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“Intrusion Upon Seclusion” Class Action Certified in Ontario

By 4 Mins Read

In Evans v Bank of Nova Scotia, an employee of the Bank of Nova Scotia (“Bank”), Richard Wilson, provided highly confidential information about the Bank’s customers to his girlfriend, who disseminated the information to third parties for fraudulent purposes.  On June 6, 2014, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified a class action brought on behalf of the affected customers, alleging that they were victims of identity theft and fraud as a result of the intrusion upon seclusion.

This is the province’s first-ever class action involving the new tort of “intrusion upon seclusion”, which allows individuals to advance a civil claim for damages against an intruder who intentionally invades their privacy, without legal justification, in a manner that is highly offensive to the reasonable person.

Ontario Court of Appeal Confirms Privacy Tort: Intrusion Upon Seclusion

By and 3 Mins Read

In Jones v. Tsige, 2012 ONCA 32, the Ontario Court of Appeal (the “ONCA”) confirmed that an individual in Ontario can claim damages for “intrusion upon seclusion”.  Although Ontario courts have considered “privacy torts” in the past, the scope of such tort liability has until now been unclear.  Employers should consider this potential liability when reviewing personal information about its employees, particularly when conducting workplace investigations.