ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KING'S COLLEGE IN HALIFAX AND AUTHOR OF MEDIA LAW FOR CANADIAN JOURNALISTS
"The administration of justice thrives on exposure to light – and withers under a cloud of secrecy," Justice Morris Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada wrote in a 2005 ruling upholding the media's Charter-guaranteed right to gather and report the news.
Yet since 2006, clerks at courthouses across Ontario have cast a "cloud of secrecy" over sexual assaults, extortions and a host of other serious crimes. They refused to allow journalists to see the court file – documents clearly on the public record – if there was a ban on publishing information that could identity the victim or a witness.
The reason? A policy of the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General that deemed such files "not accessible to the public without judicial direction."
A reporter or citizen seeking access, the policy stated, "must make an application to the court" – an expensive and time-consuming process.
That was the practice until last week, when Attorney General Chris Bentley lifted the restriction and acknowledged "the administration of justice is strengthened by being open."