What laws limit the right of governmental entities to engage in public video surveillance?
To the extent that information about identifiable individuals is recorded, it qualifies as “personal information” under federal and provincial privacy legislation governing public sector bodies. These acts regulate the collection, use and disclosure of personal information held by government bodies, and affirm a right of access by individuals to information about themselves. Under Section 4 of the federal Privacy Act, personal information may only be collected where it “relates directly to an operating program or activity of the institution”. This has been interpreted by a past privacy commissioner to mean that agencies must collect only the minimum information necessary for the intended purpose of the activity. Although the purpose of a video surveillance program as a whole clearly relates to the activity of law enforcement, this is less clear when it comes to specific pieces of footage. It is not so easy to establish that the collection of footage of a law-abiding citizen walking dow
