Publication Ban in “Stafford” Murder Trial

The recent decision of Justice Dougald McDermid to impose a temporary publication ban in the trial of those accused of murdering Victoria Stafford has caused a considerable furore. (See the Star story.) According to McDermid’s order the press may only say the following:

As we previously reported, Terri-Lynne McClintic was scheduled to appear on April 30, 2010, in the Superior Court of Justice at Woodstock but because of a temporary publication ban, we are prohibited by court order from providing any further information until further order of the court.

Speculation is that whatever is being suppressed will in fact wind up being published outside the jurisdiction affected by the ban and, thus, available to all on the internet. For whatever it’s worth, ban breaking news is not available on Twitter or any of Google’s offerings at the time of writing (11pm Sunday), more than a day after the ban was imposed.

Bans may be imposed in criminal cases pursuant to sections 517(1) and 486.4(1) and 486.5(1) of the Criminal Code.

The Supreme Court last year heard two appeals together, dealing with publication bans, and judgment is expected soon: R. v. White 2008 ABCA 294 (SCC docket #32865) and Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. v. Canada 2009 ONCA 59. The Court blog has a brief piece on both cases.

The most recent important SCC decision on publication bans is Dagenais v. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [1994] 3 S.C.R. 835