Latest news with #MeganStewart
Winnipeg Free Press
26-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
B.C. tribunal dismisses damage claim against man who shared ex's nudes with employer
VANCOUVER – British Columbia's Civil Resolution Tribunal has dismissed a claim from a woman who sought $5,000 in damages from her ex-partner for showing sexual images of her to her employer. The decision posted Tuesday says the woman sent her then-partner photos and videos of herself exposing body parts and engaging in sexual acts that were taken at her workplace during business hours. The man told the tribunal that he later shared the images with the woman's employer to expose her workplace misconduct, but the woman claimed it was done with malicious intent to cause her embarrassment and reputational harm. The names of the man and woman are protected under a publication ban. Tribunal member Megan Stewart says in the ruling that the woman didn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy because the images were taken in an office accessible to others and that it was 'in the public interest' for the employer to be told. The tribunal dismissed the claim and determined the woman was not entitled to damages under the province's Intimate Images Protection Act. The act allows the tribunal to order compensation for aggravated or punitive damages of up to $5,000. The decision says the applicant must first prove the respondent shared or threatened to share an 'intimate image' depicting the applicant without their consent. If that is proven, then the applicant must show they are entitled to claim damages. It says most of the images submitted in this case met the the first part of the test, but the second part was not. Stewart says in her ruling that the applicant had a reasonable expectation that her partner would not share the images, but that it was in the public interest for her employer to be informed about the photos taken on company time. 'In particular, I found a person who takes otherwise intimate recordings of themselves at work does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those images to the extent they are shared with their employer for the purpose of investigating alleged misconduct, whatever the sharer's motives,' the written ruling says. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
CTV News
06-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- CTV News
B.C. woman's sextortion claim dismissed after image found to be lookalike
The Reddit app icon is seen on a smartphone in a Feb. 28, 2023, file image. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) A damages claim from a B.C. woman allegedly targeted in a sextortion attempt has been dismissed – after the purported blackmail material turned out to depict a lookalike, of sorts. The woman told the province's Civil Resolution Tribunal her ex-boyfriend tried coercing her into having sex with him by threatening to share a compromising image of her if she refused. The image features two people 'engaged in sexual intercourse' but does not show their faces, according to the tribunal's decision, which was published online this week. The decision does not name the woman or her ex, for privacy reasons. The woman sought $5,000 in damages under B.C.'s Intimate Images Protection Act (IIPA), but the case fell apart after the ex-boyfriend revealed the picture was not actually her. 'Instead, he said it was a screenshot of a couple from an adult film on Reddit,' tribunal member Megan Stewart wrote, in her June 3 decision. The claimant accepted that was the case – despite seeing a 'strong resemblance' between the body of the woman in the image and her own – after she was able to track down the original video. But she continued to pursue damages against her ex-boyfriend over the allegation he had tried 'forcing her to meet him for sex,' according to the decision. Stewart ultimately dismissed the claim, noting that for a case like hers to be successful under the IIPA, the law is clear that the image must 'depict' the victim – which the tribunal member said she 'had trouble concluding' in these circumstances. 'While (the woman) initially said she was certain the image was of her because of an identifying birthmark, she later acknowledged it was not,' Stewart wrote. The tribunal member added there was no 'suggestion or evidence' that the ex-boyfriend had altered the image to make it resemble the woman, or shared it anywhere while falsely representing it as her.
