render
evidence inadmissible if obtained and recorded by radio, or if obtained by the
recording of vibrations in the enclosure of the premises by energy directed
from outside the lands and premises, but not if withdrawn from the building by
an invasive use of the telephone wires leading into the building or by
detection of vibrations in a common wall. Further-more, s. 178.11 throughout
refers to all manner of devices, acoustic, mechanical, electromagnetic
"and others". By the clearest possible inference the authorization
may refer to and authorize the use of one or more of these devices.
Radio as a method of interception entails, in its most common
form, the installation of a transmitter at the site where the private
communication to be intercepted is to take place. By the definitions included
in and related to Part IV.1, radio is included in the authorized interception
techniques so that its use is embraced in the provisions which are necessarily
broad and in the terminology there employed which is designedly embracive of
these diverse techniques. As will be seen, a detailed analysis of the wording
of the section happily produces a result consonant with the general purport of
Part IV.1.
Wiretapping, the use of telephone wires and equipment by which
the telephone company provides telephone service to its subscribers, is perhaps
the most common interception procedure or device. Indeed, the expression
"wiretapping" appears to be used generically in the present day
community to cover all manner of interception of private communications. Two
methods of eaves-dropping via telephone are described at p. 158 of the NWC
Commission Studies:
[Page 661]
Telephone audio eavesdropping can be accomplished by two
methods that involve connecting various electronic devices to this system
[i.e. the telephone system]. The first and most widely publicized method uses
wiretap paraphernalia which intercepts conversations directly from the
telephone wires and requires no entry into the target premises. The second
method is that which uses a portion of the telephone system for room
eavesdropping and usually requires physical entry into the premises.
Wiretapping is only feasible where telephone service is being
provided to the place where the interception is to be made. No mention of a
telephone number is made in the authorization of August 25, 1977. Telephone
numbers are mentioned in the second authorization. A private communication
between persons named in the authorization and other persons includes by
definition an oral exchange or conversation which occurs by means of the
telephone situated on the premises identified in the authorization and the
telephone at the other end of the conversation. The authorized interceptor taps
into the pair of telephone wires coming out of the premises by attaching a
receiver somewhere on those wires outside the premises at a point where the
interceptor can listen to and, if desired, make a recording of the conversation
between a person on the designated premises and a person situated somewhere
else and using the telephone service connected to those premises. The
telephone company, of course, is not authorized by the subscriber at either end
of the call to make use of or to permit use of the telephone wires and
equipment for this purpose. If the interceptor taps the wire at a point outside
the boundaries of the property identified in the authorization as the place
where the interception is to be made, then no trespass in the sense of personal
entry by the interceptor is committed against the property under surveillance.
The result, however, is that the voice of the person who participated in the
private communication inside the wiretapped premises has been overheard and
recorded without his knowledge or authority. The interceptor has by telephone
entered the privacy of the dwelling, or other place where the person is
situated, and recorded his or her private telephone conversation. The privacy
of the parties to the private communication
[Page 662]
has been invaded. If the interceptor tapped the lines of the
phone company without that company’s consent, other violations of rights may
have occurred. As between the interceptor and the person whose private
communication has been intercepted, what has in reality occurred? The
interceptor has, through the agency of the telephone equipment, caused a
current, an electron flow, to be passed through equipment in use by the person
under investigation in a telephone subscriber’s dwelling so as to allow the
acoustical waves produced by the person using the phone to be impressed in
analogue form on the current in the phone wires. The current bearing in
electrical analogue the acoustic waves produced by the voice of the
interceptee leaves the premises and travels to the point where the interceptor’s
equipment retrieves the signal and reconstitutes the voice of the interceptee
and that of the person at the other end of the telephone conversation, in
acoustic form. The interceptor can at the same time record the electrical
analogue for acoustical reproduction of the private communication at a later
time. A variation of this procedure enables the interceptor to send a current
into the premises by means of the telephone wires and thereby switch on the micro-phone
in the telephone unknown to the occupants so as to enable the interception of
any oral communications which occur in the vicinity of the electronically
activated telephone. By directing an electrical current into the premises, the
interceptor can, in effect, convert the telephone into a `bug’ for
eavesdropping in the room. For a more detailed description of the physical
events occurring during this process, see NWC Commission Studies, supra, at
p. 160; and David Watt, Law of Electronic Surveillance in Canada
(1979), at pp. 181-84. No one suggested in this Court, none of the courts
below has suggested, and no case has been drawn to the attention of this Court,
where it has been decided that this process would not be within the terms of
Part IV.1 or that this most common of all interception procedure could not be
authorized under Part IV.1. Yet there has been the clearest trespass against
the premises, in the civil law sense of that term, by the deliberate direction
of an electrical current into those premises in order to transport out of the
premises the private communication
[Page 663]
of the person speaking inside the premises. All of this was
unauthorized by the telephone company, by the subscriber to the telephone
service, or by the person whose private communication was, by this device,
intercepted. The electrical current acts as a boomerang thrown across the
subscriber’s property and retrieved by the interceptor after it has picked up
the personal communications of any inhabitants. The electronic equivalent
employing physical force in the form of an electric current nonetheless amounts
to an ancient trespass quare clausum fregit. Parliament has clearly
granted authority for issuance of an authorization to intercept, in this
manner, private communications at designated premises. Nothing in the Code requires
the consent of the telephone company whose system is thus invaded by the
interceptor.
The same result can be achieved by the use of acoustical, light
or radio waves originated and received by the interceptor off the lands and
premises described in the surveillance authorization. See a compendium of such
techniques gathered in the NWC Commission Studies, supra, at p. 152, and
pp. 168-83. Again the result in law is simple civil trespass on the property
named in the authorization unless the legislation has authorized such
procedures. Indeed, high intensity microwaves so employed must amount to
trespass to the person, entailing, as they do, physical discomfort and injury.
See NWC Commission Studies, supra, at p. 177. It follows, at least as
regards wiretapping and interception by energy directed into the premises,
that no trespass occurs, and even if it does, it is authorized by Part IV.1 and
no cause of action arises.
Part IV.l contemplates at least three fundamental processes or
devices which may be employed in the interception of a private communication:
electromagnetic (radio, telephone and optical), acoustic and mechanical
devices. There is no particular
[Page 664]
provision relating to each of these special types or forms of
communication. All are embraced in the same general provisions. It is therefore
clear that Parliament, in Part IV.1, is legislating with reference to the
employment of any equipment or procedure relating to the electromagnetic spectrum
(ranging as it does through the spectrum from radio waves to light waves), the
acoustic vibrations above or below and including the range of the human ear,
and to mechanical devices, for the purpose of intercepting oral (and other) communication
occurring anywhere. This is broad legislation embracing in these extensive
provisions the use of a wide range of radio, telephone, optical and acoustical
devices for listening to and recording private communications as broadly
defined. It is not "wiretapping" legislation,
nor eavesdropping legislation, nor radio regulation. It is the regulation of
all these things and "any other device" that may be used to intercept
intelligence reasonably expected by the originator not to be intercepted by anyone
other than the intended recipient. The scheme of regulation includes the
judicial authorization to intercept issued in response to a request for
permission to intercept personal communications by any device contemplated by
the Code, supported by the requisite information as specified in the
regulation. Part IV.1 has authorized the use of all such procedures. They
involve the invasion of property by directed energy for the purpose of
extracting private communications occurring therein or thereon, yet no express
authorization of the essential "entry" on to the premises under
surveillance is to be found in the provisions. Parliament should not be taken
to have authorized the use of procedures and equipment without, at the same
time, supplying the public officials undertaking these duties with the
appropriate means and authority to carry them out. This, in my view, Parliament
has done by authorizing the employment of apparatus, some of which necessarily
entails such forms of "entry".
