Does Retrieving Information for Police Make One an Agent of the State?


In determining whether or not an individual is a state agent, one needs to ask: Would the exchange between the individual and the government actor (or alleged government actor) have taken place, in the form and manner in which it did, but for the intervention of the state?

R. v. Broyles, [1991] 3 S.C.R. 595.  

It is an important question, as those who operate under the authority of the government may be subject to a different set of laws than those which regulate the conduct of private individuals--perhaps most importantly, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Under the Broyles test, whether one is an agent of the state is typically a fact-driven inquiry.

Is an Individual Acting as an Agent of the State when He/She Retrieves Information at the Request of the Police

The act of an individual retrieving information in response to a narrow and specific request from the police does not necessarily make that individual a state agent.

Ward, at para. 96; R. v. Webster, 2015 BCCA 286 (CanLII), 326 C.C.C. (3d) 228, at paras. 70-71, leave to appeal refused, [2015] S.C.C.A. No. 376.

In R. v. Saciragic, 2017 ONCA 91, the Court of Appeal for Ontario held that surveillance video of the common areas of the multi-unit apartment building and parking garage access data were recorded in the ordinary course by property management, and not at the behest of police. The property manager’s viewing of the video and parking garage data--which he may otherwise have had no reason to do but for the request of police--and then the relaying of that information to police did not make him an agent of the state.

R. v. Saciragic, 2017 ONCA 91, at para 38


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