After obtaining authorization to participate exceptionally in a hearing of the Court of Appeal by hiding their faces, the federal Crown prosecutors flee: they renounce to participate in the public hearings on the recent holding of a secret trial in Quebec and will only address the court in a closed session, for fear that observers may discover their identity.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
This is what the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) announced in a letter to the clerk of the Quebec Court of Appeal in anticipation of the hearings which begin this Monday morning. Federal prosecutors were initially to join by videoconference hiding their faces, so no one could see them in court.
“After checking with our technical and security services, the prosecutor is informed that she is unable, at least by June 6, to put in place the technology required to preserve the anonymity of the parties and to do so in a safe,” said the PPSC.
“We will be available to the Court at the appropriate time to plead behind closed doors,” adds the federal body.
Many gray areas
The Court of Appeal must consider this Monday the requests of several journalistic organizations, the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec and the Attorney General of Quebec, who wish to obtain certain information about a secret trial held in Quebec recently.
The Court of Appeal has already exonerated the person convicted during this extraordinary exercise, while deploring ways of doing things “incompatible with the values of a liberal democracy”.
But she did not disclose the nature of the charge, the sentence handed down in the first instance, the place where the trial was held, the name of the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers involved.
The federal Crown has already announced that it will seek the dismissal of motions that could allow the public to learn any information about its unorthodox methods, because the file involves a police informant whose identity must be protected.
The attitude of the federal Crown is the opposite of that of Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP). Last year, during the trial of Marie-Josée Viau and Guy Dion, the DPCP used in evidence the testimony of a mafia killer who became a collaborator of justice, whose identity could not be revealed publicly.
The DPCP prosecutors and the judge still appeared in public with their faces uncovered. The media and observers could listen to the testimony of the informer, but without seeing his face, so that he could not be recognized. His name was under a publication ban and his safety was ensured.
Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette confirmed that he has already spoken with the chief justices of Quebec courts to ensure that the PPSC will no longer be able to hold secret trials in Quebec. But this commitment holds only for Quebec courts.
For his part, the federal Minister of Justice, David Lametti, is careful not to intervene. He would not comment on the behavior of the Crown. “As a general rule, we do not comment on legal cases in court,” explained its spokeswoman Chantalle Aubertin.
“We do not have access to documents relating to the initial legal proceedings,” she added.
Impossible to explain
The Press therefore asked by email to the patron of the Federal Crown, Ms.e Kathleen Roussel, if she agrees to no longer use this type of practice in other Canadian provinces. She refused to do so. “An interview is not possible,” replied his spokeswoman Nathalie Houle.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SÉBASTIEN LAVALLÉE
Kathleen Roussel, patron of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada
Me Roussel was appointed director of the SPPC in 2017 for a seven-year term. His office is irremovable, unless removed for cause by the Governor in Council supported by a resolution of the House of Commons.
His spokesperson directed us to a press release from the SPPC who said he could not explain his actions further, due to the redaction applied by the Court of Appeal in its judgment on the secret trial.
It is this same redaction that the anonymous SPPC prosecutors will ask the Court of Appeal to maintain in place this Monday morning, which should exempt their bosses from explaining themselves forever, if they win their case.