[Page 665]
Part IV.1 did not issue from Parliament in an era of primitive
communications. It must be read and applied with an awareness of the community
it seeks to regulate. It was not the age of smoke signals or even simple
telephony into which these extensive regulations were launched. Neither are the
forces of criminal investigation, which are brought under the umbrella of these
regulations, faced with the simpler task of bygone days. Rather they are
contending with techniques employed by the criminal elements in a community
equipped with all the modern paraphernalia of electronic communications. The
reasonable needs of the community for adequate crime detection services utilizing
modern technology, as well as the reasonable need of the community for
protection from these new techniques, are considerations which must have been
in the forefront of the parliamentary mind. Part IV.1 seeks to embrace these
twin realities produced by modern interception techniques. At the same time,
Parliament must be assumed to have taken into account the size and complexity
of present-day criminal operations, particularly in the field of drug
trafficking. In my view, Parliament has clearly revealed in Part IV.1 an intent
to embrace all these conditions in a comprehensive network of regulations, and
in my reading of these provisions, it has succeeded in so doing.
Having established the offence of unauthorized interception of
personal communications, Part IV.1 proceeds to lay out the exceptions of
consent and authorization. The procedure prescribed for obtaining an
authorization is detailed in s. 178.12. The application must be made to a judge
of a superior court of criminal jurisdiction (other forums not here relevant
are omitted) by the Attorney General of a province or by the Solicitor General
of Canada or their respective agent, and shall be supported by an affidavit of
a peace officer or public officer setting forth the factual basis for the
belief that an authorization should be given together with particulars of the
offence under investigation, and "the type of private communication …. to
be intercepted". The affidavit is required to set out as well:
[Page 666]
(a) the person the interception of whose private
communication is believed on reasonable grounds may assist the investigation of
the offence in question;
(b) a general description of the nature and location of the
place (if known) "at which private communications are proposed to be
intercepted"; and,
(c) "a general description of the manner of interception
proposed to be used".
Section 178.13 provides the authority to the judge to issue the
authorization. There are two threshold considerations which must be met:
(a) that the authorization requested would be in the best
interests of the administration of justice; and,
(b) that other investigative procedures have been tried and
have failed, or would be unlikely to succeed, or the urgency is such that it
would be impractical to carry out the proposed investigation using only other
investigative procedures.
The authorization then must include;
(a) the identity of the person whose private communications
are to be intercepted if that be known;
(b) a general description of the place at which the private
communications may be intercepted if that can be done; and
(c) a general description of the manner of interception
that may be used.
Finally, and in my view most importantly, s. 178.13(2)(d) directs
that the authorization shall "contain such terms and conditions as the
judge considers advisable in the public interest". The
foregoing are the terms of Part IV.1 which deal with the application for
authorization and the contents of the authorizing order itself.
Thus we come to the interception procedure employed in these
proceedings. The interceptor, acting under the authorization, deposited on the
premises named in the order as the place where the interception was to be made,
a battery-powered radio transmitter. This device performed the same
[Page 667]
function as the telephone in the simple wiretap example above.
The radio transmitter produced the same electrical analogue, albeit on a radio
frequency, as did the telephone microphone, and again the interceptor, by means
of a radio receiver located off the premises, converted the radio frequency
analogue back to an acoustical representation of the private communication in
the same way as the interceptor did in the wiretap procedure described above.
In the first instance, the entry was committed by sending into the premises,
without any revealed authority from the owner of the premises or the owner of
the telephone system, an electrical current which transported the private
communication out of the premises. In another mode of interception mentioned
earlier, the interceptor directed light or radio energy into and onto the
premises and made the interception of private communications by extracting such
communications from the reflected energy returning to the interceptor. The
person who placed the radio transmitter in the premises entered and may have
thereby trespassed against the lands and premises of the owner or the person
entitled to possession. All these forms of transgression against the premises
named in the authorization are inherently and obviously means contemplated in
Part IV.1 for invoking the authority granted by Parliament for the interception
of private communications if judicially authorized.
It is to be noted that when the owner or person entitled to
possession of the premises in question is not a person named in the
authorization as being under surveillance and is not the person whose private
communication is intercepted, other important considerations may arise but
with which neither s. 178.16 nor this appeal are concerned. If none of the
persons named in the authorization has an interest in the property where the
interception is made, then there is no right in them to complain of the
trespass to real property as such a right is limited to the owner or person in
possession of the properties subjected to the trespass. There is no indication
on the record here whether the authorization names the owner or person in
possession as
[Page 668]
one of the persons whose private communications may be
intercepted.
In my view, the provisions of Part IVA when read as a whole
clearly contemplate, require and authorize, by necessary implication and
unavoidable inference, the placing of a radio device on the premises at which
the intercept is to be made, where the use of radio equipment is authorized for
the interception of a private communication. I therefore would answer the
initial question, which arises at this point in the analysis of Part IV. 1, by
concluding that Parliament has thus empowered a court to authorize the use of a
radio device, such as was used here, for the purpose of intercepting a
designated private communication. Since the device could not otherwise function
as an interception "device", Parliament has cast the section broadly
so as to empower the court in its discretion to authorize the placing of the
"device" inside the premises designated in the authorization whether
or not what would otherwise be a trespass to someone’s lands and premises may
occur and whether or not the owner of such lands and premises is the person
whose private communication is to be intercepted. Once Parliament empowers a
court to authorize such action, and the court does so, there is no trespass in
law.
There are, of course, differences in magnitude in the potential
seriousness of the several interception procedures which Part IV.1 empowers a
court to authorize. For example, it is one thing for a judge to authorize the
arrogation by law enforcement officers of a person’s private phone lines for
purposes wholly unauthorized by the subscriber or the telephone company, for
the purpose of making an interception by telephonic means on the designated
premises. It is quite another thing to authorize an investigator to make
clandestine entry in the night into a private dwelling, perhaps owned by a
stranger to the alleged criminal activity. It takes no imagination to foresee
that serious consequences could follow. The public interest might be damaged
far out of proportion to any gain to the
[Page 669]
community in crime prevention and detection. These considerations
are discussed in the Report of the National Commission for the Review of
Federal and State Laws Relating to Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance, (Washington,
1976) ("NWC Report", at pp. 42-44). In my view, all this was
foreseen by Parliament when it included s. 178.13(2)(d) which requires the
authorizing judge, when granting the authorization, to include in the
authorization "such terms and conditions as the judge considers advisable
in the public interest".
