Department of Justice

MINISTER OF JUSTICE INTRODUCES BILL
ON ACCESS TO RECORDS IN SEXUAL OFFENCE
PROSECUTIONS

OTTAWA, June 12, 1996 -- Allan Rock, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today introduced amendments to the Criminal Code to restrict access to medical, counselling, therapeutic and other personal records of complainants in sexual offence prosecutions. Sexual offence prosecutions include prosecutions for sexual assault, child sexual abuse, incest, prostitution, indecent acts and other offences such as rape.

"This bill will strengthen protection for complainants of sexual offences," said Minister Rock. "It will enhance privacy and equality rights for all complainants."

The proposed amendments would ensure that the lawyer for the accused would only be permitted access to the complainant's personal records under very specific and restricted conditions. These records would include: medical, therapeutic, counselling, psychiatric, Children's Aid Society, school and employment records, and personal diaries and journals.

Applications for access to a complainant's records will follow a two-stage process.

In the first stage, the accused will have to establish the likely relevance of the records to an issue at trial or the competence of a witness to testify. If the accused fails to do so, the records will not be released to the judge.

If the accused establishes that the records are likely relevant, the application will pass to a second stage. The judge will review the records in private, and taking into account the likely relevance of the records and the Charter rights of both the complainant and the accused, decide the extent to which the accused will have access to the records, if at all.

The bill provides a list of insufficient grounds for access to records, and a list of factors that must be considered by the judge in deciding whether or not to release them. The second list includes consideration of the right of the complainant to privacy and equality, and the right of the accused to a full answer and defence.-

Ref.:     Jennifer Lang              Catherine Kane
          Minister's Office          Department of Justice
          (613) 992-4621             (613) 957- 4690