SecurityandYou.ca aims to raise awareness and enhance public knowledge about rights and responsibilities when interacting with security guards who patrol property that is open to the public.

What You'll Find Here at Security and You

A description of:

• The role, authority and regulation of different types of guards, including:
• licensed private security guards,
• unlicensed private security,
• transit police,
• Vancouver's Downtown Ambassadors.


• The public's rights when interacting with security guards, including the right to respectful and non-discriminatory treatment.



• Different options for making a complaint about a security guard's conduct or treatment.  Includes a description of the complaint process and contact information for regulatory bodies and for getting help with filing complaints.

Back to top

Background Information and Resources

The Security and You: Know Your Rights website is part of a larger project: Towards Bias-free Security: Balancing Public Safety with Equal Access and Respectful Treatment, a project of the BC Human Rights Coalition.

The larger project included:

• the development of training curriculum, tools and materials for the private security industry based on B.C.'s human rights legislation,



• the development and implementation of various lobbying tactics to effect greater accountability within the private security industry and,



• a consumer's rights kit that includes the securityandyou.ca website, a Security and You public information brochure, and a wallet card that individuals can refer to when interacting with security guards who patrol public property.

The wallet card and the information brochure are both available in the Security and You Resources section, along with a number of other important information sources about the security industry and the public's rights.

The Towards Bias-free Security project was funded by the Law Foundation of B.C. and guided by an advisory committee made up of representatives from:

• the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of B.C.,
• B.C. Civil Liberties Association,
• B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities,
• Community Legal Assistance Society,
• Concord Security Corporation,
• Justice Institute of B.C.,
• Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General,
• Pivot Legal Society, and
• United Native Nations Society.

For a detailed listing of all of the content here at Security And You: Know Your Rights, see the Site Map.

Back to top

This website is part of a project of the BC Human Rights Coalition.  The Coalition gratefully acknowledges the Law Foundation of BC for funding this project.