The issuing court must be alert to the need for a complete
demonstration of the necessity for the intercepting procedure. By its nature
the radio transmitter or bug picks up all communications in its area. It is
indiscriminate. Unlike the simple wiretap, all communications occurring in a
room or other area within its listening range are picked up and relayed to the
interceptor. It does not confine itself to telephone calls to or by designated
individuals. Its installation is a more serious invasion of privacy than the
basic wiretap installation. The latest studies in the United States indicate
that due to technical problems, unreliability of equipment and problems which
might arise upon the installation of the device, radio devices are seldom the
subject of authorization: see NWC Report, supra, at p. 44. The telephone
instrument, when modified to emulate a bug, raises the same considerations. The
nature of the place of interception may also require special precautions by
the authorizing court. Equally obvious is the danger associated with the use of
microwave and laser beams directed at the designated premises. The courts,
therefore, must perform carefully and thoroughly their duty under s.
178.13(2)(d) and pre-scribe terms and conditions which may be advisable in the
public interest under which these invasive devices may be installed. This
judicial function is the essential safeguard of the public interest in the
bilateral operations of Part IV.1 which must at once be both a shield against,
and an instrument for, the invasion of privacy. It is for the court to ensure
the balancing of these interests
[Page 670]
within the plan prescribed by Parliament.
Third party occupants of premises who are directly affected by
the installation of these devices, including those persons who may innocently
accost the installer, will be in the same position at law as individuals are
generally under the Code in their relationship to the law enforcement
process. Their rights in civil law are affected by these provisions of the Code
in the same way as in the case of investigative procedures elsewhere
established in the Code. Procedural and substantive criminal law has
long been construed in this country to include the regulation of direct and
inevitably related consequences of criminal law investigation activities. This
will include those per-sons who own or are entitled to be in possession of the
affected premises. Civil liability of the law enforcement authorities engaged
in the proper exercise of the authority granted under the order of
authorization is likewise affected and controlled by the provisions of the Criminal
Code. These provisions of the Code, s. 40, for example, will apply
to the performance of the duties under Part IV.1 of the law enforcement
agencies in the same manner as such provisions apply in the case of like
actions taken under other provisions of the Code by the criminal
investigating agencies.
The power of authorization being found to reside in the section,
the next question is to deter-mine if the authorizations issued by the judges
in these proceedings are sufficiently broad to empower the action taken by the
law enforcement officers in placing the radio apparatus in the private premises
and in renewing the batteries in that apparatus on another occasion, both
involving personal entry into the premises designated in the authorization.
An application may or may not expressly state an intention to
enter the designated premises. In interpreting the order of authorization many
of the
[Page 671]
considerations bearing on the interpretation of the terms of Part
IV.1, already discussed, apply to the terms of the order issued. Much of the
terminology of the order, as here, cornes directly from Part IV.1. The request
by the investigating agency for the authorization in the first instance, as
also was the case here, will follow the form and content of s. 178.12 and the
other provisions of Part IV.1. The court will understand the identical language
used in the application as in the Act as carrying the same meaning and will
imply the same consequences. Thus a request to install, amongst other
apparatus, a radio device, will necessarily entail its installation in or upon
the designated premises. Where the premises are a dwelling or any place (other
than a hotel room, perhaps), entry for the purpose of installation is a
concomitant to the use of such a device. This is expressly stated or taken for
granted in the legal literature in the United States over the last twenty-five
years and in Canadian writings as well. Professor Stanley A. Cohen, Invasion
of Privacy (1983), at p. 193:
Room or house bugs should be available in appropriate
circumstances. Covert entry in order to install and remove such devices is a
necessary concomitant of such a grant of power.
The judge may in response to such application issue an order in
broad terms, as was done here, or may particularize a type of device or devices
and their mode of employment. Either type of order is foreseen by the wording
of ss. 178.12(1)(e) and 178.13(2)(c); that is, "generally describe the
manner of interception that may be used". Having regard to the pattern of
Part IV.l, the breadth of authority granted to the court, the importance of the
subject matter, and the vitality of the role of the court in the legislative
plan as the guardian of the public interest, explicit response by the court to
the application for authority to intercept in many cases will require the
prescription of "terms and conditions advisable in the public
interest" pursuant to para. (2)(d) of s. 178.13.
[Page 672]
The courts responsible for these orders of authorization must be
ever concerned with the impact of these orders on members of the community who
will obviously be directly affected by them. An order in general terms
following the wording of the appropriate subsection of Part IV.1 will not
invalidate the order or affect the admissibility of the evidence gathered.
Much to be preferred, however, in many circumstances, would be a specific
description of the apparatus to be employed, the manner of interception, and
the terms and conditions appropriate to the action as revealed by the
information contained in the application for authority to intercept.
The authorization orders, supra, issued herein in my view
clearly authorized the interception of these private communications whose
admissibility is now in issue. The manner of interception "that
may be used is interception by means of any electromagnetic, acoustic,
mechanical or other device". This occurs in all the authorizing orders.
The persons whose private communications may be intercepted are those who
"resort to or use the premises" described in the order. There is no
mention in the orders of Bouck J. or Toy J. that only private communications
which occur on the telephone on those premises may be intercepted. As already
observed, there are no telephone numbers indicated for any of the premises at
which interception may be made in the authorization order of Bouck J. The
authorization being in the terms of the empowering section and not including
any limitation on the person authorized with reference to the range of
electromagnetic devices which may be used, and there being no terms of the
authorizing order which exceed the authority granted under the Code, there
is no valid reason to read down the authority which permits the use of
electromagnetic devices and which devices include, as already discussed, the
radio apparatus here used. As already discussed, radio apparatus of this type
can only intercept private communications if installed in the premises. Of
simple necessity, therefore, is the result that installation of such a device
is permitted by the Code and in turn by the order. For the reasons
discussed above in connection with the form and content and proper interpretation
[Page 673]
of Part IV. 1, I conclude that the orders herein issued by the
chambers judges, and under which the evidence in question was gathered, fully
comply with Part IV.1 and necessarily entail, by clear and irresistible
implication, the entry into the premises designated in the order for the
purpose of installing this radio device and the renewal batteries.
The third question remains to be answered: Is an interception
made by any or all of these means "lawfully made",
presuming the authorizing order in turn permits such interception? How much of
such conduct by criminal investigating forces can be authorized under Part
IV.I? Section 178.12(1)(e) and s. 178.13(2)(c) refer to "the manner of
interception proposed to be used" (in the former section) and
"the manner of interception that may be used" (in the latter
section). The devices that may be used include "electromagnetic
... or other device". This clearly includes the "device"
employed by the interceptor here, the radio transmitter. These provisions
clearly contemplate the use of radio in these procedures. Had the police used
an intermediary or stool pigeon (such as an acquaintance or a person pretending
to be a utility company representative) to place the radio transmitter, usually
referred to as a bug, on the premises, a different kind of invasion of rights
might take place. If the stool pigeon were a friend or confidant or guest of
the person being investigated, neither a breach of the criminal law nor of any
right in the civil law which would give rise to a cause of action would appear
to have occurred. The private communication would be captured as was the case
here and transmitted out of the premises. The element of consent by one party
to the communication would, of course, be there present.
