B.C. judge rules against secret hearings for spy agency in terror probe

VANCOUVER – Canada's spy agency has lost a bid to hold a secret hearing over its involvement in an investigation involving a couple who were later found guilty on terror charges in British Columbia.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce has ruled the media and the public will be allowed to attend the hearing that is considering if the RCMP manipulated the couple into carrying out the bomb plot.

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were found guilty for plotting to blow up the B.C. legislature on Canada Day 2013, but the convictions have been put on hold while their lawyers argue the pair was entrapped by police in an undercover sting.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service had asked the judge to allow a hearing to be held in camera, arguing that some of the information is so sensitive to national security that only lawyers for the service and the judge should hear it.

The judge says that although the court will be open, the doors could be shuttered at any time if sensitive information comes up.

Bruce says if that happens, the lawyers must put their legal arguments into writing so they can be made available to the public, while the sensitive facts will be heard in oral arguments behind closed doors.