close
Jump to content

Attorney General (Ontario)

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Attorney General of Ontario
French: Procureur général de l'Ontario
Incumbent
Doug Downey
since June 20, 2019
Executive Council of Ontario
StyleThe Honourable
Term lengthAt His Majesty’s Pleasure
Inaugural holderJohn Sandfield Macdonald as Attorney General of Ontario
WebsiteOffice of the Attorney General
The Attorney General of Ontario's main office (McMurtry-Scott Building) in downtown Toronto

The Attorney General of Ontario is cabinet level official in the provincial government of Ontario, Canada. Like attorneys general in many other jurisdictions, the Attorney General of Ontario functions simultaneously as the departmental minister accountable for the department charged with legal services and administration of law, and as the chief legal adviser to the cabinet (acting formally in the name of the Crown in Right of Ontario) and, by extension, the Government of Ontario.[1]

The office of the Attorney General of Ontario is the of the five original provincial executive offices explicitly prescribed by the British North America Act, 1867 upon the province's founding,[2] and is the only office of the five still operating under the same name. As a portfolio minister, the Attorney General heads the Ministry of the Attorney General (commonly referred to as MAG within the government), the ministry responsible for providing legal services to the rest of the government and for operating Ontario's court system and a long list of quasi-judicial tribunals and agencies.[3]

Like all other members of the Ontario provincial cabinet, the Attorney General is an elected Members of Provincial Parliament nominated by the Premier of Ontario and formally appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. While not required by law to do so, Ontario Premiers had almost always selected such nominees from among members of the government caucus who were lawyers. In the province's century and a half history, only one attorney general, Marion Boyd (held the portfolio 1993–95) was not a lawyer,[4] and only one , William Raney (held the portfolio 1919–23) was recruited from another party and outside the legislature when appointed. Coincidentally, they were each attorney general of the only two ministries not formed by the two main parties.

Doug Downey is the incumbent Attorney General of Ontario. First elected to the legislature in 2018 as MPP for the electoral district of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, is the second Attorney General of the Ford ministry currently in office, and had held the portfolio since 20 June 2019.[5][6]

Responsibilities

[edit]

The Ministry of the Attorney General delivers and administers a wide range of justice services, including:

  1. administering approximately 115 statutes;
  2. conducting vast majority of the criminal prosecution in Ontario;
  3. providing legal advice to, and conducting litigation on behalf of, all government ministries and many agencies, boards and tribunals;
  4. providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations; and
  5. coordinating and administering court services throughout Ontario.

The Ontario Crown Attorney's Office, the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, the Office of the Children's Lawyer (formerly called the Official Guardian), and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) all fall within the Ministry's responsibilities. The Ministry also partially funds Legal Aid Ontario, which is administered by an independent board and also receives funding through the Law Foundation of Ontario and from the federal government.

Personal representation of the Crown

[edit]

Although the attorney general may represent the provincial government in court personally, such occurrences are extremely rare. While all but one occupant of the office were lawyers, few of them carried focused litigation practice prior to being attorney general, even fewer still focused in constitutional litigation, a highly specialized area of practice. With few exceptions, the government is represented by professional litigators employed in one of the many branches specialized in specific area of law, such as the Crown Law Office and the Constitutional Law Branch.[3] Former Attorneys General had only on very rare occasions appeared in person to argue the government's position. Progressive Conservative Roy McMurtry and Liberal Ian Scott, the two Attorneys General presiding over the ministry during the Patriation of the Canadian Constitution and the subsequent Meech Lake era, and the two Attorney General after whom the ministry's headquarter is named after, were both prominent litigation lawyers before they were in public office. Despite many appearances in the Supreme Court prior to his appointment,Scott appeared only once for the government in the five years he was Attorney General, in the reference regarding the government's ability to provide full funding for Roman Catholic Separate High Schools.[7] McMurtry, who was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario by a Liberal federal government after his political career, appeared twice over his decade at the helm of the ministry, in the 1976 Reference Re Anti-Inflation Act and the 1981 Patriation Reference.[8][9]

Jim Flaherty argued Ontario's position in R v Sharpe, a possession of child pornography case involving an accused in BC, in which Ontario was an intervenor.[10]

Portfolios

[edit]

In 2008, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (IPRD), now the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency, was established under the authority of the Attorney General, as a civilian body with powers invested through Public Inquiries Act to investigate complaints about municipal police forces and the Ontario Provincial Police.[11][12][13]

Following the 2013 release of former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci's report on the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Ontario justice system,[14] a position of deputy attorney general with responsibility for Aboriginal issues was created.[15][12]

List of attorneys-general

[edit]

Upper Canada

[edit]

1. John White (Frontenac County) 1791–1800
2. Robert Isaac Dey Gray 1800–1801
3. Thomas Scott 1801–1806
4. William Firth 1807–1812
5. G. D'Arcy Boulton 1814–1818
6. Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto 1818–1829, acting AG 1812–1814
7. Henry John Boulton 1829–1833
8. Robert Sympson Jameson 1833–1837, last British-appointed AG
9. Christopher Alexander Hagerman 1837–1840, first Canadian-born AG of Upper Canada
10. William Henry Draper 1840–1841, last AG of Upper Canada

Province of Canada (Canada West)

[edit]

In 1841, the Upper Canada joined with Lower Canada to form the Province of Canada, within which the area for former Upper Canada became Canada West. The title of the office however was changed to Attorney General for Upper Canada and not "of Canada West". In the executive council of the united province, the two attorney generals were often often the joint-premiers, but not always. There were also separate solicitor generals for the two district, but they were not always part of the executive council. Other ministerial portfolios only had one holder.

