A Regina judge rules against the feds request for publication ban in police informant lawsuit

Former police informant launches lawsuit The federal government's move to keep the details of a lawsuit against the crown and RCMP out of the media, has been denied.

A former police informant for ‘Project Forseti’ has launched a lawsuit against the Crown and the RCMP, and today a Regina judge denied the Attorney General's request to keep all of the court proceedings private.

Noel Harder says the RCMP and the Crown failed to keep him safe after he aided their investigation into his former gang associates, and has experienced emotional distress as a result.

The federal government is eligible to re-apply, but on Thursday their request for a publication ban was denied.

The government cited privacy concerns for employees of the program in their reasoning.

Harder’s lawyer, Tony Merchant, said the public should be interested in why the government wants the file kept a secret.

“All over Canada people are disappointed in what happens when they are in witness protection,” Merchant said. “They’re angry. People are telling me their lives have been ruined. So it’s really a scam in a sense.”

He said that the RCMP officer involved would have no more of a right to have their name hidden than anyone else, and that the government should justify why the officers name shouldn’t be made public.

The case remains open to the public for now.

Based on a report by Colton Wiens.