Recording a meeting in Canada: what the law says about consent

Updated 1 November 2026 · 8 min read

Short answerUnder the Criminal Code, you can generally record a conversation you are taking part in without the others' consent: Canada is a "one-party consent" country. Recording a conversation you are not part of, with no participant's consent, is a crime. Separately, when a business records clients or employees, privacy law usually means telling people and explaining why. Workplace policies can be stricter. The simplest approach: say you're recording at the start.

This is general information, not legal advice. The law depends on the facts and changes over time; for a specific situation, talk to a lawyer. We make VoiceVault, a meeting recorder for Android.

Recording a meeting is the easiest way to get accurate notes. Before you press Record, it helps to know the two sets of rules that apply in Canada: the criminal law about intercepting conversations, and the privacy laws about collecting people's personal information. They answer different questions, and both can matter.

The short version

You're in the conversation: recording it is generally not a crime, even if you don't tell anyone.
You're not in the conversation: recording it without any participant's agreement can be a criminal offence.
A business is recording clients or staff: privacy law generally means telling people, explaining why, and keeping the recording safe.
Your workplace has a policy: it can forbid recording even where the law allows it.
Someone on the call is in the US: some states require everyone's consent. See recording a meeting in the US.

The Criminal Code: one-party consent

Section 184 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to intercept a "private communication" with a device, punishable by up to five years in prison. A private communication is, roughly, one where the people talking could reasonably expect that only the intended listeners would hear it. A closed-door meeting usually fits.

The key exception: it is not an offence if the person recording has the consent, express or implied, of someone in the conversation. When you are in the meeting yourself, your own consent counts. That is why Canada is described as a one-party consent country.

Two things follow:

Don't record conversations you're not part of. Leaving your phone recording in a meeting room after you walk out, or recording a conversation between other people, is where the criminal risk is.
An illegal recording is a problem to use, too. Section 193 makes it an offence, with some exceptions, to use or disclose a private communication that was intercepted without consent.

Privacy law: when a business records

A voice recording is personal information. When an organization records people as part of its business, privacy law applies on top of the Criminal Code:

PIPEDA, the federal law, covers most private-sector organizations in commercial activity, and employees of federally regulated businesses such as banks, airlines and telecom companies.
British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec have their own private-sector privacy laws that apply instead, for businesses operating within those provinces. BC and Alberta's laws also cover employee information.

The federal Privacy Commissioner's guidance on recording customer calls is a practical model for any recorded conversation. Tell people at the outset that you're recording. Explain the purpose as clearly and narrowly as you can. Offer an alternative if they'd rather not be recorded. Use the recording only for that purpose, keep it secure, and don't keep it longer than you need. If you use a contractor or service to record or transcribe, you remain responsible for how it handles the recording.

In October 2026, the Commissioner updated that guidance with a focus on voiceprints: the unique characteristics of a person's voice, used to recognize them. It calls voiceprints sensitive biometric information, which may need people's express consent.

Recording at work

Employers recording staff meetings generally need to give notice and have a reasonable purpose, and collective agreements may add rules. Employees recording their own meetings are usually not committing a crime, but a secret recording can still break a workplace policy and cause problems at work. If a meeting matters enough to record, it usually works better to say so.

Quebec

The Criminal Code applies in Quebec as everywhere else. Quebec's Civil Code also protects privacy and lists intercepting or using someone's private communications as an invasion of privacy, and Quebec has its own private-sector privacy law. Quebec courts have generally allowed people to use recordings of conversations they took part in as evidence, but they have excluded recordings in some cases.

Common situations

Situation	Criminal Code	Also check
You record a meeting you're in, for your own notes	Generally allowed (one-party consent)	Workplace policy; tell people as a courtesy
You leave, and your phone keeps recording	Risk of illegal interception	Stop recording when you leave
A business records a client meeting	Allowed if the business is a party	Privacy law: notice, purpose, consent, safekeeping
An employer records staff meetings	Allowed if the employer is a party	Provincial or federal privacy law; collective agreements
A video call with people in US states	Canadian rule as above	Some US states require everyone's consent

AI note takers and consent

AI note takers raise the same questions, plus two more:

Where does the recording go? Cloud services upload the audio to their servers, often outside Canada, to transcribe and summarize it. For a business, that is personal information handled by a service provider, and you stay accountable for it.
Does it build voiceprints? Some tools learn people's voices so they can recognize them in future meetings. Given the Commissioner's view of voiceprints as sensitive biometric information, check what your tool does and get consent where needed.

For comparison, VoiceVault records, transcribes and summarizes on your Android phone, with no account and nothing uploaded to us. Its speaker labels come from grouping voices within a single recording on the phone; it doesn't keep voiceprints to recognize people across recordings. That keeps the privacy questions small, but it doesn't change the consent rules above. For more on this, see AI notes for confidential meetings.

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A simple checklist before you record

Say it at the start: "I'm recording this so I can write up accurate notes. Is everyone OK with that?"
Put it in the invite for regular or external meetings.
Offer to stop for sensitive parts, and do it.
Stop when you leave the room.
Keep it safe: a locked phone, and backups only where your organization allows.
Share the summary, not the audio, unless people need the full record.
Delete it when you no longer need it.

Questions

Is Canada a one-party consent country?

Yes, for criminal law. Section 184 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to intercept a private communication, but not when one of the people in the conversation consents. If you are in the conversation, your own consent is enough. Privacy law and workplace rules can still require you to tell people.

Can I record a meeting with my boss without telling them?

If you are in the meeting, it is generally not a crime. It can still break a workplace policy or collective agreement, and it can damage trust. If you are worried about how a meeting will go, consider asking openly whether you can record it, or get advice from a lawyer or your union.

Can I leave my phone recording in a meeting I'm not attending?

This is where the criminal risk is. If you are not part of the conversation and no one in it has agreed, recording it can be an illegal interception. Stop the recording when you leave the room.

Does a business have to tell customers it is recording a meeting?

Generally, yes. Recording someone's voice collects their personal information, and federal and provincial privacy laws require organizations to explain the purpose and get consent, with limited exceptions. The federal privacy commissioner's guidance on recorded calls is a good model: say it at the start, say why, and offer an alternative.

Are the rules different in Quebec?

The Criminal Code is the same across Canada. Quebec also has its own Civil Code privacy rules and a private-sector privacy law, so businesses there should check how those apply. Quebec courts have generally accepted a participant's own recording as evidence, but not in every case.

Can a recording be used as evidence?

Often, but a court or tribunal decides case by case. How the recording was made, whether it is complete and whether it breached someone's rights can all matter.

Sources

Laws and guidance were checked on 1 November 2026. Follow the links for the current text.