Justice minister, deputies should resign
A drama being played out between provincial ministries and the legal profession may sound like Insider Baseball, but given Canada’s unfortunate history of wrongful convictions, average Albertans should stand up and pay close attention.
On July 22, 2014, the deputy minister of justice and solicitor general, Tim Grant, declared that: “The ultimate goal of a Crown prosecutor is to see that the accused is convicted of any charges that are brought against him. This undoubtedly is not the outcome the accused is hoping for.”
This was in response to a concern that disclosure of Crown prosecutors’ compensation packages would give rise to safety concerns with respect to individual Crowns.
Mr. Grant, who was appointed in September 2013, is not and has never been a lawyer and thus was neither eligible to hold the office of deputy minister of justice, nor deputy solicitor general.
This “oversight” by Jonathan Denis, who is attorney general, solicitor general and minister of justice, was quickly “corrected” by appointing Kimberly Armstrong as deputy attorney general and associate deputy minister of justice and solicitor general in October 2013.
The description of the role of Crown counsel as above described was signed by Ms. Armstrong on behalf of Mr. Grant, who presumably was not available to sign this memorandum which was circulated to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service — that is, all of Alberta’s provincial Crown prosecutors.
There then followed a joint memorandum over the signature of both Mr. Grant and Ms. Armstrong dated Sept. 15, 2014 to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service describing an “amendment” to the earlier memorandum of July 22. They were told that the description of the role of Crown counsel was an “incorrect statement.” There then followed an apology and an acknowledgment of the significance of the concern of the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to this “incorrect statement.”
In fact, the role of a Crown prosecutor is to objectively present evidence for the court. The Law Society of Alberta’s Code of Conduct clearly states: “When engaged as a prosecutor, the lawyer’s primary duty is not to seek to convict, but to see that justice is done through a fair trial on the merits.”
With all due respect, we would suggest that Premier Jim Prentice ask both Mr. Grant and Ms. Armstrong to tender their resignations. Mr. Grant is not qualified to occupy this present position and with respect to Ms. Armstrong, this is not the first time that she has clearly demonstrated her unsuitability to hold her present position. On this latter point, we refer to the concerns raised by CBC News in November 2014 with respect to her earlier efforts to keep from becoming public a racist string of internal emails in her earlier position as head of Internal Affairs for the Edmonton Police Service. She was very heavily criticized for her attempt, as found by the Law Enforcement Review Board, to hide the fact that a racist email from an EPS member had ever existed or been sent. Her response to this allegation was that she simply declined to comment on the allegation because she said the email or emails in question were not publicly released under the Freedom of Information Act. The Law Enforcement Review Board found that she attempted to “keep the lid on things and what the potential fallout would be if the email was ever released to the public.”
It should be noted that Ms. Armstrong is now, as deputy attorney general, signing direct indictments which significantly and adversely affect the rights of accused persons. This is the process which commences serious criminal proceeding in the Court of Queen’s Bench and prevents the accused from challenging the Crown’s case at a preliminary inquiry — this from a person who believes that the role of the Crown is to seek conviction of a prospective accused person.
Have we learned nothing from the notorious cases of David Milgaard, Thomas Sophonow, Greg Parsons, Guy Paul Morin and, in Alberta, Wilson Nepoose and Jason Dix?
We have previously and very publicly complained about the conduct of Mr. Denis, who is responsible for the appointment of Mr. Grant and Ms. Armstrong. We would suggest that it is time for Mr. Denis to go as well. Peter J. Royal is a criminal lawyer in Edmonton.