Two Kamloops lawyers are making a bid to overturn a B.C. Court of Appeal decision that found drivers have no expectation of privacy relating to data in their vehicle’s black box.
Fifty-four-year-old Wayne Fedan of Kamloops was convicted in September 2014 of dangerous driving causing death in connection to a crash four years earlier.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a three-year driving ban to begin following his sentence.
The sentencing judge found data contained in the black box of Fedan’s pickup truck showed his foot was on the accelerator as he rounded a corner at more than twice the posted speed limit.
Lawyers Micah Rankin and Anthony Varesi have filed an argument with the Supreme Court of Canada. The court has yet to decide whether it will hear the appeal.
The March 20, 2010, crash on Mackenzie Avenue, at the turn in front of the entrance to McArthur Island, killed 20-year-old Brittany Plotnikoff and 38-year-old Kenneth Craigdaillie.
All three were at a party together and Fedan was driving them home.
Both the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal rejected arguments that police required a search warrant before accessing data in the vehicle’s black box (known as the sensing diagnostic module, or SDM).
Rankin and Varesi’s argue Canada’s highest court should consider the appeal based on what they call “an issue of national importance,” including four factors:
• Changes in technology mean automobiles have become “repositories of potentially vast amounts of personal information about drivers” — information that should have protection of privacy rights.
• The decision sets a precedent for seizure without a search warrant.
• The decision is at odds with rulings in senior Ontario courts, which found drivers have an expectation of privacy in material contained in the black box.
• The appeal asks whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limits police from accessing data from devices in automobiles.