TALE OF THE TAPE: Policing Surreptitious Recordings in the Workplace

John Burchill presents a short reflection on his upcoming article, in this short piece (click here to view the pdf).

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"[T]he law recognizes that we inherently have to bear the risk of the "tattletale" but draws the line at concluding that we must also bear, as the price of choosing to speak to another human being, the risk of having a permanent electronic recording made of our words."

R. v. Duarte (1990), 1 S.C.R. 30 at 48

Using the police and legal professions as a backdrop, the discussion on surreptitious workplace recordings is further developed in the upcoming issue of the Manitoba Law Journal, RobsonCrim Edition, where I explore the usefulness (or lawfulness) of individuals recording each other, surreptitiously, in the workplace and the possible consequences of doing so in terms of criminal, privacy, labour and public law.