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TORONTO — A high-profile RCMP demand for a journalist’s background materials related to interviews with a suspected terrorist should be set aside even though Canada’s top court recently upheld the police request, Vice Media argues in a new legal action.

The application to Ontario Superior Court hinges on indications that the accused is in fact dead.

“In this case, there has been a material change in circumstances underlying the production order since it was first issued,” the application by Vice and its reporter asserts. “The RCMP and the Crown cannot prosecute a dead person. The production order is no longer legally enforceable.”

As a result, Vice and the journalist argue, the courts should now declare the RCMP’s demand unenforceable and a violation of their constitutional rights.

In an interview with AdvocateDaily.com, Toronto lawyer and mediator Howard Winkler says the test on Vice Media’sapplication will be whether it can demonstrate that there is new or more reliable evidence that the suspect is dead.

Read the full article  Vice Media makes last ditch attempt to keep reporter’s materials from RCMP on the AdvocateDaily.com website.

Canada’s access to information regime is being crippled by underfunded government agencies and ineffective policing, Toronto lawyer and mediator Howard Winkler tells AdvocateDaily.com.

Federal legislation typically gives government bodies 30 days to respond to requests for information, and dissatisfied individuals are able to complain to the Office of the Privacy of Canada.

However, Winkler, principal and founder of Winkler Dispute Resolution, says the oversight body has no power to penalize offenders even when it finds violations of the law, and the Liberal government has fallen short on an election promise to fix the system.

Read the full article on AdvocateDaily.com.