Ontario (since Confederation)

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 While Joint-premier of the Province of Canada
  2. 1 2 3 4 While Premier
  3. ↑ Forced to resigned from cabinet over disagreement on handling of the United Auto Workers strike.
  4. ↑ Interim Attorney General upon Roebuck's resignation, while Minister of Mines
  5. ↑ Assumed premiership on October 21, 1942 and retained the Attorney General portfolio while Premier; resigned both positions on May 18, 1943.
  6. ↑ Concurrently Minister of Municipal Affairs
  7. ↑ Concurrently Provincial Secretary for Justice (January 5, 1972, to September 28, 1972).
  8. 1 2 Concurrently Provincial Secretary for Justice
  9. ↑ Interim Solicitor General (February 21, 1975 - July 9, 1975)
  10. ↑ Concurrently Solicitor General (September 11, 1978 – February 13, 1982)
  11. 1 2 The building where the ministry's headquarters is located is named jointly after Roy McMurtry and Ian Scott.
  12. ↑ While Deputy Premier
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Concurrently Minister Responsible for Native Affairs
  14. ↑ Interim Solicitor General (February 3, 1986 – January 9, 1987; June 6, 1989 – August 2, 1989)
  15. ↑ First woman to serve as Attorney General; to date the only Attorney General who was not a lawyer by profession
  16. ↑ Concurrently Minister Responsible for Democratic Renewal (October 23, 2003 – June 29, 2005)
  17. ↑ Concurrently Minister Responsible for Native Affairs (January 18, 2010 – October 20, 2011)
  18. 1 2 Concurrently Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs
  19. ↑ First francophone to serve as Attorney General
  20. ↑ First visible-minority and first Muslim to serve as Attorney General.
  21. ↑ Licensed to practice law in New York; not licensed to practice law in Ontario, and was called to the bar of Ontario in 2023 via entitlement as a former Attorney General three days prior to being appointed King's Counsel.[16]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Expenditure Estimates for the Ministry of the Attorney General (2025–26)". ontario.ca. 2025-06-04. Archived from the original on 2025-10-14. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  2. ↑ British North America Act, 1867 (c.3, ss. 63, 134). Statutes of the United Kingdom. Vol. 30-31 Victoria. 1867.
  3. 1 2 "Administration of Justice Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.6". ontario.ca. Archived from the original on 2025-09-23. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  4. ↑ Walker, William (1993-02-03). "Rae chops 10 ministries 'leaner' cabinet sworn in". Toronto Star.
  5. ↑ Bruton, Bob (2025-02-27). "Downey 'thrilled' to win third term in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte". Barrie Today. Archived from the original on 2025-04-09. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  6. ↑ Dino, Angelica (2025-03-20). "Doug Downey reappointed as Ontario's attorney general". www.canadianlawyermag.com. Archived from the original on 2025-08-12. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  7. ↑ "Reference re Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Education Act (Ont.), 1987 CanLII 65 (SCC)". www.canlii.org. 1987-06-25. Archived from the original on 2022-09-19. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  8. ↑ "Re: Anti-Inflation Act, 1976 CanLII 16 (SCC)". www.canlii.org. 1976-07-12. Archived from the original on 2020-11-21. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Re: Resolution to amend the Constitution, 1981 CanLII 25 (SCC)". www.canlii.org. 1981-09-28. Archived from the original on 2025-07-01. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  10. ↑ R. v. Sharpe, 2001 SCC 2, [2001] 1 SCR 45 (26 January 2001)
  11. ↑ "Gerry McNeilly Nominated As Director Of New Police Review System". news.ontario.ca. 2008-05-02. Archived from the original on 2018-11-21. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  12. 1 2 Wallace, Kenyon (2010-07-24). "Police complaint director thrust into limelight". National Post. Retrieved 2018-12-30. As the province's newly minted Independent Police Review Director, Mr. McNeilly is tasked with handling all public complaints against police in Ontario
  13. ↑ McNeilly, Gerry (December 2018). "Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  14. ↑ Talaga, Tanya (2013-02-26). "Ontario's justice system in a 'crisis' for aboriginals: Frank Iacobucci report". Toronto Star. Toronto. Archived from the original on 2013-02-28. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  15. ↑ Guttsman, Janet (2016-06-01). "A new portfolio". Canadian Lawyer Magazine. Archived from the original on 2016-04-30. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  16. ↑ Gallant, Jacques (2023-07-04). "'Her fake honour': Caroline Mulroney was called to Ontario bar three days before getting 'King's Counsel' title". Toronto Star.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Romney, Paul (1986). Mr Attorney: The Attorney General for Ontario in Court, Cabinet, and Legislature 1791–1899. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-8118-3.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Attorney_General_(Ontario)&oldid=1363145353"