"Lawfully made", in my respectful view,
refers to an interception made in accordance with the
[Page 674]
only authority to be found in the law, namely Part IV. I. An
interception made in conformity with an authorization, the terms of which
comply with Part IV. 1, is "lawfully made". No one has
suggested either in argument here or in any case cited that the legislative
sovereignty under s. 91(27) of the Constitution Act cannot support the
granting of a complete, lawful basis for an interception made by use of radio
in the manner here employed. The offence-creating provisions of Part IVA fall
within criminal substantive law, the evidence provisions fall within substantive
criminal law and criminal procedure, and the process of issuance of the
authorization falls within criminal procedure. Conversely, no suggestion has
been made that any provincial enactment could render unlawful an investigation
properly authorized under the Code provisions. No other federal legislation
to such effect has been identified. If the Code provision properly
construed empowers a judge to authorize an interception by means involving
personal entry (as I have found to be the case), the interception is, when made
pursuant to such authorization, "lawfully made".
What then is the effect in law of the entry into the premises by
the interceptor designated in the authorization for the installation of the
radio transmitter. Trespass is not by that name the subject of any
offence-creating provisions in the Criminal Code. Illegal entry of
private premises is of course the basis for offences in ss. 306, 307 and 308
(breaking and entering and being unlawfully in a dwelling house with intent to
commit an indictable offence). In the case of the latter section, the presence
in the house must be "without lawful excuse" but the entry need not
have been either a breaking or an entry with intent to commit an indictable
offence, so long as the latter intent is formed after entry. Section 73 of the Code
makes it an offence (forcible entry) to enter property in the possession of
another "in a manner that is likely to cause a breach of the peace or
reasonable apprehension of a breach of the peace". A provision closer to
the circumstances here arising is found in s. 173 of the Code which
makes it an
[Page 675]
offence to "loiter ... or prowl ... at night upon
the property of another person near a dwelling house situated on that property".
Again the offence is conditional upon the presence by the accused on such
property "without lawful excuse". The resistance to a forcible entry
and trespass is authorized by ss. 40 and 41.
The term "lawfully made", when it appears in a
codification of criminal law, favours the conclusion that it means "not
contrary to criminal law". It would not be construed without something
more in the phrase, as meaning "made in conformity with all
laws". For example, it would be an extension of the ordinary
meaning of those words in their con-text in the Criminal Code to adopt
an interpretation ruling the interception to be unlawfully made because it
contravened the laws of copyright; or because it invaded a civil right such as
the right to privacy; or indeed, because the act of interception constituted a
tort such as deceit or trespass where the tort in question has no presence in
the Criminal Code in the form in which the tort in question was
committed. This would appear to be a proper interpretative approach for several
reasons. Sections 178.12 and 178.13 authorize interception generally,
including by means of acoustic and electromagnetic devices. Some of these
interception devices entail civil trespass falling short of person-al entry by
the interceptor onto the designated premises; others entail a preparatory
entry. As we have seen, today’s technology includes the interception of oral
communications inside a private dwelling by directing into or onto that
dwelling, acoustic and electromagnetic waves, including light waves, and
electron streams over telephone and electricity lines. By means of this
activity across the premises in question, the interceptor is able to draw out
from the premises oral communications conducted therein. The Criminal Code empowers
a court to authorize such procedures. It is unreasonable, in my view, to read
s. 178.16 of Part IV.1, a mini-Code of interception regulation, as rendering
the content of such interception inadmissible by reason of the fact that the
use of
[Page 676]
almost all of those procedures entails a mode of entry into the
premises amounting in civil law to trespass.
By virtue of s. 178.11, the interception is criminal if it
amounts to a wilful interception of a private communication. The issue on
admissibility then resolves itself into the simple question: does the personal
entry into the premises of the interceptor, for the purpose of installing the
device, amount to a breach of Part IV.l, namely s. 178.11? That, in turn, takes
the inquiry into ss. 306 and 307, supra, and to the other sections of
the Code discussed in connection with those sections. By those
provisions the offence is committed if entry is made with intent to commit an
indict-able offence. This requirement in turn leads back to s. 178.11 and the
question as to whether the intended interception was "lawful",
and whether it is authorized under ss. 178.12 and 178.13. The trail is equally
circular if one starts the inquiry at s. 73 or s. 173 of the Code, supra.
Further support for my conclusions may be found by considering s.
287 of the Criminal Code which provides in part:
287. (1) Everyone commits theft who fraudulently,
maliciously, or without colour of right,
(b) uses any telecommunication facility or obtains any
telecommunication service.
Section 287(2) of the Code repeats virtually verbatim the
definition of "telecommunication", which we have already found in
other federal legislation, supra. The interceptor, in the ordinary
wiretap interception, "uses [a] telecommunication facility".
It is arguable that he has done so "with-out colour of
right" unless Part IV.1 by necessary implication authorizes the
"use" of such "telecommunication" facility. Whether the
officer has "used" the telecommunication facility may be a matter of
debate. In the simple factual sense, he has done so by connecting his
interception device
[Page 677]
to the phone wires which he then "uses" to activate
(or "actuate" as it appears in the United States
literature, supra) his receiver. The interceptor, at the same time, is
"using" the whole telecommunication facility including the telephone
instrument in the designated premises, the. telephone at the other
end of the line, and the connecting wires, as well as any intermediate
telephone exchanges and equipment through which the voice path may pass. It is
only because the interceptor does not speak and that he is not a subscriber
that he could not be said to "use" the telecommunication facility.
It would be difficult for an accused who connected receiving equipment to the
"telecommunications facility" (the telephone wires) in order to
record data passing over the system, to deny a "use" of such facility
only because the accused has not made use of the facility’s voice communication
capacity.
It might be argued that the interceptor acted "without
colour of right". Here the use of telephone tapping apparatus is not
expressly granted. If the interceptor may make a wiretap under colour of right
with a wiretapping device, so it may be that the radio transmitter was
installed "with colour of right". If that is so, the authorization
may be the basis for defence under s. 287. It would be curious if that were so,
but still not a "lawful" basis for the making of an
interception under s. 178.11(1).
The Radio Act raises similar problems. The use of a radio
transmitter, which is the bug in these proceedings, is prohibited by that Act
unless licensed under the statute. There is nothing to indicate any authority
under the Radio Act for the interceptor here to operate this
transmitter, nor is there any claim that the device is exempt under s. 3(2) of
the Act by reason of its limited power. All these considerations go to the test
of admissibility of evidence so received under s. 178.16(1), that is
[Page 678]
"was the interception lawfully made?" Similarly the
term "lawfully" cannot mean in accordance with any and all laws. The Copyright
Act might be infringed by recording some private communications. This
would not render the evidence inadmissible, and nor would interception by
means which might give rise to a cause of action in civil law. I conclude that
"lawfully made" means made in accordance with Part IV.l,
"Invasion of Privacy", the mini-Code regulating the manner and
extent of invasion.
Part IV.1 was recently before the Ontario Court of Appeal in R. v.
Papalia (1984), 47 O.R. (2d) 289. In those proceedings the authorization
order expressly authorized entry into "such places as may be necessary in
order to install, monitor and remove any electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical
or other devices ...." The manner of interception there authorized was
"by the use of audio transmitter and receiver, an electromagnetic,
acoustic device sometimes referred to as a microphone and amplifier installed
at or near ... " the designated premises. Acting under this authorization,
radio devices were installed in two automobiles and an electromagnetic device
was connected to telephone wires inside the designated premises so as to use
that instrument for the interception of private communications in the same
manner as in the case of a radio bug. Covert entry was gained into these
premises for that purpose. The radio devices were likewise installed in the two
cars without the owners’ knowledge or consent. The court held the interception
thereby made to have been lawfully made and therefore admissible in evidence.
