Entertainment Law
Author: Christina Bulbrook
On June 6, 2016, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released its Report of Findings in connection with a complaint filed by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association regarding the television series entitled “Border Security: Canada’s Front Line”.
The Privacy Commissioner considered whether the Canada Border Services Agency, a federal agency, violated the Privacy Act due to its participation in the series, stemming from a 2013 incident in which a migrant construction worker was filmed while being detained during a job site investigation by CBSA officers. The Privacy Act governs the collection, use and disclosure of individuals’ personal information by Canadian government agencies and departments.
The incident was filmed by the series’ production company, but the footage did not ultimately appear in the completed program. Nonetheless, the Privacy Commissioner considered the complaint with regard to CBSA’s actions, including the following:
- was CBSA’s participation in the program, and allowing the producer of the series access to the activities of its officers and controlled areas, an unauthorized disclosure of personal information under the Privacy Act;
- were the CBSA Filming Guidelines sufficiently stringent with respect to the producer obtaining full and informed consent of individuals to be filmed; and
- is “blurring”, and obscuring other identifiable details for individuals who had not provided written consent to be filmed, sufficient under the circumstances to comply with the Privacy Act.