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B.C. vows improved court file access
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February 11, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
British Columbia’s attorney general promises sweeping changes to make the province’s courts more open in the wake of a Victoria Times Colonist investigation that exposed inconsistent access practices at courthouse registries. Mike de Jong says an outdated policy that authorizes clerks to withhold an entire file when a publication ban protects a name or other information will be scrapped and new access rules will have a “presumption in favour of releasing information.” Read the Times Colonist report.
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B.C. series probes court file access
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February 9, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
The Victoria Times Colonist has published a four-day series exposing glaring inconsistencies in public access to court records at British Columbia courthouses. Some court officials cited a legally flawed, 16-year-old policy – similar to one discredited and abandoned in Ontario last year – that allows them to withhold files if there is a publication ban on a name or other information. Times Colonist reporters also had difficulty locating and obtaining records of completed police searches. Read the first day’s stories, with links to follow up articles and editorial comment.
Commentary: "Justice can't exist hidden behind secrecy"
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Information not free in British Columbia: report
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February 4, 2010 - Posted by Deborah Jones
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The government of British Columbia breaks its own law on meeting freedom of information requests nearly half the time, reports a legal study on freedom of information. Or, in the words of a newspaper headline, the province is accused of "rampant censorship" ....
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News orgs appeal decision on publication bans for bail hearings
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November 17, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray
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A group of news organizations including the Toronto Star,
CBC, Associated Press and CTV have asked the Supreme Court of Canada to
strike down a law that makes publication bans on bail hearings
mandatory if requested. According to...
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Reviews mixed on Ontario court files access
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June 22, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
Ontario journalists have compiled a second edition of The Justice Reporter, a newsletter that explores the openness of the province's courts. Despite the attorney general's decision in April to rescind a policy that blocked access to criminal case files after a publication ban was imposed, court officials continue to throw up roadblocks to access. The Spring 2009 issue includes an access report card that rates Ontario courthouses from most-media friendly -- the Supreme Court of Canada -- to worst, Toronto's busy Old City Hall.
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Ontario reverses block on access to court files
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April 14, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray
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 The Ontario government has reversed a controversial policy that blocked access to court files in cases subject to a publication ban. But why, Dean Jobb asks, did the "blatantly unconstitutional" policy exist in the first place?
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Ontario lifts court file restriction
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April 2, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
Toronto (April 1, 2009) – The Ontario government has reversed a controversial policy that blocked access to court files in cases subject to a publication ban. Journalists objected to the policy for years, arguing it made it difficult to fully and accurately cover criminal cases. In announcing the change, Attorney General Chris Bentley said openness strengthens the justice system and "it's in the interests of everybody in the province of Ontario" to have "as much in the way of access to information as possible." Media lawyers say the move is overdue and brings Ontario in line with practices in other provinces, which recognize that journalists can review a court file even if certain information is banned from publication.
Read the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail reports, and the commentary "Rolling back secrecy on court files," published in the Toronto Star.
Review the revised Section 2.2.6 of Ontario's Policies and Procedures on Public Access to Court Files, Documents and Exhibits.
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Access to court files: law, reality miles apart
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March 3, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Feature
There’s a growing chorus of complaint that access to key court documents — informations setting out criminal charges, exhibits tendered during trials, youth court dockets — has become increasingly restrictive in Canada, despite a string of Charter rulings demanding greater openness. Court officials are using outdated precedents and flawed legal interpretations to deny access, while understaffed court offices and lack of training compound the problem. Read the The Lawyers Weekly report.
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Newsletter tackles poor access to Ontario court files
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February 2, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
Ontario journalists are being denied their right to view and copy basic court documents under questionable provincial access policies. In response, Tracey Tyler, the Toronto Star's legal affairs reporter, and Toronto media lawyer Tony Wong have compiled The Justice Reporter, a 14-page newsletter that explores the problem and demands solutions. A second edition, assessing the "media friendliness" of various courts, is in the works.
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Web access to court files expanding
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January 28, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Feature
The age of Internet access to court records has dawned in Canada. British Columbia is leading the way with online access to some 200,000 court documents and more to come, and the Supreme Court of Canada wants to post written arguments filed in advance of its hearings. But some fear easy access to registry files could lead to the misuse of confidential or sensitive information long buried under reams of paper. Dean Jobb reports in The Lawyers Weekly.
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Holding court on the web
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January 28, 2009 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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Feature
Anyone with Internet access could watch live video of the Ontario Court of Appeal hearing that exonerated Steven Truscott of a 1950s murder. Despite that initiative – not to mention a decade of Supreme Court of Canada broadcasts, pilot projects in several provinces and the ease of webstreamed video – camera coverage of court proceedings remains the exception, not the rule. But that may be about to change. Dean Jobb reports in The Lawyers Weekly.
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N.S. courts withdraw media accreditation plan
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December 11, 2008 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
Nova Scotia's courts have withdrawn a controversial plan to accredit journalists and mete out unspecified punishment to journalists deemed to have violated guidelines on access to hearings and documents. It marked the first time Canadian judges claimed the power to decide who's a journalist and to punish the media outside the normal court process. Terrence McEachern, a journalism student at the University of King's College, filed this report on opposition to the proposal for the November 21, 2008 edition of the Halifax Commoner, a weekly newspaper published by students in the school's newspaper workshop.
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Access court challenge
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December 9, 2008 - Posted by Deborah Jones
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While everyone has a protected right to speak to government, including the right to request information, do citizens (including journalists) have a correlative Charter right to an answer from government?
The Supreme Court of Canada will soon grapple with just that question.
A CanWest story is here.
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Ontario's courts arguably most closed in country
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July 15, 2008 - Posted by Dean Jobb
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News
The Supreme Court of Canada has described open courts as a "core value" as central to the justice system as the presumption of innocence. Yet at the trial court level in Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General has imposed access restrictions that arguably have made the province's court system the least open in the country. Shannon Kari reports in the June 30, 2008 edition of the Law Times.
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In courthouses in countless Ontario cities, journalists are routinely denied easy access to case files and exhibits because of outdated precedents and flawed interpretations of the law.