The first Supreme Court of Canada interpretation of the
Journalistic Sources Protection Act
A former member of government charged with corruption offences.
A CBC journalist investigating. Her sources allegedly came from
within a government anti-corruption unit. These facts culminated in
the first Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) decision
interpreting new statutory protections for journalistic
sources.
In Denis v Côté 1 the SCC provided guidance
on the Journalistic Sources Protection Act
(“JSPA”),2 which had amended the Criminal
Code 3 and the Canada Evidence Act
(“CEA”). The JSPA was ground-breaking
legislation with the aim of enhancing protections for journalistic
sources. 4 It was enacted in response to
revelations that police have been—for years—surveilling
journalists. Prior to the enactment of the JSPA,
journalists and their sources did not have distinctive legal
protections in Canada and were at the whim of the common law test
for privilege (the Wigmore
