Canadian court publication ban in Quebec militia case raises press-freedom concerns

OTTAWA, July 2 - A Canadian court has banned publication of facts related to an alleged plot to seize land for an anti-government militia, drawing criticism from press-freedom advocates and legal experts concerned the move could compromise citizens’ understanding of threats to public safety.

The Quebec Superior Court ordered the publication ban in February, according to a copy of the order seen by Reuters. It came days after a lower-level court released more than a thousand pages of documents related to a police investigation of four men, including two active-duty soldiers, who were arrested last summer. Three of them were accused of taking “concrete actions to facilitate terrorist activity" and a fourth with weapons charges.

One legal expert said such bans commonly seek to restrict access to sensitive details that could jeopardize ongoing investigations or identify vulnerable victims. But he called the broad ban on information in this case unusual.

"Rights, including freedom of the press, are not absolute. But restrictions need to be reasonable," said Wayne MacKay, emeritus professor of law at Dalhousie University. "The broader the ban and the more sweeping it is, the harder it is to justify."

The judge’s order gave no rationale for the ban, and a spokeswoman for Quebec Superior Court said the institution and its judges are prohibited from commenting on any decision.

Reuters could not determine why the court imposed the ban. The prosecution and two of four defense lawyers in the cases told Reuters they had not requested restricting information about the cases from public review.

James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the court’s silence on its reasoning makes it difficult to assess the ban’s necessity or its vulnerability to court challenges.

“The problem in this case,” he said, “is that we can’t assess whether this ban is legitimate or not without knowing why it was imposed.”

Maxime Chevalier, who represents one of the defendants, Marc-Aurèle Chabot, said the court imposed the ban “of its own volition.” Jean-Marc Fradette, a lawyer representing defendant Matthew Forbes, said his team hadn’t asked for the ban and instead had pushed for more court documents to be unredacted.

The two additional defense lawyers did not respond to comment requests.

Reuters has joined a media coalition contesting the publication ban imposed by Quebec’s second-highest court. The news organization declined to comment.

Marc-André Nadon, the media coalition’s lawyer, also declined to comment.

A hearing on the media coalition’s request to lift the publication ban is scheduled for September 23 at the Quebec Superior Court.

Peter Jacobsen, a lawyer who specializes in media, defamation and constitutional law, said the ban imperils public safety by restricting access to information about the criminally accused far-right militia group.

“Keeping that information secret means Canadians won’t have a full understanding of how the far right is operating in the country,” he said.

In July, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced they had arrested and charged three men, Chabot, Simon Angers-Audet and Raphaël Lagacé, with “terrorist” activity related to their alleged plans to seize land near Quebec City for militia activities. The men had amassed a weapons cache and “took part in military-style training, as well as shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises,” the RCMP alleged. Forbes, the fourth defendant, was charged with weapons offenses.

The police said searches conducted in January 2024 led to the discovery of an arsenal of 16 explosive devices, 83 firearms, approximately 11,000 rounds of ammunition, nearly 130 magazines, four pairs of night-vision goggles and military equipment.

Chabot and Forbes are members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Chabot is believed to be the first active-duty military member charged with “terrorist” offenses under Canada’s criminal code.

The police press release, and mediaarticles about the arrests and charges published before the publication ban, remain online.

Following the police announcement on the charges in July 2025, several Canadian media outlets sued for access to thousands of pages of police documents about the operation, which the lower Quebec City court released last August to people who requested them.

Days after the release of a second tranche of documents earlier this year, François Huot, a judge of the Quebec Superior Court, issued an order on February 2, effective immediately, “prohibiting the media or anyone else from publishing in any form whatsoever, information regarding the facts of this case, regardless of whether or not such information has already been disclosed.” REUTERS