On a Crown application in a criminal price-fixing prosecution, the court considered whether factual information supplied by cooperating corporations to the Competition Bureau during immunity and leniency proffers was protected from disclosure by settlement privilege or solicitor-client privilege.
The court held that solicitor-client privilege was waived when the information was voluntarily provided to the prosecuting authorities for use against other accused persons.
It further held that settlement privilege did not extend to factual information given in circumstances where the providers knew the information would be used to prosecute others and were themselves no longer exposed to resulting criminal or civil jeopardy.
In any event, the accused's constitutional right to make full answer and defence would override settlement privilege, and the applicable disclosure standard was the first party Stinchcombe regime.
