Law Times

Page 6 OctOber 16, 2017 • Law times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Disclosure dilemma W e live in a time of extreme paradoxes. Never has so much information been available so readily, thanks to the power of online news, digital devices and social media platforms. And yet, walls exist when it comes to some forms of information sharing, especially when it comes to the legal phalanxes built to stop some details from coming forward. In this issue, Law Times reports that in R. v. Mossaddad, an On- tario Superior Court judge has ruled that defence counsel cannot dis- seminate disclosure they receive to the media. The article notes that Justice Mark Edwards found defence counsel cannot share Crown disclosure, and if defence counsel has received disclosure that is not the subject of a written undertaking, a deemed undertaking nonetheless applies, and it should not be disseminated to the public without further direction of the court. "If defence counsel or an accused has received disclosure that is not the subject matter of a written undertaking, I am of the view that a deemed undertaking nonetheless applies to such disclosure and no use may be made of such disclosure outside of the context of the criminal proceedings without further direction from the court," says the ruling. The ruling makes sense, as it references R. v. Stinchcombe, and notes the Crown typically shares materials with defence counsel on the condi- tion they not disclose them "for any other purpose other than making full answer and defence in the context of the criminal proceeding." That being said, in a digital age where materials and information spread and leak faster than ever, I question how effective these rules will be, particu- larly when it comes to self-represented defendants, which are surging in Ontario courts. Desperate people will share information widely in hopes of support. 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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 Terrible twos for the federal Grits BY SUSAN DELACOURT P rime Minister Justin Trudeau's government will be reaching an important milestone this month, when the Liberals mark two years since the Oct. 19, 2015 election that put them into power. Given the rough time the government has been having this fall — tax controversies, pipeline cancella- tions — Trudeau's team may be tempted to regard this anniversary as the arrival of the terrible twos. In a lot of ways, Ottawa is still getting used to a Liberal government after a de- cade of Conservative power. Many Liberals may well be thinking at this juncture, "Is it two years already?" But political time moves quickly, and it's often measured by the spans between election campaigns. Hard as it is for many Liberals to believe, they will very soon be closer to the next election than the last one. How is this second half go- ing to be different from the first half of the mandate? Well, in the first place, Trudeau finally knows who his oppo- nents will be in 2019. Conservatives put Andrew Scheer in the top job in May, and the New Demo- crats have chosen Jagmeet Singh this month as the successor to ousted leader Tom Mulcair. Those choices have totally changed the dynamic sur- rounding federal political leadership in this country. In 2015, Trudeau was the new, young guy, quite deliber- ately framing his campaign appearances to play up his youth and energy relative to his older opponents. "We're going to keep show- ing Trudeau doing what [Ste- phen] Harper and Mulcair can't do," one Liberal strategist told me during that elec- tion, explaining why the Liberal leader did so much hiking and walking in his public appearances. (Remember the advertise- ment in which Trudeau climbed up the downward-moving escalator?) In 2019, as Conservatives and New Democrats are already fond of remind- ing people, Trudeau will be the oldest leader among the three. He'll be 47 in the next election, while Scheer and Singh will have only turned 40 years old that year. Trudeau will also be the most experi- enced of the three leaders, with four years of government — and a record, good and bad — behind him. Trudeau himself may be reluctant to cast himself as the voice of experience in the second half of his mandate. It would ap- pear off-brand, as political- marketing experts like to say. It certainly appeared he was keen to hold on to the good old days at a recent news conference, making repeated references to the former Harper government and the mandate the Liberals received in 2015. When times are tough in politics, it's al- ways nice to remember the happy times, such as election victories and successful slogans. Harper's Conservatives called them- selves "Canada's New Government" in official communications for nearly two years after winning power in 2006. Trudeau's Liberals haven't been that un- subtle in their branding exercises, but they do keep looking for ways to look fresh and new to power. So watch for a new throne speech in the months ahead, to be read in the Sen- ate by the newly installed governor gen- eral, Julie Payette. The most likely time for that would be in January, a year since Trudeau shook up his cabinet to deal with the new Donald Trump presidency in the United States. Another shuff le in the months ahead is possible, too, this time for more domes- tic considerations. This might include sidelining some under-performers (Her- itage Minister Mélanie Joly is increasing- ly seen in that light) and promoting some newcomers. The whole idea would be to signal renewal — emphasis on the "new" part of that word — in a bid to keep that youthful gloss on this prime minister. No one likes to be reminded that they're growing old. But for this Trudeau government, it's a strategic disadvantage, too, given all the emphasis the Liberals have placed on being symbols of genera- tional change and youthful shakeup of politics in Canada. So, don't expect big second-anniversary celebrations among Liberals this month. They would prefer for Canadians to keep seeing them as young and new and not in the terrible twos. LT uSusan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based political author and columnist who has been working on Parliament Hill for nearly 30 years. She is a frequent political panellist on national television and au- thor of four books. She can be reached at sdelacourt@bell.net. The Hill Susan Delacourt Susan Delacourt

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