The Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear the request of a group of journalistic organizations, including La Presse, which wishes to be able to challenge the confidentiality orders issued in the case of the mysterious secret criminal trial held in Quebec recently.
Without the intervention of Canada’s highest court, this kind of arrangement to keep the public in the dark and condemn citizens out of sight “could be repeated across the country”, warned the media in their opinion of application for leave to appeal.
Journalistic organizations that have taken this action include La Presse, Radio-Canada, La Presse Canadienne, The Gazette, Quebecor and the daily newspapers of the Coops de l’information.
“This application for leave to appeal raises important issues that are at the heart of Canadian democracy,” the media lawyers wrote in a document sent to the Supreme Court.
They had stressed that it is essential for citizens to be able to follow the actions of the courts in the country. “Indeed, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and their corollary, the public’s right to information, are pillars of democracy. At the heart of these fundamental rights and freedoms is the principle of the publicity of judicial proceedings”, specified the text signed by the hand of Me Christian Leblanc, of the firm Fasken Martineau Dumoulin.
The Attorney General of Quebec, who also challenged the confidentiality orders at the request of Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barette, also saw his request for leave to appeal granted. Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec Lucie Rondeau was also recognized as an intervener in the case by the Supreme Court.
Now that the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, representations on the merits will take place at a later date.
On March 25, LaPresse revealed the recent holding in Quebec of a secret criminal trial of which all traces have been erased. The accused in this case was a police informant charged with a crime, the nature of which remains confidential and who received a sentence that was kept secret. No case number was available, the proceedings were held in a “complete and total closed door”, witnesses were allegedly questioned out of court, the judgment has not been published, and to this day, even the name of the judge remains unknown.
This arrangement between the parties prevented the Law Society from exercising control over the behavior of the lawyers involved and concealed from the public the understanding reached between the police, the Crown and the valuable informant.
The Court of Appeal then overturned the accused’s conviction and decried this way of doing things “contrary to the fundamental principles” of justice and “incompatible with the values of a liberal democracy”.
However, they refused to make public the names of the prosecutors, defense lawyers and the judge involved in this extraordinary procedure. They did not give details of the nature of the charges or the sentence imposed, information which the media said could be relayed without compromising the safety of the police informant. The media have made it clear on several occasions that they agree that the identity of this informant should be protected.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), which led the prosecution in this extraordinary exercise, still refuses to explain its conduct. The organization never said how the defendant could have served his sentence and how his conduct could have been monitored after his conviction.
In November, La Presse revealed excerpts of email and text message exchanges that show Justice Minister David Lametti and his cabinet were in close contact with Federal Crown Patron Kathleen Roussel over this controversial subject.
The former superior of the prosecutors involved in the Montreal office of the federal crown, Me André Albert Morin, who is now a member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, told La Presse that he had not authorized his prosecutors to proceed with the way described by the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
