Judge orders reporter to testify about her sources
Defence says reports hurt reputation of ex-minister Côté; Radio-Canada to appeal
A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered Radio-Canada reporter Marie-Maude Denis to testify about her sources in the criminal case brought against former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau and former provincial Liberal minister Marc-Yvan Côté.
Justice Jean-François Émond’s decision, delivered on Thursday, also allows for a defence lawyer to question the reporter about sources who supplied her with information used in two stories — Anguille Sous Roche and Ratures et Ruptures — that were broadcast on April 12, 2012 and Dec. 10, 2015 respectively.
In his decision, Émond ruled that another reporter, Louis Lacroix, of Cogeco, will not be required to testify. The judge also decided that he will leave it up to a Quebec Court judge to determine the conditions under which Denis will be asked to testify. Jacques Larochelle, the defence lawyer who will represent Côté in his upcoming trial and the attorney behind the request on which Émond ruled on Thursday, suggested that testimony could be provided during a closed-door hearing.
Émond appeared to lean toward the arguments of the defence lawyer who claimed that numerous reports have harmed Côté’s reputation and hindered the possibility of him having a fair trial.
Larochelle has made every effort to find out who leaked information to the media and what their motivations were. According to Larochelle, the importance of this information is “incontestable.”
Larochelle said he has made an inventory of 15 incidents where information was leaked between April 2012 and November 2017. He claims the “planning ” and “finesse” of the leaks suggests they came from a highly placed source.
The case brought against Côté (who served as head of the engineering firm Roche following his career as a politician with the provincial Liberals), Normandeau and four others is set to go to trial on April 9 in Quebec City. The accused were all arrested by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad (UPAC) in March 2016 following an investigation into Liberal party financing and the awarding of government contracts.
Larochelle is seeking to have the case tossed out, specifically because, he argues, the leaks to the media have “struck the full force of the presumption of innocence” and that Côté is a “collateral victim” of the leaks.
In a lower court decision delivered on Feb. 12, Quebec Court Judge André Perreault rejected Larochelle’s request to have both reporters testify. Perreault cited a federal law covering the protection of journalistic sources, adopted in October 2017, as his reason for rejecting the motion.
Perreault is scheduled to rule on the request to have a stay of proceedings placed on the charges filed in the case on March 26.
Hours after the decision was delivered Radio-Canada reported that it will appeal it.
Presse Canadienne