The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General intends to appeal a major ruling involving freedom of the press and the right to maintain the confidentiality of sources.
Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto of Ontario Superior Court ruled last month that a search warrant that would have forced a journalist to reveal a confidential source for a potentially charged story should never have been granted to police.
Judge Benotto said journalist-source confidentiality is as important to society as to the press itself -- particularly when a story has "explosive" potential.
The news story at the heart of the case began as an anonymous package delivered to a reporter on April 5, 2001. Inside the package was a document indicating that former prime minister Jean Chrétien had lent money to a golf club in his riding, placing him in a potential conflict of interest.
When the journalist who received the package -- reporter Andrew McIntosh -- tried to determine its authenticity, police quickly suspected it was a forgery. In the absence of lawyers for the newspaper, a judge granted a search warrant enabling police to seize the document and conduct DNA testing to determine who had created and mailed it.
Lawyers for the Post, The Globe and Mail and the CBC launched a major legal battle to safeguard the principle of confidentiality.
By serving the interests of the informant, Judge Benotto said in her ruling, offers of confidentiality benefit society. She cited several historic cases where confidential sources played an integral role, including the Watergate scandal in the United States and stories involving RCMP wrongdoing in the 1970s.
"The expectation that a source will remain confidential is often the very reason people feel free to go to the press," she said. "Often, the more explosive the story is, the greater the risk to the informant if he or she is exposed."
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