Barakat v. Canada (Minister of Public Security)
Between
Emile Jean Barakat, Applicant, and
The Minister of Public Security and
the Canada Border Services Agency,
Respondents
Emile Jean Barakat, Applicant, and
The Minister of Public Security and
the Canada Border Services Agency,
Respondents
[2015] F.C.J. No. 151
2015 FC 171
Docket: IMM-1955-14
Federal Court
Montréal, Québec
LeBlanc J.
Heard: January 28, 2015.
Judgment: February 11, 2015.
Docket: IMM-1955-14
Federal Court
Montréal, Québec
LeBlanc J.
Heard: January 28, 2015.
Judgment: February 11, 2015.
(30 paras.)
ORDER AND REASONS
·
LeBLANC J.:--
I. Introduction
1 The
Applicant seeks judicial review under subsection 72(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC
2001, c 27 (the Act) of the decision of the Canadian Border Services Agency
(CBSA) to seize two documents under the authority of section 140(1) of the Act
(the Seizure). These documents (the Identity documents) consist of a birth
certificate and a police certificate regarding a Theodora Lorraine Clarke
Iselma (Ms Clarke), a citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who is
believed to have been in Canada illegally since 2008.
2 Subsection
140(1) of the Act confers on designated CBSA officers the power to seize any
document where the officer believes on reasonable grounds; (1) that the
document was fraudulently or improperly obtained or used; or (2) that the
seizure is necessary (i) to prevent its fraudulent or improper use or (ii) to
carry out the purposes of the Act.
3 The
Identity documents were seized on March 6, 2014 as they were couriered from
Georgetown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to an address in Brossard,
Québec. They were sent by a certain Ms Juliana Paris to "Émile Barakat."
4 The
next day, that is on March 7, 2014, the Applicant received notice from the CBSA
that the Identity documents, photocopies of which were provided with the
notice, had been seized under subsection 140(1) of the Act.
5 The
Applicant, a lawyer from Brossard, Québec, to whom the envelope containing the
Identity documents was addressed, claims that the Seizure violates
solicitor-client privilege as these documents were sent to him for the purposes
of preparing an application for Canadian Permanent Residence on behalf of Ms
Clarke and that, as a result, it should be quashed and the Identity documents,
returned to him.
6 On
March 16, 2014, the Applicant sent a letter of demand to the Respondent
Minister, the Honorable Steven Blaney, requesting that the Identity documents
be returned to him by March 18, 2014. Then, on March 27, 2014, he filed a
judicial review application on his own behalf seeking to quash the Seizure.
7 There
is no evidence on record that an application under section 254 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations,
SOR/2002-227 (the Regulations), which provides the owner of a document seized
pursuant to subsection 140(1) of the Act or the person from whom it was seized
with the right to apply for its return, was ever made in respect of the
Identity documents.
8 The
Respondent claims that the Applicant lacks standing to challenge the Seizure.
Alternatively, it contends the Applicant should have applied for the return of
the Identity documents under section 254 of the Regulations before applying for
judicial review. Finally, the Respondent argues that, in any event, the
Identity documents are not covered by solicitor-client privilege.
II. Analysis
9 According
to subsection 18.1(1) of the Federal Courts Act, RSC, 1985, c F-7, a judicial review application may be brought by
the Attorney General of Canada "or by anyone directly affected by the
matter in respect of which relief is sought."
10 The
Respondent claims that in determining whether someone is directly affected by
the challenged decision, the focus must be placed on the impact of the decision
and on whose rights are affected. Considering that Ms Clarke is the owner of
the Identity documents and that she is the one that needs them for her
permanent residence application, the Respondent submits that Ms Clarke is the
sole person affected by the Seizure.
11 There
is no doubt that Ms Clarke is affected by the Seizure and that she would have
standing to challenge the Seizure either through an application for return of
the Identity documents under section 254 of the Regulations or through an
application under subsection 18.1 of the Federal Courts
Act. In my view however, there is more to it than that.
12 The
words "directly affected" are to be interpreted in the context of the
ground of review on which the application relies (Irving
Shipbuilding Inc. v Canada (Attorney General), 2009 FCA
116, [2010] 2 FCR 488, at para 28, leave to appeal refused, 33208, 2009). In
this case, the ground for the review, as stated in the judicial review
application, is that the Seizure contravenes solicitor-client privilege. This
privilege is that of the client, and not that of the solicitor. It is a
personal right operating for the client's benefit (Lavallee,
Rackel and Heintz v Canada (Attorney General); White, Ottenheimer and Baker v
Canada (Attorney General) [Lavallee]; R v Fink, 2002 SCC
61, [2002] 3 SCR 209; R v Frater,
2008 CanLII 68903 (ON SC), at para 17-18; Hubbard, Magotiaux and Duncan, The Law of Privilege in Canada, Aurora,
Ontario, Canada Law Book, 2008 at pp 11-56.1).
