Is privacy a fundamental right under s. 8 of the Charter?

118 In Hunter v. Southam Inc., 1984 CanLII 33 (SCC), [1984] 2 S.C.R. 145, Dickson J. made it clear that the expectation of privacy was at the forefront of a s. 8 Charter analysis. The following passage, at pp. 159‑60, from this landmark search and seizure case is noteworthy in this regard: The guarantee of security from unreasonable search and seizure only protects a reasonable expectation. This limitation on the right guaranteed by s. 8, whether it is expressed negatively as freedom from "unreasonable" search and seizure, or positively as an entitlement to a "reasonable" expectation of privacy, indicates that an assessment must be made as to whether in a particular situation the public's interest in being left alone by government must give way to the government's interest in intruding on the individual's privacy in order to advance its goals, notably those of law enforcement. [Emphasis in original.]