Voyeurism Laws in Canada

A voyeur can be described as a Peeping Tom, or someone who surreptitiously watches through an unsuspecting person’s window as they undress. The DoJ states that a voyeur is generally "a person who derives sexual gratification from the covert observation of others as they undress or engage in sexual activities," as defined by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Most voyeurs “engage in at least one other sexually deviant behaviour, usually exhibitionism or non-consensual sexual touching or rubbing,” the justice department notes.

According to the Criminal Code, it is an offence to surreptitiously observe – including by mechanical or electronic means – or make a visual recording of a person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy, if:

• the person is in a place in they can reasonably expect to be nude, to expose their genital organs or anal region or her breasts, or to be engaged in explicit sexual activity;
• the person is nude, is exposing their genital organs or anal region or her breasts, or is engaged in explicit sexual activity, and the observation or recording is done for the purpose of observing or recording a person in such a state or engaged in such an activity; or
• the observation or recording is done for a sexual purpose.

Examples of voyeurism include using a hidden camera to record someone in a hotel shower or public change room or recording images of someone in their bedroom without their knowledge.

A person would expect a right to privacy not only in their home but in such places as changing rooms, public bathrooms or the washroom at work.

A 2019 Supreme Court of Canada case provided the test for what is a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” The court wrote that the “circumstances in which a person would reasonably expect not to be the subject of the type of observation or recording that in fact occurred … ‘privacy,’ as ordinarily understood, is not an all-or-nothing concept, and being in a public or semi-public space does not automatically negate all expectations of privacy with respect to observation or recording.”

“Rather, whether observation or recording would generally be regarded as an invasion of privacy depends on a variety of factors, which may include a person’s location, the form of the alleged invasion of privacy, the nature of the observation or recording, the activity in which a person is engaged when observed or recorded and the part of a person’s body that is the focus of the recording.”