Suing for civil assault in BC is different than claiming battery or negligence. As Judge Fleming states in the recent case of Akintoye v. White, 2017 BCSC 1094:
[94] Despite its name, the tort of assault involves the intentional creation of the apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive conduct but no actual touching. A battery occurs whenever unlawful force is intentionally inflicted on another person that is either physically harmful or offensive to his reasonable sense of dignity (Norberg v. Wynrib, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 226 at 246, 263). False imprisonment is the intentional and total confinement of a person against his will without justification. If a police officer acts with legal authority, his or her imprisonment of a person will be justified. An imprisonment will not be justified when it follows an unlawful detention or arrest (Ward v. City of Vancouver, 2007 BCSC 3 at paras. 48–49, aff’d 2009 BCCA 23, rev’d on other grounds, 2010 SCC 27). Justification is a defence to both assault and battery.
Posted by Personal Injury Lawyer Mr. Renn A. Holness