Secrecy and the ‘open courts’ principle: The Star's Public Editor

Kathy English writes:
"For most of this past week, the law prohibited the Star from telling you a critical fact about a stabbing at a condominium complex in Rosedale that it had already reported — and so could easily be found in a Google search. "The absurdity of that is rooted in an Ontario court system that is generally intended to be “open” but is increasingly subject to 'discretionary' publication bans that prohibit the media from reporting key facts about criminal proceedings.
"Further, too often such extraordinary bans are declared without any reason or explanation for veering from Canada’s important 'open courts' principle that presumes public access to court proceedings and court documents — and most important, is central to our democracy."
The full column