Ratushny

Sobeys and Metro applied for disclosure of the identities of certain witnesses in a Competition Act inquiry.

The witnesses subsequently obtained an ex parte order declaring them confidential informants entitled to informer privilege.

Following this declaration, Sobeys and Metro acknowledged that the dismissal of their applications was the inevitable result and submitted a draft order to that effect.

The court agreed that the declaration of confidential informer status effectively determined the applications and dismissed them.

The applicant, an alleged participant in a price-fixing conspiracy in the fresh commercial bread industry, sought a non-publication order to protect their identity in four Informations to Obtain (ITOs) used to secure search warrants.

The applicant was not a target of the search warrants and had not been charged.

The court applied the Dagenais/Mentuck test and section 487.3 of the Criminal Code, finding that the applicant was an 'innocent person' whose reputation and livelihood would suffer serious and irreversible prejudice if their identity were disclosed.

The court granted the non-publication order in large part, concluding that the salutary effects of protecting the applicant's identity outweighed the deleterious effects on the open court principle, while still allowing public access to the majority of the ITOs.