Supreme Court of British Columbia. The Court prohibited, until the conclusion of the proceedings, identification of school staff accused of abusing boys in an action brought by them in later life against the school.
Held: The protection of innocent people was a social value of superordinate importance which, were they to suffer irreparable harm to their reputation, would justify overriding the general principle of open justice; that, accused of being paedophiles, the staff had been put in the category of persons most condemned and reviled by society; and that, were they to be publicly identified, they would suffer irreparable harm before they had had any opportunity to rebut the accusations.
Judges:
Wong J
Citations:
2002 BCSC 1417, 221 DLR (4th) 751, [2002] CarswellBC 2395, [2002] BCJ No 2246 (QL), [2002] BCTC 1417
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Canada
Cited by:
Cited – PNM v Times Newspapers Ltd and Others SC 19-Jul-2017
No anonymity for investigation suspect
The claimant had been investigated on an allegation of historic sexual abuse. He had never been charged, but the investigation had continued with others being convicted in a high profile case. He appealed from refusal of orders restricting . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Media, Litigation Practice
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.590535