Earlier this year, a Canadian taxpayer brought a claim in the BC Supreme

Court against the Canada Revenue Agency for bad faith tax investigation. He

succeeded in negligence and also obtained a remedy under s. 24 of the

Charter for the breach of his s. 8 right to be secure against unreasonable

search and seizure. Section 24 provides,

24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have

been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to

obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the

circumstances.

As you can see in the attached documents, the jury awarded $300,000 for

negligence, with zero for punitive damages. However, for the s. 24 claim,

they awarded $1,000,000 and ordered the Minister to apologize to the

plaintiff. I am not sure whether this has happened before under s. 24 (or in

any other context except perhaps a Seinfeld episode). But others might know

better.

The Crown has appealed....

Lionel