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International News

Ontario revamps public access to court documents

January 02, 2014 posted by Steve Brownstein

In a move to make Ontario’s justice system more open and transparent, the Ministry of the Attorney General has revamped its policy on public access to criminal court documents. The change comes after an ongoing Star investigation found court staff throughout the province were increasingly denying public requests for records that summarize matters heard in open court. The updated policy seeks to ensure that courthouse staff no longer inappropriately refuse access to public records.

“With this change, public access to criminal court records is permitted as long as there are no other statutory or legal restrictions,” said ministry spokesman Brendan Crawley. Court staff across the province have been instructed of the new rules, Crawley said.

The public’s access will be limited in cases where a person is pardoned, received an absolute or conditional discharge, or in cases where the documents are sealed by a court order.

Ministry staff had received numerous complaints over the past eight months from the Toronto Star and other media outlets whose attempts to access information about criminal proceedings and convictions had been rebuffed.

Despite an existing ministry policy stating that information from court hearings should be made public, some courthouse staff refused to release the information, citing a guideline that forbids them from releasing a “general criminal record.”

“This amendment is intended to clarify some of the confusion between official criminal record checks conducted by police and searches for court records relating to criminal proceedings conducted by court staff,” Crawley said.

“We anticipate that this clarification will help to ensure consistent access to these court records across the province.” Attorney General John Gerretsen would not speak  about the policy change.

However, in an October interview with the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn, Gerretsen emphasized that court staff must be “consistently helpful” in sharing public information about court cases with the public, including the media.

“The public has a right to know what’s going on in our court system,” he said.

In May, Star journalists began seeking records on previous criminal convictions of associates of Mayor Rob Ford, whose crimes included assaulting women, drug possession and threatening death.

The records, known within courthouse walls as “the information,” feature a brief synopsis of the charges and, if guilty, the punishment.

However, the Star’s attempts to access the documents were often denied because its applications were missing required information, such as the exact date of conviction. Court staff, who could verify the date with a few taps of a keyboard, refused to help, citing ministry policy.

The updated policy instructs court staff that they require only enough information to identify the individual, “which most commonly will be name and date of birth.”

Ryder Gilliland, an executive of Canadian Media Lawyers Association, said the revamped policy was a positive development that affirmed the longstanding “open-court” principle.

“But I don’t think it comes close to addressing some of the systemic problems journalists face in trying to get access to court documents,” said Gilliland, who, as the Star’s lawyer, pushed for public access to the “information to obtain” documents used to get a search warrant against Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, a close friend of Ford who stands accused of marijuana trafficking and extortion in relation to attempts he made to obtain the infamous “crack video.”

The ministry would not specify what other public access policies it’s reviewing. Some of those policies cover access to an exhibit filed in court or an information-to-obtain warrant.