Access to information: law and reality miles apart

Access to information: law and reality miles apart
By Dean Jobb
Halifax
Lawyers Weekly
March 06 2009 issue

Imagine a lawyer heading into court to argue a case without being able to read the court file or the documents being entered as evidence.

Now imagine a journalist trying to produce an accurate news story about a case without being allowed to review the file or see the exhibits.

Lawyers get to see the file, of course, but that’s not the case for reporters in many jurisdictions as court officials deny access based on outdated precedents and flawed legal interpretations that critics say undermine the principle of open justice.

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, despite a growing body of Charter jurisprudence that demands greater openness. Understaffed court offices and lack of training for front-line officials compound the problem.

“You have to go through hoops — very time-consuming and expensive hoops — in a lot of cases” to get access, complains Tracey Tyler, The Toronto Star’s legal affairs reporter, who has been covering the courts for two decades.

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