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The resignation of the Attorney General would expose any attempted interference by the premier or the cabinet both to the public and especially to the press, and would further entrench the convention of institutional independence. Ontario Supreme Court Justice Marc Rosenberg

Justice Rosenberg also wrote in his paper: “Although the Attorney General is a cabinet minister, he or she acts independently of the cabinet in the exercise of the prosecution function. This convention is now so firmly entrenched in the Canadian political system that any deviation would likely lead to the resignation of the Attorney General or would, at the very least, spark a constitutional crisis. The resignation of the Attorney General would expose any attempted interference by the premier or the cabinet both to the public and especially to the press, and would further entrench the convention of institutional independence.”

Well, Wilson-Raybould wasn’t able to quit as Attorney General before she was unhappily demoted to the veteran’s affairs portfolio last month — quite probably, it would seem now, over her refusal to bend to the PMO’s pressure. But on Tuesday she did resign from Trudeau’s cabinet entirely, and has retained her own counsel to advise her what she should and should not be saying. Meanwhile her replacement as Attorney General, David Lametti, comes from Montreal where SNC-Lavalin is is headquartered. Was he selected based on a willingness to settle charges against SNC-Lavalin for a remediation deal? He has already mused publicly that he might still consider directing it.

But if staff in the PMO are compromising the independence of the Attorney General, they are doing nothing less than damaging a cornerstone of Canada’s good governance. This is not something to be taken lightly. As noted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Krieger: “It is a constitutional principle that the Attorneys General of this country must act independently of partisan concerns when exercising their authority to initiate, continue or terminate prosecutions…. The gravity of the power to manage and terminate prosecutions which lies at the heart of the Attorney General’s role has given rise to an expectation that he or she will be in this respect fully independent from the political pressures of the government.”