13 Therefore,
the privilege asserted by the Applicant as the basis for invalidating the
Seizure belongs to Ms Clarke and operates for her exclusive benefit. In R v Claus, 1999 CanLII 15041 (ON SC), 139 CCC
(3d) 47, the Ontario Superior Court stated that the solicitor may assert
solicitor-client privilege but only if he or she is acting on behalf of the
client.
14 The
point of who can claim and assert solicitor-client privilege was an important
part of the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Lavallee where it found section 488.1 of the Criminal
Code, aimed at protecting materials possibly protected
by solicitor-client privilege in a search and seizure context, to be
unconstitutional. In all three instances considered in Lavalee materials were seized by the police from law offices pursuant to
warrants and to the procedure prescribed by section 488.1 and claims of
solicitor-client privilege were made by the law firms on their clients' behalf.
15 The
Supreme Court established guidelines for Parliament placing clear emphasis on
the privilege holders, the need that they be contacted by justices of the peace
and be given a reasonable opportunity to assert a claim of privilege and, if
that claim is contested, to have the issue judicially decided. It stated in
this regard that it is only if notification of potential privilege holders is
not possible, that the lawyer who had custody of the documents seized, or
another lawyer appointed either by the Law Society or by the court, should
examine the documents to determine whether a claim of privilege should be
asserted, and should be given a reasonable opportunity to do so. The Supreme
Court made it clear that solicitor-client privilege belongs to the client:
While I think it
unnecessary to revisit the numerous statements of this Court on the nature and
primacy of solicitor-client privilege in Canadian law, it bears repeating that
the privilege belongs to the client and can only be asserted or waived by the
client or through his or her informed consent (Solosky, supra; Descôteaux, supra; Geffen, supra; Jones, supra; McClure, supra; Benson, supra). In my view, the failings of s. 488.1
identified in numerous judicial decisions and described above all share one
principal, fatal feature, namely, the potential breach of solicitor-client
privilege without the client's knowledge, let alone consent. The fact that
competent counsel will attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of their clients
and will likely assert blanket privilege at the outset does not obviate the
state's duty to ensure sufficient protection of the rights of the privilege
holder.
16 Here,
the Applicant is acting on his own behalf and there is no indication on record
that Ms Clarke is asserting privilege with respect to the Identity documents or
that she could not be contacted so that she could do so herself. The
Applicant's standing to challenge the Seizure on the basis that it violates
solicitor-client privilege is therefore highly questionable.
17 At
the hearing, the Applicant insisted that the basis of his judicial review
application was not so much the alleged violation of solicitor-client privilege
from Ms Clarke perspective, but rather the impact seizures made under section
140(1) of the Act could have on his ability to represent his clients. He argued
that forcing lawyers to file an application for return every time a seizure occurs
would cause "irreparable harm to Solicitors (or lawyers) capacity to
properly represent the interest of his (sic) client."
18 The
Applicant's goal, to use his own words, is to "stretch the elastic"
of solicitor-client privilege. The only authority submitted by the Applicant is
the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Maranda v Richer, [2003] 3 SCR 193, which was decided in a criminal law context and
which I find to be of no assistance in respect this matter. Aside from
insisting on the importance of solicitor-client privilege as a general
principle of substantive law, the Applicant did not propose any principled
approach that would allow the Court to extend solicitor-client privilege beyond
its current configuration. In particular, he failed to explain how this
"stretching" exercise can - or could - be done in a civil or
regulatory context. In Lavallee,
above, the Supreme Court reminds us that in a criminal law context,
solicitor-client privilege needs a more robust protection than in any other
context:
In the context of a
criminal investigation, the privilege acquires an additional dimension. The
individual privilege holder is facing the state as a "singular
antagonist" and for that reason requires an arsenal of constitutionally
guaranteed rights (Irwin Toy Ltd. v. Quebec (Attorney
General), [1989] 1 S.C.R. 927, at p. 994). It is
particularly when a person is the target of a criminal investigation that the
need for the full protection of the privilege is activated. It is then not an
abstract proposition but a live issue of ensuring that the privilege delivers
on the promise of confidentiality that it holds.
