A common front of journalistic organizations is initiating proceedings before the Quebec Court of Appeal to annul the orders prohibiting access to the file of the mysterious “secret trial” denounced by the judiciary, the Bar and several elected officials.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
A motion was presented to the Court by a group made up of The PressRadio-Canada/CBC, the Montreal Gazette as well as the National Cooperative of Independent Information, which brings together the daily newspapers The sun, The gallery, The right, Le Nouvelliste, The Daily and The Voice of the East.
These media are calling for the cancellation of the confidentiality and sealing orders on the case, as well as a new debate on what information should be kept confidential in this case to protect the identity of a police informant. This time, this debate would not be conducted in secret, as it has been the case until now.
“The orders restricting the publicity of court proceedings and the accessibility of Court records, both at first instance and on appeal, were issued in the absence of representatives of the media to whom no notice was given. They contravene the applicable rules of law stated and confirmed on many occasions by the Supreme Court of Canada”, specifies the request.
Prevent the public from judging
“The orders made in this case, and more generally the manner in which it was conducted, ensure that the public never even had the chance to be informed of what transpired in court of first instance. They have prevented the public from analyzing and judging the legal action,” the document continues.
The plaintiffs claim that the situation is aggravated by the fact that the very existence of the lawsuit and the proceedings have never been revealed until now.
There is a huge difference between knowing that part of a trial is taking place behind closed doors, for example, and ignoring the very existence of this trial, because no court file is open or attached to a procedure.
Excerpt from the request
The petition, signed by Mr.and Patricia Hénault, of the firm Fasken Martineau Dumoulin, affirms that the existence of this secret trial constitutes a major hitch to democracy. She cites a 2005 Supreme Court decision on the importance of open court proceedings.
“In any constitutional environment, the administration of justice flourishes in broad daylight – and withers under the veil of secrecy,” said the highest court in the country.
Quebecor litigation in the battle
Another request presented in parallel by the media of Quebecor demands the lifting of the seals and access to the entire file so that the lawyers of the media group can present their own arguments on what should or should not be censored in the procedures.
“By virtue of the principle of accessibility of the Court’s files, of the publicity of judicial proceedings, as well as of the freedom of the press and its corollary, the collection of information, the applicants are entitled to have access to the Court file and all the documents it contains”, underlines this request, signed by Mand Julien Meunier, a Quebecor lawyer.
The media requests are in addition to those of the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec and the Attorney General of Quebec, who have also taken steps to shed some light on this extraordinary trial which was hidden from view population.
The Press recently revealed how the Court of Appeal had discovered the existence of this secret criminal trial of which all traces had been erased. According to our information, the prosecution in this case was led by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), the federal Crown. The PPSC denies that the trial was secret, but says it is unable to explain further because everything is confidential in the file.
“Deplorable”, says the chief justice of the Supreme Court
The accused in this case, a police informant, was convicted of a crime without a case number being listed on the court docket. The judgment convicting him did not bear a file number and witnesses would have been questioned outside the court, without the proceedings being normally archived at the registry of a courthouse. Neither the Bar nor the Chief Justice were informed that a procedure was being organized on the sly, behind closed doors, outside the traditional circuits.
“In short, no trace of this trial exists, except in the memory of those involved,” concluded the three judges of the highest Quebec court responsible for reviewing this case.
The Court of Appeal determined that this exercise was “contrary to fundamental principles of justice”, but it did not make public the name of the judge who participated in it or the district where he sits.
This week, Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner called the case “deplorable” in an interview with The dutya daily that has not joined the common front of the media challenging the sealing orders before the Court of Appeal.
“I rely on your work to find out what happened, or [celui] others. But it is sure that it does not help the cause of justice”, declared the judge to the journalist who questioned him.
With the collaboration of Daniel Renaud, The Press