Openness of Boston puts the closed doors of VIA Rail case in stark contrast: Christie Blatchford

NatPost columnist Christie Blatchford describes the stark contrast between U.S. and Canadian courts and law enforcement media relations and openness.
Excerpts:

"Reporters were told that both suspects would appear in court at Old City Hall in Toronto Tuesday morning, but come Tuesday morning, it turned out that Mr. Esseghaier had in fact been flown back to Montreal due to some jurisdictional issue, and will be again flown to Toronto for a Wednesday court appearance.
"No one was on hand to explain what that delay was about to the long line of reporters who waited early Tuesday in the bowels of Old City Hall outside No. 103, the tiny courtroom used for federal cases.
"On the hard benches, a sleeping man, perhaps homeless, snored loudly.
"Court officers and officials bustled about, bristling with self-importance and long sighs of suffering. . . .
"At long last, all who could fit were allowed into the seriously small room. . . .

"The mostly inaudible justice of the peace asked if he understood her instructions, chiefly that he was remanded to May 23, and that he must not communicate with Mr. Esseghaier except through his lawyer.
"'It’s very clear,' Mr. Jaser replied, and that was pretty much that.
"No documents were posted online anywhere, for anyone.
"Reporters did receive copies of the indictment, but that was because the Toronto Sun’s Sam Pazzano had gone upstairs to a clerk’s office, where his is a familiar face, and begged for one, then made multiple copies.
"This is how journalists in Canada secure court documents, by force of charm and persistence, which Mr. Pazzano has in spades.
"As my great editor remarked, the instinct in America, public and official, is always toward openness; in this country, it is usually in the opposite direction, to hiding, to secrecy, to who-knows-who and to a remarkable level of self-satisfaction."

The full column in the NatPost