Brooke J.A., speaking on behalf of the court, stated:
... almost all instances of wire-tapping and electronic
surveillance involve conduct in the nature of trespass and this includes
surreptitious or covert entry. Without the consent of the owner, to interfere
with a telephone
[Page 679]
line, telephone receiver or transmitter or switching
equipment is a trespass .... I am convinced that Parliament understood this
when this legislation was passed and intended to deal with the whole problem by
establishing an acceptable scheme through the use of an authorization granted
by a judge only when it was genuinely necessary to do so judged on the criteria
laid down by Parliament to permit this invasion of privacy which carried with
it the necessary invasion of a private right.
Brooke J.A. then went on to conclude that it was not necessary to
expressly authorize such entry or conduct on the part of the law enforcement
agent "when he grants the authorization to conduct electronic
surveillance" because such surveillance can be carried out only "if
conduct such as that referred to is resorted to. The authorization carries with
it authority for the police officer to resort to conduct in the nature of a
trespass including entry to install the device necessary to conduct the
authorized electronic surveillance and the officer’s conduct in so doing is
lawful".
To like effect are the observations of Chief Justice McGillivray
speaking in dissent in the Court of Appeal of Alberta in the Reference re an
Application for an Authorization (1983), 5 D.L.R. (4th) 601. The
Chief Justice there concluded that the distinction between wiretapping and
bugging was known to and understood by Parliament when Part IV.l was enacted.
Parliament also appreciated, in the Chief Justice’s view, that con-duct in the
nature of trespass, including surreptitious entry, was an integral part of
electronic eavesdropping.
I find further support for my conclusions on the questions
discussed above in the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Dalia
v. United States, 441 U.S. 238 (1979), where the Court examined Title III
of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C.,
§2510-2520, which permits courts to authorize electronic surveillance by
government officers in specified situations.
[Page 680]
The origin of Part IV.1 is obvious when one observes its
remarkable similarity to Title ill. Title IlI prohibits the interception and
disclosure of "wire communications" or "oral communications"
(defined terms roughly equivalent to "private communications"
in Part IV.l) except where a party to the communication consents, or where the
interception is made pursuant to a valid authorization obtained from a judge of
competent jurisdiction. Under §2518 of Title III an authorizing judge must in
the authorization specify: the identity of the person, if known, whose communications
are to be intercepted; the place where authority to intercept is granted; a
particular description of the type of communication sought to be intercepted,
and a statement of the particular offence to which it relates; the identity of
the agency authorized to intercept, and of the person authorizing the
application for the authorization; and the period of time for which the
authorization is granted. Under Title III the authorizing judge may allow an
interception through the use of any "electronic, mechanical or other
device".
As is the case in our Part IV.1, no mention is made in Title lII
of entry to the named premises as a means of facilitating an interception. How-ever,
there are two differences between Title III and our Part IV.1 which must be
noted. Firstly, Title Ill contains no provision similar to our s. 178.13(2)(d)
which allows an authorizing judge to impose conditions in the authorization
which the judge considers advisable in the public interest. Secondly, any
authorization under Title III must contain a provision specifying that the
interception shall be conducted in such a way as to minimize the extent of the
communications intercepted.
In Dalia, supra, the United States Supreme Court concluded
at the outset (at p. 248) that "The Fourth Amendment [to the United States
Constitution] does not prohibit per se a covert entry performed for the
purpose of installing otherwise legal electronic bugging equipment".
In response to the petitioner’s contention that Congress had not given the
courts statutory authority
[Page 681]
to approve covert entries for the purpose of installing
surveillance equipment, Powell J., delivering the majority opinion of the
Court, said at pp. 249-50:
Title III does not refer explicitly to covert entry. The
language, structure, and history of the statute, however, demonstrate that
Congress meant to authorize courts-in certain specified circumstances-to
approve electronic surveillance without limitation on the means necessary to
its accomplishment, so long as they are reason-able under the circumstances.
Title III provides a comprehensive scheme for the regulation of electronic
surveillance, prohibiting all secret interception of communications except as
authorized by certain state and federal judges in response to applications from
specified federal and state law enforcement officials .... Although Congress
was fully aware of the distinction between bugging and wiretapping ... Title
III by its terms deals with each form of surveillance in essentially the same
manner.... Orders authorizing interceptions of either wire or oral
communications may be entered only after the court has made specific
determinations concerning the likelihood that the interception will disclose
evidence of criminal conduct .... Moreover, with respect to both wiretapping
and bugging, an authorizing court must specify the exact scope of the
surveillance undertaken, enumerating the parties whose communications are to
be overheard (if they are known), the place to be monitored, and the agency
that will do the monitoring.
Nowhere in Title III is there any indication that the
authority of courts under §2518 is to be limited to approving those methods of
interception that do not require covert entry for installation of the
intercepting equipment.
After examining the legislative history of Title III, the Court
concluded, at p. 252:
...,one simply cannot assume that Congress, aware that most
bugging requires covert entry, nonetheless wished to except surveillance
requiring such entries from the broad authorization of Title III, and that it
resolved to do so by remaining silent on the subject. On the contrary, the
language and history of Title III convey quite a different explanation for
Congress’ failure to distinguish
[Page 682]
between surveillance that requires covert entry and that
which does not: Those considering the surveillance legislation understood that,
by authorizing electronic interception of oral communications in addition to
wire communications, they were necessarily authorizing surreptitious entries.
The majority of the Court concluded that Congress meant to
confer upon the courts the power to authorize covert entries "ancillary to
their responsibility to review and approve surveillance applications under
the statute" (p. 254), and held that the surveillance order
need not include a specific authorization to enter covertly the premises
described in the order.
The majority of the Court therefore held that covert entry did
not render evidence obtained pursuant to a valid authorization inadmissible
under §2515 of Title III, which reads as follows:
§2515 Prohibition of use as evidence of intercepted wire or
oral communications
Whenever any wire or oral communication has been intercepted, no
part of the contents of such communication and no evidence derived therefrom
may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or
before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body,
legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a
political subdivision thereof if the disclosure of that information would be in
violation of this chapter.
In an earlier case, United States v. Scafidi, 564 F.2d
633 (1977), the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, held that an
order granting authorization to "bug" private
premises carried with it authority for secret entry to place and maintain the
device. With reference to this issue Moore J., for the Court, stated at p. 640:
Once a judicial officer is convinced by the facts presented
to him that electronic surveillance will aid in
[Page 683]
the detection of crime, his authorization that it be used
should then transfer to the appropriate police agency the decision as to the
precise mechanical means whereby the order is to be carried out. If the
instrumentality to be used is a "bug", the placing of such a bug must
of necessity be in the hands of the persons so authorized. And such placing
will have to be surreptitious, for no self-respecting police officer would
openly seek permission from the person to be surveilled to install a
"bug" to intercept his conversations.
It would be highly naive to impute to a district judge a
belief that the device required to effect his bugging authorization did not
require installation.
It is significant that the statute, generally so detailed in
its supervisory requirements, makes no mention of any need for a separate entry
order. That the statute requires general supervision by the courts over the bugging
operation does not even impliedly impose on them the practical enforcement
steps.
