Toronto Star Newspapers v. Canada
From Ad IDEM / CMLA
January 26, 2009
The Ontario Court of Appeal has now ruled in the media's constitutional challenge of the mandatory publication ban at bail hearings.
The decision was 3:2, with the majority (written by Feldman JA, concurred in by Laskin, Simmons JJA) declaring that Criminal Code s. 517 (the publication ban section for bail hearings) should be read down by adding after "shall on application by the accused" the following words "where and for so long as the charge(s) may be tried by a jury".
The dissent, written by Justice Rosenberg, and concurred in by Juriansz JA, would have declared the words "and shall on application by the accused" in s.517 to be of no force and effect, wiping out the mandatory ban completely. They would have suspended the invalidity for 12 months.
This decision contrasts with the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal, which held recently in R v White that the section was constitional as written.
