Supreme Court agrees to hear case about Quebec's 'secret trial'

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear an appeal from the media over a so-called secret trial held in Quebec involving a police informant.

The high court said today it has agreed to hear the appeal brought by media organizations including Radio-Canada, La Presse, the Montreal Gazette and The Canadian Press, which had sought a partial or complete lifting of seals imposed on the case.

In July, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled it could not release any information, saying the right of informants to remain anonymous supersedes the principle of court proceedings being open to the public.

The original case involved an informant who was convicted of participating in a crime that he or she had revealed to police.

The existence of the trial was first reported by La Presse and only became public because the informant appealed his or her conviction and because the Quebec Court of Appeal in March 2022 released a redacted decision that set aside the conviction and was highly critical of the secrecy surrounding the trial.

The case was not given a docket number, and its details were kept secret including the nature of the crime and where it allegedly took place, the name of the judge involved and the names of the lawyers.

In the wake of these revelations, a consortium of media outlets requested the full or partial unsealing of the information that was held secret.

The Attorney General of Quebec requested a modification to the file's sealing. The motions were denied.

The Supreme Court was therefore asked to hear the case, and on Thursday it agreed.