Unsettling

The Sun reports that the RCMP has paid out a settlement in excess of $2.2 million for malicious prosecution - but that the Canadian public will have no way to find out why:

The RCMP has made a secret $2.2-million settlement for "malicious prosecution," but Canadian taxpayers footing the bill are in the dark over details of the case.

According to the federal government's recently released public accounts documents, the name of the victim is being withheld "in accordance with terms of settlement."

NDP MP Joe Comartin said such confidentiality clauses are common when a government agency has wronged a citizen, but slammed the hush clause as contrary to public accountability.

"It's a simple way of them covering up misconduct on the part of members of the force," he said.

Comartin, a lawyer, said the right to request privacy should rest only with the victim -- not the government agency guilty of wrongdoing.

In the interest of public accountability, the Tory government should set new policy that prohibits a confidentiality clause unless the victim insists on it, he said.

Osgoode Hall Law School Prof. Alan Young, who runs the Innocence Project to help the wrongfully accused, said the massive $2.2-million settlement suggests an "egregious" violation of the plaintiff's rights. The victim deserves to expose details of his experience and the public deserves to know more in the interests of accountability, he said. "Because there's a public interest here, and police serve the public, and because the award is paid out of taxpayers' money, one could make a very compelling argument that this is contrary to public interest to allow these confidential settlements," he said.

If anything, Comartin's suggestion should be taken a step further: even where requested by the plaintiff, any confidentiality clause should be limited to the information which would tend to identify that individual, so as to ensure that Canadians are able to find out as much as possible about the incident without causing further harm to the plaintiff.

Sadly, that type of accountability appears to be a long way off from the current practice. And without any public information as to what happened in the specific case, there's no way for Canadians to be confident that there's any incentive for the RCMP to avoid similar abuses in the future.