I am of the opinion, notwithstanding the differences that do
exist between Title III and Part IV.1 of the Criminal Code, that the
approach adopted in the above two cases in the courts of the United States is
equally applicable to the legislation in force in this country. A helpful
discussion of the two enactments appears in Watt, Law of Electronic
Surveillance in Canada, supra, at p. 128.
In the judgment of McDonald J. in Re Application for
Authorization to Intercept Private Communications, [1982] 6 W.W.R. 533, 31
C.R. (3d) 31, his Lordship, at pp. 546 and 47 respectively, queried whether the
understanding by the United States legislators that authorizing interceptions
necessarily meant surreptitious entry as mentioned in Dalia, supra, necessarily
applied to the Canadian legislators.
There is much discussion in the courts below and in the course of
argument in this court based upon materials which originated in Committees of
Parliament of Canada, Hansard, and some materials and texts which relate to
matters discussed during the legislative process leading to the pas-sage of
Part IV.1. This Court, in Re Anti-lnflation Act, [1976] 2 S.C.R. 373, had
occasion to
[Page 684]
deal with the use to which this kind of material can be properly
put. As Laskin C.J. said, at p. 387:
The material offered by the Attorney-General of Canada
concerned the social and economic conditions under which the Anti-Inflation
Act was passed and the evils with which it purported to deal.
To the same effect is the discussion by Beetz J., at pp. 470-71,
concerning the use of policy statements and other material tabled in the House
of Commons and in Committees of the House. This material is not considered by
the courts in arriving at the proper construction to be placed upon language
used by the Legislature, but only with reference to the aims of the
legislating body and the evils with which it was then contending. See also Lower
Mainland Dairy Products Board v. Turners Dairy Ltd., [1941] S.C.R. 573, per
Taschereau J., as he then was, at p. 583; Home Oil Distributors, Ltd. v.
Attorney-General of British Columbia, [1940] S.C.R. 444, at p. 447, per Kerwin
J. as he then was; and .Black-Clawson International Ltd. v. Papierwerke
Waldhof-Aschaffenburg AG, [1975] 1 All E.R. 810, per Lord Reid at p.
814. Another source of material outside the record to which courts frequently
take recourse is other judgments dealing with the same subject matter, in this
case the nature of electromagnetic apparatus and the invasive characteristics
of present-day communication technology: see Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Realty
Co., 283 U.S. 191 (1931), per Brandeis J., at pp. 200-01; Reference
re Regulation and Control of Radio Communication, [1931] S.C.R. 541, per
Smith J., at pp. 569-71; and Composers, Authors and Publishers Association
of Canada Ltd. v. CTV Television Network Ltd., [1966] Ex.C.R.
872, per Jackett P., at pp. 877-79. Courts take recourse in the
analysis and assessment of technical and specialized knowledge generally to
texts, encyclopedias, professional journals and like sources, all as discussed
and illustrated in Wigmore on Evidence (3rd ed. 1940), vol. 1, at pp.
21-22; Phipson on Evidence (12th ed.), paragraphs 46-60; and Cross on
Evidence (5th ed.), at pp. 154-160.
[Page 685]
Before the Protection of Privacy Act was enacted (1973-74
(Can.), c. 50) several articles and texts had been written and reports made on
the subject of wiretapping and electronic eavesdrop-ping. Actually the first
federal wiretapping legislation is found in the statute incorporating the Bell
Telephone Company, 1880 (Can.), c. 67, s. 25, which made the interception of a
message transmitted on the company’s telephone lines, a misdemeanour. In 1965,
the government of the day had appointed the Canadian Committee on Corrections.
The Committee delivered its report, generally called the Ouimet Report, to the
government in 1969. Recommendations were made in this Report and, as stated in
Morris Manning, The Protection of Privacy Act (1974), at pp. 4-5,
"Those recommendations were clearly adopted by Parliament".
The Ouimet Report clearly recognizes throughout its study the distinction
between the use of wiretap and the use of electronic bugging equipment for
intercepting private communications. The Committee defined these terms as
follows, at p. 81:
The term wiretapping is commonly used to describe the
listening in on conversations on the telephone through the use of electronic
equipment and other devices. Electronic eavesdropping or "bugging" is
a term commonly used to describe forms of eavesdropping other than wiretapping.
One of the common forms of eavesdropping involves the
placing of a concealed device in a specific location to receive and transmit
conversations.
After reviewing very limited provincial statutory regulation of
wiretapping (in Manitoba and Alberta, telephone legislation), the Committee
observed, at pp. 82-83:
Wiretapping is presently used by police forces in the
investigation of suspected criminal activities. The extent to which it is used
is not known. It is obvious, however, that electronic eavesdropping other than
wiretapping is
[Page 686]
used extensively in the investigation of certain kinds of
suspected criminal activity.
The Committee is of the view that federal legislation
controlling the use of wiretapping and electronic eaves-dropping in law
enforcement is required.
Throughout its Report, when discussing the subject of
surveillance, the Committee always recognised the distinction between
wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping. In its recommendations concerning
the extent of legislative control required, the Committee stipulated that the
judicial order of authorization should "specify in detail the person or
persons whose conversations are to be intercepted, the place or places and the
facilities in respect of which the order is made ... " (at p. 86). The
Committee, having prescribed the terms and conditions to be included in the
authorization then turned to the question of the "Admissibility of
Conversations Obtained through Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance"
and reported, at p. 88:
The Committee is of the view that illegally
intercepted conversations should not be admissible against an accused at his
trial and that this principle of exclusion should apply to evidence derived
through such illegal interception.
(Emphasis in original.)
Clearly the Report was directed to the exclusion of evidence
gathered without authorization or conformity to the authorization as provided
in the proposed legislation.
Prior to the Ouimet Report there had been other writings and
studies in Canada dealing with this subject matter. See Report of the
Proceedings of the National Conference on the Prevention of Crime, Centre
of Criminology, University of Toronto, June 1965, at p. 70; Stanley M. Beck, Electronic
Surveillance and the Administration of Criminal Justice (1968), 46 Can. Bar
Rev. 643; British Columbia Report of the Commission of Inquiry
Into Invasion of Privacy (1967), (the
[Page 687]
"Sargent Report") at pp. 30-31; Inquiry
Re Magistrate Frederick J. Bannon and Magistrate George W. Gardhouse (1968),
(the "Grant Report") at pp. 11-24; N.M. Chorney, Wiretap-ping
and Electronic Eavesdropping (1964-65), 7 Crim. L.Q. 434; and David A.
Cornfield, The Right to Privacy in Canada (1967), 25 U. of T. Fac. L.
Rev. 103. The courts had also considered the evidentiary ramifications of
police investigations which made use of radio and recording devices: R. v.
Steinberg, [1967] 1 O.R. 733.
In the United States these investigative techniques came into use
much earlier and were discussed in the United States Supreme Court for the
first time in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928). The
decision of that court in Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41 (1967),
influenced congressional action undertaken shortly thereafter for the
regulation of wiretapping and electronic surveillance. There was considerable
literature on the subject. That bearing directly on the issue raised in these
proceedings may be found in Alan F. Westin, Science, Privacy and Freedom:
Issues and Proposals for the 1970’s, 66 Columbia Law Review 1003 (1966);
and that author’s text Privacy and Freedom (New York 1970); and Dash,
Schwartz and Knowlton, The Eavesdroppers (1959), at pp. 35-285; Kalven, The
Problems of Privacy in the Year 2000, Daedalus, Summer 1967, at pp. 876-77.
