On July 18th the Ontario Court of Justice granted several media organizations access to a DVD that a criminal defendant filed before charges against her were withdrawn by the Crown. Justice Wake explained that the open court principle can apply to records that are not considered in a judicial proceeding if public access would support a greater understanding of the administration of justice.
The Crown charged the defendant with assault in relation to her interaction with the police. She received a “cellblock DVD” as part of the Crown disclosure, and filed it in furtherance of a stay application, though apparently it was not properly incorporated by reference into an affidavit. The Crown withdrew all charges after noting in open court that he had reviewed evidence of the defendant’s treatment while in police cells.
Justice Wake’s analysis focused on whether the open court principle applied to the DVD. He first held that the irregularity in the manner of filing the DVD was too technical a basis for denying access. He then held that the open court principle applied to the DVD even though it was not considered in a judicial proceeding. He said:
Clearly Goudge, J.A. [in CTV Television Inc. v. Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Toronto Region) (Registrar)] drew a distinction between these two objectives and noted that in cases subsequent to MacIntyre “the court has made equally clear how important public access is to the second objective, the greater public understanding of the administration of justice”.
Relying on this analysis, I have concluded, with respect to the DVD, that public access to the workings of the courts and a greater understanding of the administration of justice does not necessarily require that the DVD have been considered in a judicial proceeding or have been subject to a judicial act. The DVD is directly related to a judicial proceeding. It was clearly the intention of Ms. Carr’s solicitor to have it filed for the use of the court and in support of her application to stay proceedings on the basis of what it disclosed. The fact that the Crown, Mr. Wadden, withdrew the charges after viewing what I can safely presume to have been a copy of the same DVD (otherwise the Ottawa Police Service would have produced one copy for the Crown and a different copy for disclosure purposes for the defence which would have been odd, ultimately discoverable and thus unlikely) makes the DVD a highly relevant item in these protracted proceedings.
Justice Wake stressed that he was not expanding the open court principle but, rather, applying it in novel circumstances. He stressed that the criminal proceeding had concluded, that DVD appeared to be “central” to the Crown’s decision to withdraw and that the proceeding (prior to withdrawal) had involved significant expenditure of court resources.
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