"THE CHECKS ARE MADE THROUGH VERSADEX, A CONFIDENTIAL DATABASE THAT CONTAINS INFORMATION ON ANY CONTACT AN INDIVIDUAL HAS HAD WITH POLICE."
REPORTER DALSON CHEN: CANWEST NEWS SERVICE;
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Background: In a previous post I asked: "Why didn't Ontario prosecutors examine Dr. Charles Smith's qualifications a bit more closely over the years, pay more attention to court decisions suggesting he was biased towards the Crown and that that his opinions were seriously flawed - or at least share the existence of these decisions with the defence?"
My answer was that some prosecutors cared more about winning the case than the possibility that an innocent person might be convicted;
I buttressed my response with the story recently broken by the National Post that prosecutors in several parts of Ontario have been asking police to do secret background checks on jurors.
This controversy has lead to numerous requests for mistrials and could result in a bids to open numerous cases where accused persons have been convicted in the shadow of the illegal practice which taints a criminal jury trial from the outset.
The Charles Smith Blog is very much concerned with the question as to how far prosecutors will go to win the case and is therefore monitoring developments on a regular basis;
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Canwest News reports that Windsor police have put a hold on secret jury screening until on-going investigations are completed.
The Canwest story, by reporter Dalson Chen, ran earlier today under the heading: "Windsor police halt jury background checks," and a sub-heading, "Public should 'have faith' in probe, Ontario's privacy chief says."
"WINDSOR, ONT. -- Windsor police will no longer conduct background checks of prospective jurors on behalf of the Crown unless a specific request is made under the Juries Act, says Chief Gary Smith," the story begins;
"Chief Smith said his decision will hold while he awaits the results of an investigation by the Ontario privacy commissioner's office, and the further determination of the Ministry of the Attorney General," it continues;
""At that point, I will have some written policy and instructions for the officers," Chief Smith said Tuesday.
The checks are made through Versadex, a confidential database that contains information on any contact an individual has had with police.
Representatives of Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian met with Chief Smith Tuesday as part of Cavoukian's investigation to determine if the privacy rights of prospective jurors were breached when police ran their names through Versadex and shared the information with the Crown Attorney's office.
Chief Smith said Windsor police are fully co-operating with the privacy commissioner's team.
"We have nothing to hide, nothing to keep from them," Chief Smith said.
The investigation comes after a Superior Court judge in Windsor recently declared a mistrial in a first-degree murder case due to police conducting checks on more than 200 potential jurors.
The judge learned that two Crown attorneys were able to consult information from the Versadex database when selecting members of the jury, giving the prosecutors a potential advantage over the defence.
The privacy commissioner's team will go to Barrie and Thunder Bay this week - two other jurisdictions where it's been determined that police probed the backgrounds of potential jurors.
The commissioner is also asking every Crown office in the province to report back and to disclose if it conducted secret background checks into potential jurors in the past three years."
Windsor Star with a file from National Post
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