Government action began in earnest at the federal level with the appointment of
a presidential commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice
which reported in 1967. This report (at p. 201) clearly recognizes the
difference in vital characteristics between wiretap-ping and eavesdropping, as
did the proposed legislation annexed thereto which largely survived and
appears in United States Code at Title III. In the following year
Congress enacted the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Public
Law, 90-351, 82 Stat. 197 (1968), Title 111, Wiretapping and Electronic
Surveillance (now 18 U.S.C., §2510-2520).
[Page 688]
All of this Canadian material, and no doubt much of the United
States literature, judicial and legislative activities, were before Parliament
during the legislative process which began in 1969. (As observed in the Manning
text, supra, our Act follows very closely the Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act of 1968.) The House of Commons Standing Committee on
Justice and Legal Affairs, after a review of the subject matter, reported to
the House of Commons in March of 1970. The Committee made numerous recommendations
relating to both wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping, and did so after
extensive hearings. A government study was undertaken in April 1971 into the
whole question of privacy and a report was filed in December 1972 under the
name "The Task Force on Privacy and Computers". In June of
1971 the Minister of Justice introduced the first bill relating to privacy.
This was followed by a like bill introduced in 1972 which was referred to and
examined by the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs which also
conducted hearings and reported to the House of Commons in 1972. That bill died
on the order paper and was followed by the introduction of the present Act in
April 1973 where again the matter was referred to the Standing Committee on
Justice and Legal Affairs. Once again the Committee conducted hearings and
reviewed the bill and reported to the House recommending several amendments.
During this three-year period the subject matter of privacy was examined by the
Senate in much the same way. An illustration of the depth of these prolonged
studies is found in the testimony of Professor James R. Thompson, Northwestern
University School of Law, before the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal
Affairs, May 27, 1969, p. 1042:
Wiretapping-that is, interception and disclosure of
telephone conversations-is a Federal crime [in the United States] ....
Eavesdropping is a different matter. It may be divided into two kinds-that
which involves trespassory invasion of protected premises for example the
planting of a `bug’ in a home, or the insertion of a
[Page 689]
`spike’ mike into a common wall, and non-trespassory
actions, e.g. merely listening on one side of a common wall or aiming a
parabolic microphone at an open window.
The learned author of The Protection of Privacy Act, supra, observed,
at p. 3:
The Act in its present form was given most careful
consideration by both the House of Commons and its Standing Committee on
Justice and Legal Affairs. Both bodies studied the Act section by section and a
reading of the voluminous debates and reports provides an excel-lent view of
our parliamentary process in action.
Lengthy parliamentary contact with this matter is shown by the
five statutes, supra, enacted over many years and dealing with the
definition and regulation of telecommunication. Professor Beck, whose article, supra,
was mentioned many times in the Commons Committees’ Reports during the
process leading up to the 1974 Act, describes the state of affairs in 1968, at
p. 650:
To sum up, the limited number of public disclosures of
police use of electronic surveillance in Canada does not indicate limited use.
For a more detailed description of the devices available in
Canada for interception of private communications at that time, see Beck, supra,
p. 651, where the use of radio devices is discussed in detail. A similar
discussion occurs in the Sargent Report, supra, at pp. 30-31. The use of
microwave transmissions directed at premises under surveillance to withdraw
therefrom private conversations is likewise discussed in the Beck article, supra,
at p. 652.
Bearing in mind the amount of material gathered in the extensive
legislative process leading up to the enactment of the Protection of Privacy
Act in 1973, 1 must adopt the comments made by Chief Justice McGillivray in
the Reference re an Application for an Authorization, supra, at p. 614:
[Page 690]
In light of the record quoted above I have difficulty in
accepting the commission’s conclusions that Parliament was not well aware that,
apart from the isolated cases, the placing of transmitter devices on premises
occupied by a suspect would be expected to be done either by surreptitious
entry or by a trick.
It is not clear from the judgment of McDonald J., supra, at
p. 535, precisely what the investigating agency sought from the chambers judge;
The agents sought to have me make an order permitting the
interception of communications by microphone, and I granted the order in that
regard.
A microphone is, of course, incapable by itself of intercepting
anything and may be used in association with other equipment for both
wiretapping and eavesdropping. The judgment does not reveal the use proposed.
The learned judge then refused to authorize entry to install a
"microphone". The court may there have been dealing with a
micro-phone designed to convert a telephone into a room-listening device
energized from outside the premises, or a radio device. If the latter, the
authorization of interception by such device without means of installation is
futile. Later in his reasons, the use of "the microphone"
was limited to circumstances where it could be installed without
"trespass". Presumably, this refers to personal trespass by the
interceptor against the property or person of the interceptee. No example or
illustration was given of "acceptable entry" except,
perhaps, in a hotel room before the guest arrives.
Chief Justice McGillivray, as discussed earlier, took a different
approach. He read the legislation in the light of the evil that Parliament was
seeking to redress. Mr. Justice Clements, in the same court, in R. v.
McQueen (1975), 25 C.C.C. 262, expressly applied to ss. 178.16(1)
the same reasoning as the Chief Justice so as not to extend the application of
that provision "to absurd lengths and hamper normal police
investigation to an
[Page 691]
extent that would seriously jeopardize the public interest in the
detection of crime".
When seeking the proper interpretation of these provisions one
should ask if Parliament must be taken as intending to give an authority to the
investigating forces which could not be put to use. The invocation of powers
granted under Part IVA in aid of crime detection serves no purpose if the
authorization granted relates only to isolated pieces of equipment without any
direction or authorization that it be employed in association with authorized
devices for interception either by wiretapping or for electronic or acoustic
surveillance. It is one thing to leave too much to the discretion of the
investigative agency but quite another to stultify the whole undertaking.
It might be noted that the interpretations which I believe should
be placed upon Part IV.1 are also consistent with the provisions of s. 25(1) of
the Criminal Code and s. 26(2) of the Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1970,
c. I-23, although apart from these provisions my conclusions would still
stand. These sections read in part as follows:
25. (1) Every one who is required or authorized by law to do
anything in the administration or enforcement of the law
(a) as a private person,
(b) as a peace officer or public officer,
(c) in aid of a peace officer or public officer, or
(d) by virtue of his office,
is, if he acts on reasonable and probable grounds, justified
in doing what he is required or authorized to do and in using as much force as
is necessary for that purpose.
26... .
(2) Where power is given to a person, officer or
functionary, to do or enforce the doing of any act or thing, all such powers
shall be deemed to be also given as are necessary to enable the person, officer
or functionary to do or enforce the doing of the act or thing.
[Page 692]
Section 26 of the Interpretation Act was considered by
this Court in Colet v. The Queen, [1981] 1 S.C.R. 2. The issue there
before the Court was whether a warrant to seize firearms issued pursuant to s.
