Canada: No constitutional right to protect sources, court rules

11 May 10 | Index Index, minipost

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that journalists do not have the constitutional right to protect the identity of their sources. The judgment means  the question of whether a reporter must reveal their sources should be decided on a case-by-case basis. At issue were a series of articles written in 2001 by Andrew McIntosh of the National Post newspaper. The pieces claimed that prime-minster, Jean Chrétien, had intervened on behalf of a constituent who was seeking a loan from a government-owned development bank. The bank claimed that documents which McIntosh used in support of his allegations were in fact forgeries, and a search warrant was issued to seize copies. The court found that the warrant was justified, because the accusations of forgery were “of sufficient seriousness to justify the decision of the police to investigate”.