A private investigation agency is permitted to sell the services of private investigators. An individual licensee is not generally allowed to market those services unless they themselves are a sole proprietorship and are an agency.

In order to become licensed as an agency, a company or sole proprietor will have to be screened by the relevant Ministry in the province, will generally have to meet some professional liability insurance or bonding requirements and may be required to meet some financial capacity threshold.  There may also be inspections performed of the agency’s location by the provincial representatives to ensure that there is sufficient security in place to protect evidence and personal information.

Individual licensees are the practitioners of the trade. The licensing requirements vary from province to province, but in general the licensees will be required to obtain some formal training, pass a provincial test and pass the background checks performed by the Ministry.

Some provinces, such as Ontario, have legislation to allow a business, whose primary function is not private investigation, to have individual licensees work for them in an investigative capacity. These are typically corporations which have a corporate security department where investigations are conducted. For example, a technology company may have investigators on staff who investigate theft, intellectual property violations or personnel issues. These licensees must themselves hold individual licenses but the corporation must register as a “business entity”, not as an investigation agency.

If you think your corporation might be required to be registered as a business entity then it is important to contact the provincial authority of the province where you perform work to check.

Many US and international firms will have a primary point of contact in Canada for the purpose of conducting investigations. They may be located in one province, such as Ontario, but the focus of the investigation may be in another province, such as Alberta. In these cases clients have several options:

• They can rely on their primary investigations vendor to source a local investigator in the province at issue. This is often the most cost effective and successful method as the primary vendor may have contacts in other provinces for just this purpose. They may have knowledge of which firms provide good service.

• The client can attempt to source the local vendor themselves. This takes some time and effort, but can be done.

• The client can have the primary vendor travel to the province in question to conduct the investigation. This approach is more expensive, but is appropriate in some cases. For example if the primary vendor has specific skills, such as product authentication that are required in the case. Conducting searches of locations or interviews of specific witlessness are also examples of when it may be appropriate to have the primary vendor travel to another province.

Where the primary vendor is travelling to another province to conduct an investigation it is important that they understand the laws and regulations governing private investigators in that province. For example in Manitoba it is permissible for an investigator from outside of the province to enter the province to conduct an investigation so long as the individual is licensed in their home province, is employed by an agency and the investigation is partially in Manitoba and partially outside of Manitoba.

In other provinces, such as British Columbia the investigator has to obtain permission from the Registrar to enter the province for the investigation. This is usually done by way of temporary license.

In most provinces the private investigation legislation does not apply to certain classes of professionals, such as law enforcement or lawyers. In addition private investigator legislation is not the only body of law which affects investigation activities. The practitioner must also consider the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Criminal Code and provincial trespassing laws in the conduct of their activities.

The client’s standards of conduct must also be considered.

At KeyNorth, we service corporations who are interested in pursuing infringers in an aggressive but ethical way. We are also a “training entity” registered with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services of Ontario and provide the requisite training to prospective licensees in this province.  We therefore have a unique perspective on this subject.

If you are a brand holder considering investigation activities in Canada and would like to learn more about the legislation governing private investigators, please contact us.

The inforgraphic itself was developed by the Carrington College’s pharmacy technician training program.

The topic will be Fraud in the Public Sector: Emerging Issues.

For more information and to RSVP, please see the attached invitation: Welch LLP Lunch & Learn_Jan 22, 2013.

Please visit often as new opportunities will also be posted here.

For more information, please see the information from our previous post, or contact us.

It is generally understood in this field that ignoring the information that is available on or through the Internent can be detrimental to any investigation or information gathering exercise. Furthermore, we have been providing instructional services to the Canadian public and private sector through post-secondary institutions  and associations for the past several years. Throughout that time, we’ve identified an unmet need for these courses for professionals in public sector investigative bodies, police and law enforcement agencies, corporate security groups and private investigation agencies. This course will address that need.

For further details about the course, please click on this link: IIR Course Information – June 26-2012. Please email us at training@keynorthgroup.com or visit our contact us page if you have any questions.

For more information, please visit our Contact Us page.

Why did we change? We changed because we’re a growing and evolving company. Under the KeyNorth brand we are better able to articulate our service offerings and are also better equipped to explain how we add value to an investigation or fraud prevention engagement.

In summary, we provide intelligence led solutions for white collar crime investigation and prevention in the following areas:

• Investigation and Litigation Support
• Government Fraud and Corruption Investigations
• Intellectual Property Rights Violation/Brand Protection Investigations
• Fraud Prevention and Risk Management Services
• Law Enforcement, Private Security and Investigation Personnel Training

For those who know us, rest assured that despite the evolution that our company has been undergoing our clients can still expect the same knowledgeable, efficient and client focused service from our professionals. Visitors to our site can still expect insightful blog posts containing information on trends and topics in the investigation and fraud prevention field (probably more so). We still invest heavily in our people and in the tools that have developed our reputation for being thought leaders in our field; and of course we’ll still be an active participant in our community and in our industry.

Please take some time to look through our website. If you have any questions about our services please reach out and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.

It is called Industry Best Practices to Mitigate Counterfeiting. The opinions and advice is general, with a few specific suggestions and some references to various processes, technologies and applications. It’s worth the read.