For twenty years, I have represented major corporate and insurance clients in civil investigations, in  an effort to uncover and prosecute fraud.   These types of investigations primarily involve surveillance activities  to monitor claimants suspected of abusing a form of disability benefit or sick leave.   These cases are generally referred to my firm by the adjuster of the insurance company or management of an organization.   As an investigator, I have accumulated thousands of hours in surveillance investigations and over these years, I have also  developed  a solid understanding of the laws in Canada with respect to conducting these types of investigations,  by applying the best practices in our industry.    For the purposes of this article, I will be discussing the federal requirements governing covert video surveillance in Canada relative to both domestic and commercial matters, including best practices that corporations can follow,  to ensure compliance with the Federal Privacy Legislation in Canada.

            Domestic cases  include surveillance for uncovering adultery, locating missing persons and background investigations.  These investigations are not commercial activities and therefore the Federal Privacy Legislation has no jurisdiction over these cases. The Federal Privacy Legislation applies only to activities of a commercial nature.  The guidelines governing surveillance for commercial organizations  are very important, as these can protect your organization, should you become the subject of a privacy complaint by an employee or claimant.     

            If you suspect that one of your employees is abusing sick leave, this is a good starting point, however, it by no means gives you the legal basis to commence an investigation.   You cannot hire our  service on suspicion alone in commercial matters.  You need a solid evidentiary legal basis to commence a surveillance investigation.   One example of a  good legal basis would be a third party advising you that the claimant is working under the table while collecting disability benefits.  If you receive these types of tips, it is important to document this information, as this will form the basis for commencing an investigation. You will also have a written record, should a complaint be lodged against your organization for violating the privacy rights of your employees or claimants.    It is important to have policies and procedures  in place to follow these guidelines and to determine what is a good evidentiary basis for your organization.  These policies will also protect you should a claimant make a complaint to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.  Surveillance can be considered to be extremely invasive of one's  privacy even when it is conducted in the public.    As an organization, you will want to show that you have exhausted other possible alternatives before resorting to a surveillance.  It may also be wise to have the claimants or employees sign a consent form authorizing you to undertake any investigations to verify the authenticity of claims early on  in the application process.  As an organization, you will also have to demonstrate the purpose of the surveillance and what you want to achieve.   This purpose should be clearly documented in your case files and conveyed to our firm by email,  in order to carry out the investigation legally.  If the purpose of the surveillance is to determine where the claimant is working, we are only authorized to carry out that investigation for the specific purpose of determining where he/she is working.   It is important to include all the specific goals that you wish to accomplish when hiring our firm.  We generally require the name, address, description, alleged injury, make model and license of the vehicle the party is operating.  We will also require the terms of surveillance.  Generally three full days to one week is standard for both insurance and corporate clients.  Our surveillance investigations are conducted in a fair and legal manner.  We use video surveillance only  when the party is out in the public , as there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, we do respect the privacy rights of individuals and  we will only use video when it is required.

             We provide detailed reports that are in a format consistent for quality assurance with respect to our surveillance investigations.  Within these reports, we include the purpose of the surveillance, the name of the party under surveillance and the means by which we can identify this person.  We include a brief synopsis of the video surveillance taken for that specific day and their activities.  This will include the number of minutes or hours of video surveillance,  make,  model of the video camera and the format of which this evidence is copied onto the DVD.    We structure the report by the dates, including all activities undertaken for the specific day.  These  reports are emailed to our clients along with the video coverage.  All copies are sent by original mail.

                At Duncan Investigations, we are licensed, bonded and insured with both General  Liability Insurance and Errors & Ommissions Insurance.   We  have a reputation for delivering results and if we make any errors in our surveillance, we do not charge our clients.  We have seen many firms that have gone out of business or acquired by other firms,  but we have found the key to any success is delivering results and keeping apprised of the laws that govern our  profession.  This is the reason why we are Canada's choice for investigation services.

           
Janie A. Duncan is Canada's most prominent investigator and  founder of Duncan Investigations Inc. (1989).    She is responsible for scheduling major corporate and insurance accounts.  
 
Ms. Duncan has accumulated thousands of hours of surveillance time, saving  major corporations millions of dollars.  She develops risks assessment plans for major corporations to target loss and conduct undercover buys.  She has assisted thousands of families in personal matters and she is the investigator that people rely on for confidential matters.  
 
Other achievements include investigating a music piracy operation which resulted in the largest seizure of counterfeit product in Canada by the RCMP. 
 
Her biggest accomplishment were helping James Driskell who  was wrongfully convicted of murder and as a result of her investigation and tenacity, he was released from prison in 2003.  Ms. Duncan was also at the forefront of the wrongful murder conviction investigation of Frank Ostrowski where she was the first to find the fresh evidence in support of his release from prison.
 
Ms. Duncan is currently a student at the University of Winnipeg and she is also embarking on a new career in Investigative Journalism.  Please visit her online newspaper at www.thebestcanadianinvestigator.com

By Janie A. Duncan, Duncan Investigations (Canada)

Duncan Investigations is Canada's leading investigation firm since 1989.  Areas of coverage include Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI.
website: www.duncaninvestigations.com

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