Quebec ‘secret trial’: Supreme Court partly allows appeal by media

The Supreme Court of Canada has partly upheld an appeal from the media over a so-called secret trial in Quebec involving a police informant.

The high court ruled Friday that the trial judge and Quebec Court of Appeal acted correctly in keeping information secret that could identify the informant, such as the nature of the crime, where it allegedly took place, and the name of the judge involved in the case.

However, the Supreme Court said part of the legal proceedings could have been kept on the court’s docket and hearing role.

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 only became public because the informant appealed their conviction and the 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 Supreme Court says no “secret trial” took place, but it ordered the Court of Appeal to produce a redacted version of the initial conviction that both protects the informant’s identity and better respects the principle of open courts.