Confidentiality is important to the judicial complaints process. It helps the Review Council to work effectively. It balances holding justices of the peace accountable for their actions and protecting judicial independence.

Confidentiality in the judicial complaints process protects several interests including the following: 

1. The integrity of the investigation is protected. 
2. The legitimate privacy concerns of the justice of the peace who is the subject of the complaint are protected. 
3. Judicial independence is protected by ensuring that the justice of the peace’s authority is not undermined by disclosing baseless complaints.

The Review Council has made an order about confidentiality. The order confirms the confidentiality framework intended by the Justices of the Peace Act. The order states:

Pursuant to section 8(18) of the Act, the Council has ordered that, subject to any order made by a complaints committee or a hearing panel, any information or documents relating to a meeting, investigation or hearing that was not held in public are confidential and shall not be disclosed or made public. 

The order applies whether the information or documents are in the possession of the Review Council, the Attorney General, or any other person, but does not apply to information and/or documents,

a) that the Act requires the Council to disclose; or

b) that have not been treated as confidential and were not prepared exclusively for the purposes of a Council meeting, an investigation or a hearing.

The confidentiality order applies to documents such as:

• complaint letters

• correspondence between the Review Council and complainants 

• correspondence between the Review Council and justices of the peace

• reports from the Chief Justice

• disposition letters sent to complainants at the end of the complaints process informing them of the outcome of the complaint. 

The Review Council recognizes that complainants have the right to make their complaint public.

If a complaints committee orders a hearing into a complaint, the complaints process becomes public after the Notice of Hearing is served on the justice of the peace, unless a hearing panel orders that there are exceptional circumstances to warrant a private hearing. Making the process public only at the hearing stage balances transparency, accountability, and judicial integrity and judicial independence.