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

Disclosure of Information in a Record

Marginal note:Disclosure by peace officer during investigation

• 125 (1) A peace officer may disclose to any person any information in a record kept under section 114 (court records) or 115 (police records) that it is necessary to disclose in the conduct of the investigation of an offence.

• Marginal note:Disclosure by Attorney General

  (2) The Attorney General may, in the course of a proceeding under this Act or any other Act of Parliament, disclose the following information in a record kept under section 114 (court reports) or 115 (police records):

  • (a) to a person who is a co-accused with the young person in respect of the offence for which the record is kept, any information contained in the record; and

  • (b) to an accused in a proceeding, if the record is in respect of a witness in the proceeding, information that identifies the witness as a young person who has been dealt with under this Act.

• Marginal note:Information that may be disclosed to a foreign state

  (3) The Attorney General or a peace officer may disclose to the Minister of Justice of Canada information in a record that is kept under section 114 (court records) or 115 (police records) to the extent that it is necessary to deal with a request to or by a foreign state under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, or for the purposes of any extradition matter under the Extradition Act. The Minister of Justice of Canada may disclose the information to the foreign state in respect of which the request was made, or to which the extradition matter relates, as the case may be.

• Marginal note:Disclosure to insurance company

  (4) A peace officer may disclose to an insurance company information in a record that is kept under section 114 (court records) or 115 (police records) for the purpose of investigating a claim arising out of an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by the young person to whom the record relates.

• Marginal note:Preparation of reports

  (5) The provincial director or a youth worker may disclose information contained in a record if the disclosure is necessary for procuring information that relates to the preparation of a report required by this Act.

• Marginal note:Schools and others

  (6) The provincial director, a youth worker, the Attorney General, a peace officer or any other person engaged in the provision of services to young persons may disclose to any professional or other person engaged in the supervision or care of a young person — including a representative of any school board or school or any other educational or training institution — any information contained in a record kept under sections 114 to 116 if the disclosure is necessary

  • (a) to ensure compliance by the young person with an authorization under section 91 or an order of the youth justice court;

  • (b) to ensure the safety of staff, students or other persons; or

  • (c) to facilitate the rehabilitation of the young person.

• Marginal note:Information to be kept separate

  (7) A person to whom information is disclosed under subsection (6) shall

  • (a) keep the information separate from any other record of the young person to whom the information relates;

  • (b) ensure that no other person has access to the information except if authorized under this Act, or if necessary for the purposes of subsection (6); and

  • (c) destroy their copy of the record when the information is no longer required for the purpose for which it was disclosed.

• Marginal note:Time limit

  (8) No information may be disclosed under this section after the end of the applicable period set out in subsection 119(2) (period of access to records).

Marginal note:Records in the custody, etc., of archivists

126 When records originally kept under sections 114 to 116 are under the custody or control of the Librarian and Archivist of Canada or the archivist for any province, that person may disclose any information contained in the records to any other person if

• (a) a youth justice court judge is satisfied that the disclosure is desirable in the public interest for research or statistical purposes; and

• (b) the person to whom the information is disclosed undertakes not to disclose the information in any form that could reasonably be expected to identify the young person to whom it relates.

Marginal note:Disclosure with court order

• 127 (1) The youth justice court may, on the application of the provincial director, the Attorney General or a peace officer, make an order permitting the applicant to disclose to the person or persons specified by the court any information about a young person that is specified, if the court is satisfied that the disclosure is necessary, having regard to the following circumstances:

  • (a) the young person has been found guilty of an offence involving serious personal injury;

  • (b) the young person poses a risk of serious harm to persons; and

  • (c) the disclosure of the information is relevant to the avoidance of that risk.

• Marginal note:Opportunity to be heard

  (2) Subject to subsection (3), before making an order under subsection (1), the youth justice court shall give the young person, a parent of the young person and the Attorney General an opportunity to be heard.

• Marginal note:Ex parte application

  (3) An application under subsection (1) may be made ex parte by the Attorney General where the youth justice court is satisfied that reasonable efforts have been made to locate the young person and that those efforts have not been successful.

• Marginal note:Time limit

  (4) No information may be disclosed under subsection (1) after the end of the applicable period set out in subsection 119(2) (period of access to records).

Disposition or Destruction of Records and Prohibition on Use and Disclosure

Marginal note:Effect of end of access periods

• 128 (1) Subject to sections 123, 124 and 126, after the end of the applicable period set out in section 119 or 120 no record kept under sections 114 to 116 may be used for any purpose that would identify the young person to whom the record relates as a young person dealt with under this Act or the Young Offenders Act, chapter Y-1 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985.

• Marginal note:Disposal of records

  (2) Subject to paragraph 125(7)(c), any record kept under sections 114 to 116, other than a record kept under subsection 115(3), may, in the discretion of the person or body keeping the record, be destroyed or transmitted to the Librarian and Archivist of Canada or the archivist for any province, at any time before or after the end of the applicable period set out in section 119.

• Marginal note:Disposal of R.C.M.P. records

  (3) All records kept under subsection 115(3) shall be destroyed or, if the Librarian and Archivist of Canada requires it, transmitted to the Librarian and Archivist, at the end of the applicable period set out in section 119 or 120.

• Marginal note:Purging CPIC

  (4) The Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shall remove a record from the automated criminal conviction records retrieval system maintained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the end of the applicable period referred to in section 119; however, information relating to a prohibition order made under an Act of Parliament or the legislature of a province shall be removed only at the end of the period for which the order is in force.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (5) Despite subsections (1), (2) and (4), an entry that is contained in a system maintained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to match crime scene information and that relates to an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by a young person shall be dealt with in the same manner as information that relates to an offence committed by an adult for which a record suspension ordered under the Criminal Records Act is in effect.

• Marginal note:Authority to inspect

  (6) The Librarian and Archivist of Canada may, at any time, inspect records kept under sections 114 to 116 that are under the control of a government institution as defined in section 2 of the Library and Archives of Canada Act, and the archivist for a province may at any time inspect any records kept under those sections that the archivist is authorized to inspect under any Act of the legislature of the province.

• Definition of destroy

  (7) For the purposes of subsections (2) and (3), destroy, in respect of a record, means

  • (a) to shred, burn or otherwise physically destroy the record, in the case of a record other than a record in electronic form; and

  • (b) to delete, write over or otherwise render the record inaccessible, in the case of a record in electronic form.