August 16, 2012
Coltsfoot Publishing Limited v Foster-Jacques, 2012 NSCA 83
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (NSCA) overturned a Supreme Court (Family Division) decision which had imposed a sealing order on an entire court file in a divorce proceeding. The NSCA ordered that Coltsfoot Publishing was prohibited from publishing, disclosing, communicating or using information in the court file that might lead to identity theft; something which Coltsfoot had already agreed to do, at both the trial level and at the Court of Appeal.

July 12, 2012
Manitoba Commission of Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Phoenix Sinclair
The Honourable E.N.(Ted) Hughes, Commissioner of the Manitoba Commission of Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Phoenix Sinclair denied a request for a publication ban.

June 29, 2012
R. v. T.(B.) 2012 NSPC 60
In Nova Scotia, a youth court judge trying a youth for murder (provincial court), refused to entertain a ban application from an adult co-accused who has been committed to be tried in Supreme Court on the basis she had no jurisdiction.

April 2, 2012
Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada v. Toronto
The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside a sealing order, reversing the lower court's decision. Justice Epstein, writing for the court on the issue of the sealing order, states that "a request to have exhibits sealed implicates the open court principle, and must be approached with great care". Epstein J. finds that the applicant for the sealing order failed to meet the first part of the Dagenais/Mentuck test, which requires that the order be "necessary in order to prevent a serious risk to the proper administration of justice because reasonably alternative measures will not prevent the risk".

March 2, 2012
National Bank Financial Ltd. v. Potter
The Halifax Herald and the CBC opposed an application by a witness in a civil action for a Confidentiality Order. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia dismissed the application for the Confidentiality Order, and found that "the deleterious effects of the Confidentiality Order requested would outweigh the speculative positive effects of granting such an order."