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Tag: Invasion of Privacy

Alberta Recognizes Tort for Non Consensual Sexual Image Sharing

In what I believe is the first case in Alberta recognizing the tort of “Public Disclosure of Private Facts” a Court adopted this tort and awarded significant damages following the non-consensual publication of private sexual images.

In the recent case (ES v. Shillingham) the parties were involved in an intimate relationship.  Of the course of the relationship the Plaintiff shared sexual images with the Defendant “as a private gift to him.” and on the understanding that “he would not distribute these images in any way.“.  Despite this he chose to share these images on the internet over the years.

In recognizing a new tort and assessing damages to address this wrongdoing Justice Avril Inglis provided the following reasons:

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Revenge Porn Leads to $100,000 Award in First of its Kind Case in Canada

When a person shares sexually explicit images with another in confidence and has that confidence betrayed by the recipient posting the images publicly on line are there recognized grounds to sue for damages?  A recent case in Ontario considered this for what I believe to be the first time and  found that such actions indeed attract liability under the existing framework of Canadian tort law.
In the recent case ( Jane Doe464533 v. Doe h/t to the Globe and Mail’s Sean Fine for sharing the case) the court set out the following facts
Screenshot caselaw
 
The video was on line for three weeks and the amount of views it received was unknown.  Justice Stinson awarded $50,000 in compensatory damages, $25,000 in aggravated damages and a further $25,000 in punitive damages along with interest and costs.
In finding this conduct to be tortious the court concluded that the torts of Breach of Confidence, Intentional Infliction of Mental Distress and Invasion of Privacy were all made out by such behavior.