Justice Sopinka wrote for a unanimous court in this appeal from the

Alberta Court of Queen's Bench The Court of King's Bench of Alberta (abbreviated in citations as ABKB or Alta. K.B.) is the superior court of the Canadian province of Alberta. Until 2022, it was named Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. The Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary wa ...

on a case in which a

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

section 486

publication ban A publication ban is a court order which prohibits the public or media from disseminating certain details of an otherwise public judicial proceeding. In Canada, publication bans are most commonly issued when the safety or reputation of a victim o ...

was overturned by the trial judge, Justice Feehan, after he had found the primary witnesses for both sides of a sexual assault trial to be unreliable. Feehan J. considered as policy reasons in favour of lifting the publication ban that:canlii.org: "R. v. Adams, (1995) 4 SCR 707, 1995 CanLII 56 (SCC)"
/ref> The Crown applied for leave to appeal directly to the Court from the order of the trial judge, pursuant to s. 40(1) of the

Supreme Court Act The ''Supreme Court Act'' (the ''Act'') is an Act passed by the Parliament of Canada which established the Supreme Court of Canada. It was originally passed in 1875 as the ''Supreme and Exchequer Courts Act''. However, at the time, the Supreme Co ...

, R.S.C., 1985, c. S-26.

Mootness The terms moot and mootness are used in both in English and American law, although with different meanings. In the legal system of the United States, a matter is moot if further legal proceedings with regard to it can have no effect, or even ...

was raised by the respondent, and discarded by the court; In any event, even if the appeal were moot it would exercise discretion to hear the appeal. Jurisdiction of this issue was confirmed, and the Supreme Court reinstated the publication ban. Sopinka quoted approvingly Justice Lamer in Canadian Newspapers Co. v. Canada (Attorney General):

References

{{reflist Supreme Court of Canada cases Canadian constitutional case law 1995 in Canadian case law Publication bans in Canadian case law