A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by RCMP members who claimed their privacy rights were violated when internal police radio conversations were recorded during a years-long organized crime investigation in New Brunswick. Blacklock's Reporter says the court ruled that officers had no reasonable expectation of privacy when using work communications systems.“The claim does not plead any facts to establish the plaintiffs would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the radio communications,” wrote Justice Richard Southcott of the Federal Court in the decision. He found that sharing personal information over an open police radio channel during duty did not constitute a protected privacy interest..The lawsuit stemmed from a 2017 drug investigation in which RCMP leadership authorized 577 days of radio communication to be recorded and later shared with Crown prosecutors.The Mounties involved said they were unaware the surveillance was taking place until 2021. They claimed the recordings included sensitive details about police operations and human resources matters.According to the decision, the recordings were made without the “knowledge or consent of those whose conversations had been recorded,” and the plaintiffs alleged the federal government lacked legal justification for the surveillance.However, Southcott concluded the context did not support any Charter breach..“An individual choosing to share personal information while at work in a work-related communication channel does not translate into having an objective expectation of privacy,” he wrote.The class action proposed by two officers sought to include all RCMP members across Canada, spanning more than 40 years. But the Court found that the complaint was rooted in a narrow incident affecting only New Brunswick-based Mounties over a roughly three-year span.“I am not convinced,” said Southcott. “The lawsuit does not identify a privacy interest at stake.” The Court did not disclose the amount of damages the plaintiffs were seeking.The RCMP employs approximately 32,000 people nationwide, including both officers and civilian staff.
