“(The Star) ignores the critical legal, institutional and practical differences between courts and tribunals that make the open courts principle an inappropriate foundation for access to tribunal files,” the province’s factum reads. While reporters can attend and report on what happens at the tribunals’ public hearings, obtaining documents related to those hearings after they occur is inconsistent, onerous and often significantly delayed, the Star has argued. “Tribunals appear, on the surface, no different than traditional courts — with adjudicators, hearing rooms, dockets and generally open hearings — but they depart dramatically from open court rules when it comes to providing records,” the Star wrote in an editor’s note published last year. The function of all the tribunals were once the domain of the courts, it states. The province argues that tribunals do not require the same public scrutiny as courts because they are created by government legislation and subject to government oversight.

Source: thestar March 16, 2018 13:52 UTC