Appeal Court rejects Boudreau confession tape case

Nova Scotia's Court of Appeal has ruled it doesn't have jurisdiction to decide whether CBC should have access to a police video that shows Penny Boudreau confessing to killing her 12-year-old daughter, Karissa.

The court concurred with a 2009 decision by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and with the RCMP, which has refused to release the video, that the case should be argued in Federal Court.

Boudreau, of Bridgewater, N.S., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January 2009.

Her guilty plea came almost exactly a year after her daughter disappeared on Jan. 27, 2008, from a Sobeys parking lot in Bridgewater.

Karissa's body was found almost two weeks later, covered in snow on the bank of the LaHave River, just outside of the town limits.

The RCMP launched an elaborate undercover operation known as Mister Big and managed to get Penny Boudreau to confess on tape to an undercover police officer. Boudreau believed the officer was a crime boss who could help her cover up the murder.

The confession video was the main reason Boudreau pleaded guilty.

The CBC asked for the video as soon as its existence became known. It tried to obtain it directly from the RCMP and through an application under the Freedom of Information Act but failed on both counts.

It then argued its case before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, but that court ruled that it didn't have jurisdiction to hear the case and that it should go before the Federal Court.

CBC appealed the decision but never got to argue the merits of its case when the Appeal Court upheld the previous ruling.

RCMP cites privacy concerns

The RCMP had said releasing the tape would expose the Mister Big operation and possibly put undercover officers in jeopardy.

The operation was well documented, and information about it can be found online.

CBC had promised to protect the identities of the police in the same way it protects victims of sexual assault.

The RCMP said they had other privacy concerns but did not specify what they were.

They had also argued that since the video was not part of the court record in Boudreau's case, the CBC is not entitled to see it. The CBC stressed that the agreed statement of facts references the recorded statements made by Boudreau in the video.

The only video footage of Boudreau the public has seen is from press conferences in which she was seen tearfully pleading for her daughter's return.