Ontario Judge Bans Foreign Press From Blood-Clotting Product Trial

Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto has granted the Crown’s request to ban foreign reporters from the criminal trial of those charged with permitting the distribution of a U. S. made product intended to induce blood clotting in hemophiliacs that was infected with HIV. The product, called Factorate, was made by Armour Pharmaceuticals. Justice Benotto has also told Canadian reporters they may not publish the names of victims. Read more here.

Such publication bans can be difficult to enforce since non-Canadian reporters may easily ignore them as became clear during the Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka trials of the 1990s. The judge’s ejection of foreign reporters from the courtroom seems to be an assumption, which may be well-founded, that the only way to enforce such a ban is to eliminate the foreign press altogether. The purpose for the ban on publishing names of victims seems less clear since at least some of them are already identified. See here. Balancing the defendant’s right to a fair trial, the context under which the request for the publication ban normally arises, against the public’s right to information is now a continuing debate, since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires it (section 2 Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: b)freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication and section 11 Any person charged with an offence has the right (d) to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal…)