August 15, 2016
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Radio-Canada v Canada (Attorney General) 2016 FC 933

At issue in this judicial review was whether a pub ban prohibits access to a complainant’s identity, as contained in court records, once court martial proceedings are over.

Upon consideration of the issue of whether the CMA’s refusal to provide copies of unredacted decisions subject to a publication ban, was lawful, the Court said, at para 49:

In my view, the CMA erred in finding that the publication bans required the redaction of the names of the complainants when providing access to the requested court martial decisions. I have reached this conclusion following an analysis of the open court principle, publication bans, both generally and in the context of the Criminal Code, limitations on the open court principle, the distinction between “publishing” and “accessing” information in a court record and the application of the Privacy Act to the records of the courts martial…