Surveillance 
North Korea—may be closer than you think




When an owner, or a group of owners, openly challenge the incumbents for positions on the board, the board often responses with illegal surveillance.

Security cameras

The security cameras are to be used solely for security and safety purposes. Monitoring the residents who are engages in lawful activities is a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act and there has been at least one condo in British Columbia that was found in violation of the Act for using the cameras to spy on the residents.

The ruling states that the Act permits the use of video surveillance on exterior doors and in the parkade for the purposes of preventing unauthorized entry, theft or the threat to personal safety or damage to property, but not for bylaw enforcement. Nor is it appropriate to provide access to the video surveillance system to residential units through the television cable system, or to conduct a routine review of the previous day’s footage, in the absence of a complaint or evidence of unauthorized entry, theft or the threat to personal safety or damage to property.

So the manager, security guards and the superintendent are not allowed to monitor the cameras to spy on residents who are canvassing the owners for lawful reasons.

Yet far too often, they do so.

Secret surveillance
In January 2013, I attended a condominium AGM in Toronto's west-end. After the meeting, an owner took me upstairs to show me examples of where the building's maintenance employees placed hidden surveillance cameras to monitor the legal activities of a couple of "condo commandos" and/or "disgruntled owners."


The camera is hidden above the door.

I was told that for the last 14 years the board had been secretly photographing visible minorities when they moved into the condo. The security personal and/or maintenance employees were counting the number of mattresses that were brought into the units.

This was to insure that the new residents were following the condo's declaration single-family provisions. Now it seems, the cameras were being used to spy on the board's political opponents.


Looks like a regular electrical box

The camera is located in a regular electrical box. Sitting up over a service door, most people would not notice it. The wiring that went up to the drop ceiling has been removed but the camera was still there.

Here is the camera that is hidden inside.


Another owner, who was opposed to the board, was spied upon by a camera hidden inside this emergency lighting box.

A camera in here would be more difficult to detect.

What is the answer?
Keep your nose clean and always take the high road. That wins you the moral high ground and that is extremely important if and when you take your case to arbitration or court. And going to court is almost a given.

You have to either gain control of the majority of the seats on the board or take the corporation to court. There is no other way of winning one of these battles.
What can you do?
You can file a complaint with your local police department. Make sure that they rule out the possibility that this is a stalking issue.

They may not be able to lay charges but at least you will have a police report.

I suggest that you file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Why not?

Have the hallway in front of your unit "swept" for hidden cameras. Many security companies will perform this service for a modest fee. If you think that you want your hallway and your private unit "swept" on a regular basis, you can buy a camera detector for a few hundred dollars at several security stores in the Toronto area.

Finally, you may want to seek a legal opinion from a lawyer experienced in condominium law to see if you have grounds to take the corporation to court for orders to stop this oppression and to seek punitive damages.


Occupy protest mask
Publicity
Inform your neighbours and tell them to watch out as they could be next.

Inform your local media. Drop off information flyers at your local real estate offices. Complain to your local MP. Inform the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on what is happening in your condo corporation.

Regaining your privacy
If you live in "Little Pyongyang", then you may want to buy masks and black hoods for your family and visitors. Of course, brown paper bags and rain coats would work just as well and they are a lot cheaper too.

Quick, cheap and easy protection from illegal surveillance can be had by picking up a discarded newspaper, making a couple of holes in it for your eyes and then walking on to the condo property "reading" your newspaper while walking through the lobby and while you are in the elevators.

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