A 39-year-old Saanich man has pleaded guilty in what is believed to be the most prolific case of voyeurism ever prosecuted in Canada, after investigators identified 652 individual women and girls as victims.
On January 16, 2024, the Saanich Police Special Investigation Section (SIS), with the assistance of the British Columbia Integrated Child Exploitation Unit, began a voyeurism investigation after a SIS detective was made aware of voyeuristic photos and videos being uploaded to a popular image-based social media site from somewhere in Saanich.
The investigation led detectives to identify Yin Yeung Derek Chan as a suspect. Chan was previously convicted of voyeurism after being caught filming a woman in a mall change room in the Capital Region.
On April 11, 2024, Chan was arrested at his Saanich home. During the execution of a search warrant, detectives seized devices containing thousands of images and over 28 hours of offending video that were recorded between April 1, 2017, and Nov. 30, 2023, without the knowledge or consent of women and girls inside businesses, at beaches, and in a few instances, through the windows of private residences across the region.
Following a thorough review of the evidence seized, investigators determined that 652 separate women and girls were captured in the photos and videos, and that Chan had been posting the imagery online. Detectives noted that many of the images were posted to and viewed on websites around the world, and formal requests were made to have them removed.
Chan was released with conditions following his initial arrest in April 2024 and was rearrested on January 30, 2025. He was detained by the court and has remained in custody since then.
On October 1, 2025, Yin Yeung Derek Chan pleaded guilty to several criminal offences related to voyeurism, including surreptitiously recording people in a place where they reasonably expect privacy, observing and recording for a sexual purpose, making child pornography, publishing a recording that was obtained in the commission of a crime, and breaching three separate conditions, two of which related to his previous conviction.
Of the 652 women and girls, detectives were able to formally identify and contact 40 victims, some of whom delivered victim impact statements for sentencing.
Chan is scheduled to be sentenced on May 21, 2026, at Victoria Law Courts.
SIS detectives continue to work to formally identify all the women and girls in this case. Anyone who believes they may be one of the hundreds of unidentified victims is asked to email: [email protected].
Greater Victoria Victim Services has been assisting many of the identified victims and are available to provide support to anyone who comes forward.