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At first blush, what the Supreme Court of Canada decided in the voyeurism case of a former Beal secondary school teacher, seems like just plain common sense.

The country’s highest court ordered that a conviction be registered against Ryan Jarvis, 41, for taking covert videos of teenage girls in the school’s hallways and classrooms and that he be sent back to be sentenced, after determining the victims had a reasonable expectation of privacy in their school.

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But, the landmark decision is expected to have a far-reaching effect on other cases where privacy issues are in debate.

“I think it really puts a nail into the coffin to these arguments that we don’t have any expectation of privacy when we are in public,” said David Fewer, a University of Ottawa law professor, who, with co-counsel Jane Bailey had intervenor status at the appeal for the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and provided arguments to the court to consider.