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Page 6 March 20, 2017 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Protecting sources? Much coverage has been dedicated to the trouble the journalism in- dustry has endured in the last decade. And yet, there are bright spots. One sunny note is Bill S-231, in the wake of revelations from Quebec that Montreal police were spying on journalists. As Law Times reports this week, lawyers who act for journalists would be impacted by the bill, if passed, because it ensures that only Superior Court judges can issue warrants against journalists, and it shifts the burden of proof so that the party seeking disclosure must prove why they need to compel the information from a journalist instead of the current laws, where journalists must prove why their sources should be protected. It also includes a new provision that would require a special ad- vocate be consulted before judges issue warrants for journalists' ma- terials. The truth is that, in an era when many journalists have no access to legal advice or guidance (particularly with the growth of online publications), by the time a controversy erupts over handing over in- formation to police, all the players involved have lost. Journalists lose because they must burn time and resources, in an age where both are precious, on a legal battle. Police lose because going after journalists for their materials — publicly or quietly — will not win any public opinion points in a bat- Refugees come to Canada BY RICHARD CLEROUX E ver since Donald Trump became U.S. president last year, refugees have been crossing the border illegally from the United States into Canada every week. The problem is considerable for Ca- nadian authorities. They have tried repeatedly to stop the illegal f low by increasing the presence of RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency officers. Refugees who come to Canada be- lieve their chances of acceptance are bet- ter north of the border. They have shared their stories with the Canadian media, and say they feared that if they stayed in the U.S. and were caught by American authorities, they would potentially be returned to their country of origin and face torture or death. Sneaking across the border into Can- ada in the middle of winter is a serious risk. This is a cold country in winter. Some refugees walked across frozen farm fields up to their knees in snow. Several had frozen fingers or toes amputated in Canadian hospitals once they got here. Manitoba and Quebec are the two biggest recipients of illegal refugees crossing the border. That will soon pres- ent another problem. Both provinces are notorious for spring f looding. Refugees will have to cope with those f loods. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale promised on Feb. 26 that he would speak to his American counter- part, United States Home- land Security Secretary John Kelly, about the Cana- da-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, before the border-crossing crisis gets any worse. Back in December 2002, Canada and the U.S. signed the agreement in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. But that agreement applies only to refugees seeking to cross the border le- gally, certainly not those crossing the border over a farmer's field. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Tru- deau and President Trump talked on the telephone in February, but both admit- ted afterward that the refugee problem was not a topic they discussed. The United Nations High Commis- sioner for Refugees Representative in Canada, Jean-Nicolas Beuze, travelled to the Québec-New York border recently to talk to refugees who were caught sneaking across il- legally. According to the report on CBC/Radio-Canada, some told Beuze they had come to Canada with every intention of staying for the rest of their lives and raising a family here. Others said they would only stay here while Trump was in power. Many believed that if they had stayed in the United States, their chances of a fair hearing there were much less than if their fate were decided in Canada. Others simply felt safer in Canada than in Donald Trump's United States, whether or not they had permission to stay in the United States. Getting into Canada, they said, whether legally or not, was simply worth the risk, rather than trying to stay in the United States. Some Canadian lawyers are already looking for a loophole. Last year, Cana- dian lawyers provided legal help to Syr- ian refugees. This year, refugees coming from the United States are getting legal help from lawyers in Alberta and Manitoba. Matthew Grant is a young Calgary corporate lawyer with the legal firm of Burnet Duckworth & Palmer LLP. He is part of a group that calls itself Canadians for Welcoming Refugees, which can be found online at welcomingrefugees.ca. The group is urging Canadians to sign a petition urging the federal gov- ernment to suspend for at least three months the closed border set up under the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. Grant says he understands why the refugees are coming to Canada. "They've learned that if they cross a farmer's field they have a better chance if caught of being accepted in Canada than if they tried to stay in the U.S.," he says. Grant says refugees caught coming into Canada should be taken to Canadi- an border authorities and given a chance to stay here rather than being sent back immediately to the U.S. "As Canadians, we have to do what we can to welcome refugees," he adds. There is a message for all Canadians in all of this. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parlia- ment Hill. His email address is richardcleroux34@gmail.com. tle with the people who write the narrative. While reporters get bylines, the true heroes of the battle for protection of anonymous sources are legal eagles doing quiet work to make sure the law is designed to protect those brave enough to come forward. LT ©2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . . . .Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford The Hill Richard Cleroux

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