Private security and fundamental rights : Sécurité privée et droits fondamentaux

In many cases, the courts have had to determine the circumstances under which the actions of private security guards were or were not subject to review based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.1 We shall begin by describing the trends in the judicial decisions concerning the applicability of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the field of private security before considering [...] The determination as to whether the Charter applies is not made on the basis of the action of the security guard but rather on the basis of the relationship that exists between the guard and the State when the action is taken. [...] The Supreme Court upheld the trial judge’s decision to exclude the evidence obtained without a warrant by the police on the sole ground that the employee of the bus depot had opened the locker at the express request of the police. [...] We may conclude from this decision and the one in Buhay that the unreasonable nature of an act of a person does not trigger the application of section 8 of the Charter, even though it is established the person conducting the unreasonable search or seizure hands the results of the seizure to the police. [...] Consequently, as long as the Supreme Court of Canada has not decided the issue of the application of the Charter to citizens’ arrests, the courts in Nova Scotia will be required to follow the decision of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in Skeir.