19 In
my view, the Applicant has failed to establish that there is any basis for
extending solicitor-client privilege in a way that would protect lawyers from
being frustrated in fulfilling their mandates. There is no indication in the
case law that providing such protection could be a natural extension of that
privilege in a criminal law context, let alone in a civil or regulatory one, as
is the case here.
20 In
any event, this, in my view, is not a proper case to explore the possible
extension of solicitor-client privilege for at least two reasons. First, there
is no evidence of any kind of abuse or of irreparable harm resulting from the
exercise of the authority provided for under section 140(1) of the Act when it
comes to the seizure of documents that may involve a solicitor-client
relationship. In the case of the Applicant specifically, he admitted at the
hearing that this was the first time in his career that documents addressed to
him had been seized under the Act. Furthermore, the envelope contained no
indication that the documents were sent to a lawyer or a law firm. There is, as
a result, a factual vacuum for the proposition that the application of section
140(1) of the Act is causing - or could cause - irreparable harm to lawyers
with respect to their capacity to properly represent the interest of their
clients.
21 The
second reason is that there is a system in place, sensitive to solicitor-client
privilege, that allows for administrative redress. At the hearing, extracts of
the CBSA's Policy Manual on search and seizures under the Act were filed on
consent. Section 9.3 of that Manual instructs CBSA officers empowered to seized
things under section 140(1) of the Act as to how to handle seizures "on
the rare occasion" where such officers "are in possession of a
document that may give rise to solicitor-client privilege."
22 The
general thrust of the Policy is to ensure CBSA officers refrain from infringing
on that privilege. It provides guidelines regarding the identification of
documents to which the privilege may apply and as to what the officers should
do once such documents have been identified. In this regard, the Policy Manual
instructs officers:
To determine the
rightful holder of the document;
To make every effort to
obtain consent from the privilege holder, that is the "client";
To request that the
client sign a declaration if he or she manifests the intention to waive
solicitor-client privilege;
To seal the document, if
it is not sealed, and appropriately mark it; and
To make every attempt to
obtain legal advice from another source.
23 The
Policy also provides that in the mail examination context, the procedures to
protect any potential solicitor-client privilege should be invoked as soon as
an officer views documents to which solicitor-client privilege is attached and
before a seizure is made under the Act.
24 There
is no evidence before me that this system is not working or is putting an
excessive burden on lawyers, and there is no issue before me questioning the
system's compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms. More importantly however, there is
evidence that there has been no application for return of the Identity
documents under section 254 of the Regulations, an administrative recourse
where the solicitor-client privilege concerns raised by the Applicant would, or
could, normally have been addressed.
25 It
is trite law that the failure to exhaust administrative avenues of redress may
constitute a bar to a judicial review application being considered (Harelkin v University of Regina, [1979] 2 SCR
561, at 574; Alberta (Information and Privacy
Commissioner) v Alberta Teachers' Association, [2011] 3
SCR 654, at para 23-26). In the peculiar circumstances of this case, I conclude
that it does.
26 The
Applicant contends that the issues of solicitor-client privilege raised in this
case are of such importance that they trump such a bar. In the context of this
case and for the reasons already given, this proposition carries no weight.
27 Finally,
assuming that the Applicant has standing to raise solicitor-client privilege
from a privilege-holder standpoint, the claim of such privilege in the
circumstances of this case is highly problematic. As is well established, in
order for solicitor-client privilege to apply, three conditions need to be met:
(1) there must be a communication between solicitor and client; (2) the
communication must entail the seeking or giving of legal advice; and (3) it
must be intended to be confidential by the parties (Maranda, above at para 42). As is also well recognized, not everything that
happens in the solicitor-client relationship falls within the ambit of
privileged communications (Foster Wheeler Power Co. v
Société intermunicipale de gestion et d'élimination des déchets (SIGED) inc., 2004 SCC 18, [2004] 1 SCR 456, at para 37; Maranda, above at paras 30 and 42).
28 On
the basis of these criteria, one wonders how the Identity documents, which were
obtained from a third party for the stated purpose of being joined to an
application for permanent residence to be filed with a government agency,
namely Citizenship and Immigration Canada, could be considered as a
communication "intended to be confidential by the parties" or even as
a communication "between solicitor and client." I am not persuaded
that they are.
29 The
application for judicial review is dismissed.
30 The
parties are given until February 17, 2015, to file and serve written
submissions on whether this case raises a serious question of general
importance as contemplated by subsection 74(d) of the Act.
ORDER
THIS COURT ORDERS that the
application for judicial review is dismissed.
LeBLANC J
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