Privacy Rights in Ontario – Can I Sue for Breach of Privacy?
Ontario does not have any privacy legislation that is applicable to the private sector. However, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies to private sector organizations that are not federally regulated, as well as federally-regulated organizations, in respect of personal information that the organization collects, uses or discloses in the course of commercial activities. “Personal information” is defined as information about an identifiable individual. Ontario has not codified a statutory tort of invasion of privacy as has been done in some other provinces (see Jones v. Tsige, 2012 ONCA 32 (CanLII), paras. 51-53). Also, there isn’t a broad common law tort of “invasion of privacy” in Canada. Instead, the concept is divided into four separate torts, most of which have only been recently recognized by the Ontario courts. In Jones v. Tsige, the first decision to recognize the tort of intrusion upon seclusion, the Court of Appeal explained