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The Federal Prosecution Service DESKBOOK
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PREFACE
When the original Crown Counsel Policy Manual was published in 1993, it marked the first time that the operational prosecution policies of the Department of Justice had been collected in one place, and made publicly available. The Manual was very well received, and events during the past seven years, including commissions of inquiry in Ontario and Nova Scotia, have shown just how important it is to explain who we are, and how we conduct our work.
To ensure public confidence in the administration of criminal justice, prosecutorial discretion must be exercised in a way that is objective, fair, transparent and consistent. However, those large discretionary powers carry heavy responsibilities for Crown prosecutors. Morris Rosenberg, the former Deputy Minister of Justice, expressed this reality in June 2000 during the XXth Annual FPS Conference in these words:
“
Carrying out the duties of a prosecutor is difficult. It requires solid professional judgement and legal competence, a large dose of practical life experience and the capacity to work in an atmosphere of great stress. Not everyone can do this. Moreover, there is no recipe that guarantees the right answer in every case, and in many cases reasonable persons may differ. A prosecutor who expects certainty and absolute truth is in the wrong business. The exercise of prosecutorial discretion is not an exact science. The more numerous and complex the issues, the greater the margin for error.”
The prosecution guidelines contained in this Deskbook are the instructions of the Attorney General of Canada to the prosecutors, in-house or agents, who act on the Attorney General’s behalf before the criminal courts of this country. It is therefore essential that these guidelines receive broad distribution and that they be understood, reviewed regularly, and adhered to by all those acting on behalf of the Attorney General of Canada. The Deskbook is a permanent work-in progress: all FPS counsel should be conscious of the need to suggest changes where policies are unclear or out-dated. FPS managers are obliged to monitor application of the policies to ensure they are properly applied.
In applying these guidelines to the specific facts of the case before them, prosecutors act independently without the fear of political interference or improper or undue influence. They are, however, accountable to the Attorney General for the way in which they have exercised this grave and important responsibility. The reporting obligations that are contained in the guidelines are also designed to support this accountability process.
The decisions that must be taken by prosecutors are often difficult or unpopular. Prosecutors are not expected to be governed by public opinion or other external pressures. They must only be governed by the public interest as articulated in these guidelines in making their decisions. In a speech to federal prosecutors in 1998, the then Deputy Attorney General, George Thomson, confirmed that prosecutors who exercise their discretion in accordance with the policies contained in the Deskbook will be supported by the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General and the Attorney General.
I take pride in the commitment to integrity and excellence that the Federal Prosecution Service Deskbook represents. The Deskbook attempts to meet not only the high standards we impose on ourselves and which the Attorney General and the public demand, but also international standards such as those published by the International Association of Prosecutors.1 We are very pleased that the reaction to the publication of the Deskbook has been favourable; for example, Mr. Justice Michel Proulx and David Layton, in their book Ethics and Canadian Criminal Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2001) describe it, at p. 648, as “one of the best sources of ethical guidance [for prosecutors].
”
The Deskbook, like its predecessor, will be publicly available on the Department of Justice Internet site. We have attempted to make it more user-friendly by including an analytical index and a table of authorities. It will be updated regularly, as new challenges demonstrate the need for new policies, or revisions to existing ones.
The completion of this document required extensive consultations and the involvement of a number of colleagues in and outside the FPS. We owe them all a debt of gratitude. A special word of thanks to Robert Frater, who, in addition to his responsibilities as Supreme Court Appeals Coordinator, accepted the heavy and thankless responsibility for the second edition of this Deskbook.
D.A. Bellemare, M.S.M., Q.C.
Assistant Deputy Attorney General (Criminal Law)
Ottawa
October 2005
Note to the Reader
For convenience, the masculine pronoun is used in this document to refer to either male or female persons if the context does not clearly indicate one or the other.
Also, the terms “Group Head
”, “Prosecution Group Head
” and “FPS Director
” are identical in meaning and used interchangeably throughout the Deskbook.
1 See I.A.P. Standards under tab “I.A.P.
”.
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