"We are just a pain in the ass and they don't want to hear from us." Canada’s open-court principle is meaningless if those in charge treat journalists as irritating interlopers.

And they do, every single day.

Journalists who cover the criminal justice system and courts from across Canada recently took part in a meeting to share stories of being denied access to public documents, shut out of virtual hearings they have every right to attend, and daily intentional and unintentional efforts to block the public from finding out information they have every legal right to hear about.