For its part, the Canadian Judicial Council has pronounced itself
opposed to cameras in court, having voted on the issue in 1983, 1988, and 1995.
Its current position is expressed as a “recommendation” only. (The Canadian
Encyclopedia, Cameras in the Court, n.d)
In Canadian history there are
four major cases that were allowed to be filmed at trial. The first was the
1981 Patriation Reference case. Since then beginning in March of 1993 three other
cases were allowed to be filmed and broadcasted. (The Canadian Encyclopedia, Cameras in the
Court, n.d)
1.
The tax deductibility of nanny expenses to a professional
case
2.
The right to assisted suicide case
3.
The tax deductibility of spousal support payment
case
After the courts experimented
with filming the above cases the courts have allowed most proceedings to be
broadcasted by the CPAC- Cable Public Affairs Chanel, these webcasts can be
found on the Supreme Courts website. The farthest back that can go to view
these webcasts is winter 2009. (CBC News 2010)
In the
1990`s the Federal Court of Appeal and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal also did
experiments regarding filming proceedings, although these were not permanent decisions
both Courts of Appeal had filmed a few cases. Ontario is the only province to pass
a law that bans the use of cameras and filming crews in the court room,
although sometimes they do makes exceptions for important cases. For example
the Stephen Truscott case. (CBC News 2010)
Ask yourself the following
questions regarding Cameras in court rooms and the broadcasting of the
proceedings:
1.
Does the presence of cameras in court affect the
outcome of the trial?
2.
Why do you think Ontario is the only province to
have a ban on cameras in court?
3.
If you were a licensed paralegal would you
prefer to be filmed or not to be filmed?
In addition to links to the three numbered cases above, there are also links below to the Income Tax Act, and the Criminal Code, because they are referenced in the three cases that were discussed.
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