Steve Kent's privacy breached by Mount Pearl's handling of Facebook messages, judge rules
CBC
The City of Mount Pearl breached the privacy of Steve Kent by reading his Facebook Messenger chats while Kent was suspended from his job as top civil servant, a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge has ruled.
"I find that Mr. Kent has privacy rights in the disputed messages," Justice Alexander MacDonald wrote in a decision released Thursday morning.
"I find that the city infringed those rights."
MacDonald made the decision as part of court actions filed by two former councillors, Andrea Power and Andrew Ledwell, to get reinstated to their seats.
Power and Ledwell were dismissed from Mount Pearl council in June 2020 for failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
They were accused of having discussions with Kent about a workplace harassment investigation involving him. Kent had been placed on paid leave by the city in the fall of 2019.
Kent intervened in the ongoing court matters involving the two former councillors, contending that Facebook Messenger chats between himself, Power and Ledwell should be excluded from the record.
MacDonald agreed.
"The city intentionally intruded on Mr. Kent's private affairs by reading the disputed messages," he wrote in his decision.
"Furthermore, I find that this intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person."
Mount Pearl had defended its actions by saying that Kent left his city-owned iPad unlocked and his Facebook Messenger account logged in so that chat messages popped up on screen and were available without any need for a password.
IT department staff saw a banner notification on the tablet that appeared to be a message between Kent and one or both councillors relating to the harassment investigation. So city officials began to monitor the iPad for more such messages.
Those online chats played a key role in the departures of Ledwell, Power and Kent.
Kent quit his job as chief administrative officer in June 2020 before council could vote to fire him.
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