The Chamberland Commission into the protection of journalistic confidentiality released its final report today. Its two principal recommendations are the introduction of laws to protect journalists and their sources and, as well, to affirm the independence of police forces from political officials.
Jacques Chamberland noted in his report, tabled this morning, that there was no evidence of intervention by elected officials into spying on journalists, but that regulations affirming police independence from politice; saying that "perceptions matter just as much as reality."
The commission's other primary recommendation is that a "legislative framework" be established in Quebec to formally protect journalists and their sources, in the vein of the Journalistic Source Protection Act that was adopted by the federal government earlier this year.
The commission was first called by the provincial government in November of last year after the cellphone La Presse journalist and former CJAD 800 contributor Patrick Lagace was surveilled by Montreal police in an attempt to figure out who was leaking internal police affairs to the French-langauge newspaper.
Its recommendations are expected to have wide-ranging impacts across not just this province but all of Canada.