What is the test for privacy protection in the context of search and seizure?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Engum v. HMTQ, 2002 BCSC 156 (CanLII):

An analysis of this nature requires the balancing of the interests of the state with those of the individual. As Dickson J. said in Hunter v. Southam Inc., supra, at p. 108: 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" 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.

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