Experts question arrest in alleged website breach

Teen says he had no malicious intent in downloading public materials

Internet law experts are questioning the arrest of a 19-year-old Halifax man for an alleged breach of a provincial website after the youth came forward to say he believed he was simply downloading public information.

On Monday, CBC quoted the young man saying he had no malicious intent when he retrieved 7,000 documents from the government’s freedom-of-information internet portal due to his interest in a recent teachers’ labour dispute.

The 19-year-old, whose name CBC did not publish, and his family members also said there were 15 police officers involved in a raid on their house on April 11. They described the search as a frightening experience that left their home in disarray.

Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor who specializes in internet law, said in an interview Tuesday it appears the province designed a website that could be accessed by many citizens with basic computer skills.

Geist said the lack of basic password protections and warnings to the public suggest to him that the police overreacted by sending a squad of officers into the youth’s home and ordering him to appear in court, three days after receiving a complaint from the provincial government.

“Based on what we’ve seen from the young man’s side, it feels like a case of overreach,” Geist said during an interview Tuesday. “It doesn’t seem like there’s any of the intent you would typically expect in a criminal investigation.”

He said if the youth’s account is correct, the notion of arrests of teenagers who access public materials online which lack security measures or public warnings “is absurd.”

David Fraser, a Halifax privacy lawyer, said if the youth wrote a few lines of computer code to collect materials on a publicly accessible government website that’s unlikely to suggest criminal intent, as this is done commonly by people ranging from journalists to archivists.

“We don’t have all the facts ... or why the documents were on the website to begin with,” he said. “However, it seems that the Crown is going to have a very difficult time proving criminal intent under this provision of the criminal code.”

Police are alleging that the young man has broken section 342.1 of the criminal code, which prohibits unauthorized uses of computers “with intent to commit an offence.”