The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The country’s highest judicial body confirms the ban on media publishing details before a jury is constituted.
Friday’s ruling sought to establish whether publication bans apply before a jury is seated. Section 648(1) of the Criminal Code prohibits the publication or broadcast of information about the phases of a criminal trial without a jury.
The issue at issue was whether this prohibition applies before the jury is empaneled, taking into account subsection 645(5) of the Criminal Code, which grants the trial judge the power to decide matters normally dealt with without a jury before its constitution.
Chief Justice Wagner emphasized that the public can only understand the work of the courts, and thus have confidence in the judicial process and the outcome of the proceedings, if it is informed of the content of the decisions rendered by the judges and of the reasons for these decisions.
The Supreme Court of Canada heard two joint appeals regarding this issue. In the first, Frédérick Silva was tried in the Superior Court of Quebec on four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Daily life The Press had appealed the trial judge’s decision to prohibit the publication of details regarding the preliminary stages of the trial, including a request for a stay and the withdrawal of evidence.
In the second case, unrelated to the first, Aydin Coban was charged in British Columbia with several offenses of child pornography, extortion, child luring and harassment. Among other things, he was convicted of harassing and extorting Amanda Todd, who committed suicide at the age of 15 in 2012.
Some media, including CBC/Radio-Canada, considered that the publication ban was an obstacle to press freedom. They therefore asked the trial court to clarify the publication ban and only put it into effect after jury selection.
In both cases, the judges rejected these media requests and concluded that section 648 (1) of the Criminal Code applies before the jury is empaneled.
Media outlets have requested permission to appeal directly to the Supreme Court of Canada based on the Dagenais decision, which allows third parties, such as the media, to challenge a publication ban. The Court accepted this request, but ultimately rejected their appeals.