Youth Criminal Justice Act (S.C. 2002, c. 1)

Marginal note:Deemed election

121. For the purposes of sections 119 and 120, if no election is made in respect of an offence that may be prosecuted by indictment or proceeded with by way of summary conviction, the Attorney General is deemed to have elected to proceed with the offence as an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Marginal note:Disclosure of information and copies of record

122. A person who is required or authorized to be given access to a record under section 119, 120, 123 or 124 may be given any information contained in the record and may be given a copy of any part of the record.

Marginal note:Where records may be made available

• 123. (1) A youth justice court judge may, on application by a person after the end of the applicable period set out in subsection 119(2), order that the person be given access to all or part of a record kept under sections 114 to 116 or that a copy of the record or part be given to that person,

  • (a) if the youth justice court judge is satisfied that

    • (i) the person has a valid and substantial interest in the record or part,

    • (ii) it is necessary for access to be given to the record or part in the interest of the proper administration of justice, and

    • (iii) disclosure of the record or part or the information in it is not prohibited under any other Act of Parliament or the legislature of a province; or

  • (b) if the youth court judge is satisfied that access to the record or part is desirable in the public interest for research or statistical purposes.

• Marginal note:Restriction for paragraph (1)(a)

  (2) Paragraph (1)(a) applies in respect of a record relating to a particular young person or to a record relating to a class of young persons only if the identity of young persons in the class at the time of the making of the application referred to in that paragraph cannot reasonably be ascertained and the disclosure of the record is necessary for the purpose of investigating any offence that a person is suspected on reasonable grounds of having committed against a young person while the young person is, or was, serving a sentence.

• Marginal note:Notice

  (3) Subject to subsection (4), an application for an order under paragraph (1)(a) in respect of a record shall not be heard unless the person who makes the application has given the young person to whom the record relates and the person or body that has possession of the record at least five days notice in writing of the application, and the young person and the person or body that has possession have had a reasonable opportunity to be heard.

• Marginal note:Where notice not required

  (4) A youth justice court judge may waive the requirement in subsection (3) to give notice to a young person when the judge is of the opinion that

  • (a) to insist on the giving of the notice would frustrate the application; or

  • (b) reasonable efforts have not been successful in finding the young person.

• Marginal note:Use of record

  (5) In any order under subsection (1), the youth justice court judge shall set out the purposes for which the record may be used.

• Marginal note:Disclosure for research or statistical purposes

  (6) When access to a record is given to any person under paragraph (1)(b), that person may subsequently disclose information contained in the record, but shall not disclose the information in any form that would reasonably be expected to identify the young person to whom it relates.