The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Why The Youth Criminal Justice Act Can Drive Media Websites Crazy

**Posted by RadioActive** July 20, 2025 2:18 pm

Toronto Police have arrested the 14 year old boy accused in the unprovoked stabbing death of a woman out shopping last Thursday. Authorities obtained special permission to feature the under-age teen's name and picture while they were hunting for him, something they can no longer do now that he's in custody and has been charged.

I get that we want to protect the I.D. of a minor (although there is something to be said for allowing people to know who he is) but this causes all kinds of problems for people who run newsroom websites, as I once did. You had to go back in the archives, find every reference to the kid and his name, change the copy, and delete and replace his picture with something else.

I remember it being a real pain, because you were never quite sure you could find them all. But under the law, they had to be taken out, or you could be in legal trouble. Chances are no one was going to access a week old story, but it might happen, and we had to thoroughly scrub any evidence that might I.D. the suspected culprit.

I'm assuming with the arrest on Sunday that newsrooms across the city are having to go through this annoying rigamarole. It's part of the law, but I always dreaded those situations, simply because you had to account for and find every mention in every article, sometimes from months or even years ago, depending on the circumstances.

I'm glad they got their man - er, boy - but what a pain that is.

**Posted by Binson Echorec** July 20, 2025 2:22 pm

It must be easier to search for a string of copy and replace it nowadays, less so in the "analogue" era. Though today it's likely you could access a cached page from your own browser history (at least as far as I understand how caching works) that still contains the now-embargoed information..

**Posted by RadioActive** July 20, 2025 2:26 pm

And of course many of the broadcast sites post their nightly newscasts on their pages, which means those have to be edited as well. Trust me, it was a time consuming mess when it happened. Perhaps the systems are faster today. It used to be a waste of time I didn't have to go and find pages and videos no one would probably ever call up again, but you could not take that chance.

**Posted by Shorty Wave** July 21, 2025 9:01 am

As of 7am this morning, (Mon. July 21), the 14 year old alleged murderer’s photo and info was still on the Toronto Police Service site.

I have no problems with young offenders being named/ID’d by the police. Times have changed, kids carry guns to school, stab seniors in grocery store parking lots at 9:30am, I could go on. They know they will get away with whatever crime they commit, because they’re minors. Time to change that to reflect the world we now live in, sadly.

**Posted by RadioActive** July 21, 2025 9:10 am

Sorry SW, I had to take his name out of your post. Even sites like this one have to follow the law, whether I agree with it or not. I don't want Boardhost threatening to remove the site for legal reasons just in case! But your other point stands!

If the cops missed this, that's on them. But I'm guessing they'll remove it sooner or later.

**Posted by mace** July 21, 2025 9:57 am

Sadly nothing will change regarding young offenders or our laughably non existent bail system until the child of a prominent politician is shot or seriously injured by a person who is "extremely well known" to police.

**Posted by RadioActive** July 21, 2025 9:59 am

mace wrote:
Sadly nothing will change regarding young offenders or our laughably non existent bail system until the child of a prominent politician is shot or seriously injured by a person who is "extremely well known" to police.

Sadly, he'll be back on the street the same day causing even more havoc. The politician, I mean, not the Young Offender!

**Posted by Capricasix** July 21, 2025 11:30 am

And on sites like Reddit, the name will always be accessible.

**Posted by RadioActive** July 21, 2025 11:38 am

I'm not sure what authorities here can do about sites that may be based in the U.S. or don't have a specific place of origin. It's one of the pluses (and minuses depending on your position) of the Internet.

I well recall a judge's order banning an episode of A Current Affair that violated a publication ban of the Bernardo case in Canada. It aired down south on October 26, 1993, but was blacked out on Canadian cable.

Those of us that had TV antennas watched it here off of Channel 2 from Buffalo, because the government had no way to block an over-the-air broadcast from coming across the border.

**Posted by newsguy1** July 21, 2025 12:01 pm

I have always understood that individual news outlets do not have to go back in their files and delete everything about the now-arrested suspect.
My understanding is the outlets must not use the name or picture of the accused youth from then on.
The Canadian Press, for instance, would issue an advisory to all its subscribers saying they once named and showed pictures of the youth, but now that he's arrested they cannot use the name or picture any more.
The advisory would warn all CP subscribers to take note of the advisory and make their copy conform.
As for blocking things on American-based broadcasters, yes Canadian TV outlets must block their own programs, hence the ban on the "Current Affair" episode, but as RA notes you could still watch what a US station was broadcasting and there was nothing the Canadian courts could do about it.
The same allied to Canadian elections.
One famous case happened in the early 80's when Walter Cronkite announced on his 6pm newscast the Canadian federal election results before all the polls closed in Canada.
So Canadians watching CBS would know the party that won.
Elections Canada threatened CBS with legal action and were told to simply f#@& off.
Now, of course, that old rule no longer stands because of the Internet.
The Canadian government cannot stop Canadian election results from being known before polls close.
So they don't even try anymore.

Last edited by newsguy1 (July 21, 2025 12:17 pm)

**Posted by RadioActive** July 21, 2025 12:48 pm

We actually aren't on different pages here. When I said I had to go back and delete or change the story, I was referring to strictly the name and the picture. The copy also had to be massaged to remove any evidence of the suspect's identity. But the story stayed on the site.

In essence, though I had a ton of news coming in that I had to handle that day, I was also forced to go back and edit sometimes week old news that no one would ever look at again, but under the law, we could not take that chance. That's why it was such a pain.

As for the Current Affair affair, I'm pretty sure that the show was blacked out on Canadian cable systems across the country, even though it was only on a U.S. affiliate at the time. It was pretty controversial then as it would be now to force that kind of censorship on an American TV station, but the cable systems here played ball to my extreme irritation, which is why only those with an antenna could have seen it.

And there was nothing stopping people with a VCR and over-the-air reception from taping it and showing it to whoever they wanted. Listen I understand the rules - but blacking out a TV station from another country is judicial overreach IMHO.

**Posted by Evuguy** July 24, 2025 9:34 pm

As mentioned by another member, TPS had the story and image on their site on Monday (morning). When I checked in the afternoon, it was gone. Just now, I ran the kid's name though Google and believe it or not, the TPS still has it up on their YouTube channel. Also found his image on Instragram and X.
Clearly, this law is not enforced. I've also brought up this inconsistancy before in another thread.