105(1) of the Criminal Code as it then was (now s. 101(1))
authorized the officers acting under it to enter onto the property of the
person named in the warrant and search for firearms. With respect to s. 105(1),
which empowered the court to issue only a warrant to seize, this Court drew a
distinction between the authority to seize and the power to enter upon premises
for such a purpose. Ritchie J., delivering the judgment of this Court, stated
at pp. 9-11:
In support of the contention that the authority to seize
included authority to search, the respondent drew attention to the provisions
of s. 26 of the Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1970 c. 1-23, and in so doing
contended that the power to search was a necessary ingredient of the power
"to seize". Section 26(2) of the Interpretation Act reads as
follows:
(2) Where power is given to a person, officer or
functionary, to do or enforce the doing of any act or thing, all such powers
shall be deemed to be also given as are necessary to enable the person, officer
or functionary to do or enforce the doing of the act or thing.
As I have indicated, I am of the opinion that any statutory
provision authorizing police officers to invade the property of others without
invitation or permission would be an encroachment on the common law rights of
the property owner and in case of any ambiguity would be subject to a strict
construction in favour of the common law rights of the owner. This is made
plain from the following excerpt from Maxwell on Interpretation of
Statutes, 12th ed., at p. 251 where it is said:
Statutes which encroach on the rights of the subject,
whether as regards person or property, are subject to a strict construction in
the same way as penal Acts. It is a recognised rule that they should be
interpreted, if possible, so as to respect such rights, and if there is any
ambiguity the construction which is in favour of the freedom of the individual
should be adopted.
It appears to me to follow tha[t] any provision authorizing
police officers to search and enter private property
[Page 693]
must be phrased in express terms and the provisions of the Interpretation
Act are not to be considered as clothing police officers by implication
with authority to search when s. 105(1) and the warrant issued pursuant thereto
are limited to seizure. The extensive number of sections of the Criminal
Code to which reference was made by the trial judge and which expressly
include the dual authority "to search" and "to seize" are
enough in themselves to indicate that the deeming provisions of s. 26(2) of the
interpretation Act are not applicable to the circumstances.
I am satisfied to adopt the reasoning of Mr. Justice Toy and
I share his view that a wide distinction exists between the meaning of "to
seize" and that of "to search". As Mr. Justice Toy has pointed
out, it is demonstrable that when Parliament sought to include the right to
search in providing for the authority to seize, it did so in specific terms ...
Nowhere in Part IV.1 of the Criminal Code or anywhere else
in the Code, however, is a distinction made between
"interception" of a private communication and entry for the purpose
of effecting the interception. Reasoning applicable to the well-recognized
distinction between search and seizure is not applicable to the present case.
Further-more, by virtue of s. 178.13(2)(c) an authorization must contain a
general description of the place at which the interception is to be made and
the manner of interception to be used. Part IV.l empowers the court to authorize
the interception of private conversations at specified locations by some
methods which of necessity require covert placing of electronic devices; and
all methods of interception included in Part IV.l involve some form of physical
invasion of the premises, as discussed supra. The Code provisions
relating to search and to seizure persistently distinguish between these two
activities as was pointed out in Colet, supra. On the other hand, as was
pointed out by Chief Justice McGillivray in the Reference re an Application
for an Authorization, supra at pp. 609-10:
Here there is no element of invasion, no challenge to a
protesting occupier .... The success of the operation is that the transmitter
is planted without the knowledge of the occupier.
[Page 694]
Here the authority is not to seize or to search, but to
intercept private communications at a particular place.
The operation being regulated by Parliament in Part IV.1 was the
interception of conversations, a separate, distinct and complete transaction.
Parliament did not divide into parts or phases, nor are there contrasting
measures elsewhere in the Code relating to these activities, as is the
case with the search provisions and the seizure provisions in the Criminal
Code.
Similarly, I am of the opinion that the recent decisions of the
House of Lords in Finnigan v. Sandiford and Clowser v. Chaplin, reported
together at [1981] 2 All E.R. 267, and Morris v. Beardmore, [ 1981 ]
A.C. 446, are not applicable in this case.
It is the impact on and the significance of Part IV.1 in our
criminal law system that leads me to the interpretations which I have placed
upon these provisions. The importance of Part IV.l is the recognition by
Parliament of the need to curtail, or at least bring under positive control,
the practice of eavesdropping by one means or another. The necessary result of
such legislation is the express and implied recognition of invasion of citizens’
rights. This is the important crux of s. 178.1, et seq. It is the
invasion of the mind through the covert discovery and recording of the voice,
that is, that makes the powers granted in these provisions so significant in
our community. It is the entry into the mind by the power to intercept private
communications and not the entry into or upon per-sons’ property that is of
significance. I find the words of Chief Justice McGillivray in the Reference
re an Application for an Authorization, supra, very apt (at p. 612):
Once that invasion was authorized the means were merely
incidental.
Once the power is granted by Parliament to authorize, and once
the authorizing power has been exercised, that which might have given rise to
tortious action in the past would no longer do so;
[Page 695]
the authorized conduct would not in law amount to trespass.
In summary, I can find no special limitation in Part IV.1 on the
use of radio devices for the interception of private communications. These
devices are clearly included in the permitted forms of interception. A radio
device of the type here employed, by its very characteristics, requires
installation at the situs of the private communication. Apart from that
specific reality in the case of radio, all other forms of retrieval of private
communications from inside buildings entail some degree of physical presence
in the sense of invasion of the designated premises by physical forces. The
very fact that the authorization must include the place at which the
interception is to be made and a description of that place, must alert the
authorizing authority to the nature and manner of the proposed interception.
The Code goes on to require the order of authorization to specify a
manner of interception as was done in the orders here. I believe that a court,
in issuing an authorization under Part IV.1, should, in the exercise of its supervisory
function, designate the type of device or devices which may be employed and the
procedures and conditions which, in the circumstances revealed in the
application, are necessary or advisable in the public interest. The absence of
such detail does not go to the validity of the order because in many
circumstances only the general clauses of the subsections themselves will be
appropriate. My observation is intended to give emphasis to the importance of
the judicial role in the program of privacy regulation as prescribed by
Parliament in these provisions. I cannot but conclude that Parliament
intentionally adopted a broad and, at the same time, detailed code of
provisions for the controlled interception of private communications, including
interception in the manner which here occurred. It is for the judiciary to
protect the public interest and to maintain in the authorizing process the
balance between the two competing elements inherent in the regulation of the
invasion of privacy in the detection of crime. Third party occupants and their
relationship to the officers engaged in installing these devices will be
governed by those provisions in the Code relating to the position of law
enforcement officers in the
[Page 696]
execution of their duties generally. The position of the
occupants under civil law will be affected by Part IV.1 in the same way as
other provisions in the Code may affect the rights in individuals
affected by law enforcement operations. Since 1977 a greater burden has been
placed upon the court to know the nature of the proposed interception and the
manner in which such interception is to be made. This in turn enables the court
to prescribe the terms and conditions which shall be considered advisable in
the public interest in all the circumstances surrounding the proposed
interception.
For these reasons, I would dismiss the appeals.
Appeals dismissed, DICKSON and CHOUINARD JJ. dissenting.
Solicitor for the appellant Lyons: Howard Rubin, North
Vancouver.
Solicitors for the appellant Prevedoros: Clarke, Covell,
Banks, Vancouver.
Solicitors for the appellant McGuire: Achtem, Alexander,
Victoria.
Solicitor for the respondent: Roger Tassé, Ottawa.