Opening up the Court

Section 136 of the Courts of Justice Act

 

Prohibition against photography, etc., at court hearing

136(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), no person shall,

(a)    take or attempt to take a photograph, motion picture, audio recording or other record capable of producing visual or aural representations by electronic means or otherwise,

                       

(i)    at a court hearing,

                      

(ii)    of any person entering or leaving the room in which a court hearing is to be or has been convened, or

                    

(iii)    of any person in the building in which a court hearing is to be or has been convened where there is reasonable ground for believing that the person is there for the purpose of attending or leaving the hearing;

        

(b)    publish, broadcast, reproduce or otherwise disseminate a photograph, motion picture, audio recording or record taken in contravention of clause (a); or

(c)    broadcast or reproduce an audio recording made as described in clause (2) (b).

Exceptions

136 (2) Nothing in subsection (1),

        

(a)    prohibits a person from unobtrusively making handwritten notes or sketches at a court hearing; or

        

(b)    prohibits a lawyer, a party acting in person or a journalist from unobtrusively making an audio recording at a court hearing, in the manner that has been approved by the judge, for the sole purpose of supplementing or replacing handwritten notes.