Media will now be routinely informed when a jury returns with a verdict, according to a directive announced Tuesday by Superior Court Justice John McMahon at the downtown Toronto courthouse.

The change comes after a judge recently denied a Toronto Star reporter’s request to be told when the jury returned with a verdict in the trial for Eaton Centre shooter Christopher Husbands and after several reporters were misinformed that court staff were simply not permitted to notify media.

The new directive, which applies only in Toronto, replaces a judicial policy that allowed a trial judge to decide if media could be notified.

Without official notification, journalists must sit outside the courtroom or rely on updates from lawyers, police officers or other people involved in the case in order to make it to the courtroom within the 15 minutes it typically takes for court to reconvene.

The failure to notify media when a jury is ready to deliver a verdict — information that is in the public interest — has been criticized by court transparency advocates for reducing openness and access to courts, despite the well-established important role played by the media in the justice system.

“The only source of information for most people about what is going on in our court system is the media,” said media lawyer Iain MacKinnon. “Unless the public can scrutinize what happens in the courts and how the justice system is operating, you can’t have confidence that it’s working.”

Under the new directive, a media representative and the Victim Witness Assistance Program will be informed upon request when a jury returns — whether with questions or a verdict, and when the jury is done deliberating for the night.

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Ontario courts should tell journalists when a jury is returning a verdict, transparency advocates say