Full story on RCMP raid maynever be known
REPORTER’S FILES TAKEN Security issues may keep some evidence secret
Federal government national security claims could mean that Canadians never hear the full story of an RCMP raid on the home and office of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O’Neill, a lawyer warned yesterday.
“We may never know,” Citizen lawyer Richard Dearden said after court proceedings yesterday.
Mr. Dearden’s comments came after Crown attorney Eugene Williams told Justice Lynn Ratushny that two portions of edited text contained within more than 250 pages of information released so far would be subject to national security claims and “other privileges.”
Mr. Dearden said security claims on the undisclosed sections — which include information from a briefing book and media analysis — could land the case in Federal Court proceedings, delaying it for at least a year and introducing secret evidence.
“They’re clearly contemplating invoking national security exemptions on records that should be produced to us,” Mr. Dearden said.
“ We see that loud and clear. They’re thinking of derailing the productions that we want by claiming national security.”
In court, Mr. Dearden pushed for Mr. Williams to explain specific reasons behind the government claims of privilege.
The Citizen is challenging the constitutionality of search warrants used against Ms. O’Neill after police seized documents, files, notebooks and computer hard drives from her home and office during Jan. 21, 2004, raids. A police investigation is ongoing, but no charges have been laid.
Lawyers were in court yesterday to set a schedule for future proceedings, after a court ruling in May forced the Attorney General and RCMP to produce information relating to the course of action taken by police in their investigation into Ms. O’Neill’s Nov. 8, 2003 article about the Maher Arar case.
The government released 252 pages of edited information. But Mr. Dearden wrote that it was often incomplete, or contained missing attachments, in a letter sent to Mr. Williams last month. Mr. Williams said yesterday that the government will soon address the newspaper’s concerns.
Mr. Dearden also asked yesterday to obtain hard copies of blacked out documents — even if that means receiving numerous black pages, as was the case at the inquiry into Mr. Arar’s deportation to Syria — to avoid confusion over what will be discussed. Mr. Williams agreed to the proposal.
Mr. Williams said outside court that determining disclosure is difficult when up against a Canada Evidence Act prohibition on the dissemination of material that is subject to national security concerns.
The parties are to return to court Dec. 9, when the newspaper’s lawyers will seek more details about grounds upon which the government has blacked out information.