Arm’s-Length Prosecutor, Not Politicians, Will Decide Sponsorship Scandal Prosecutions
QUEBEC CITY – Conservative leader Stephen Harper today announced that a new Conservative government will take prosecution decisions out of the hands of politicians by creating an arm’s-length, independent office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Politicians should not be accountable to politicians, and government should not be accountable to itself,” Harper said after listing examples where the Liberals failed to hold Liberals to account for their actions. “No longer will the Attorney General face the conflict of deciding matters involving his own Cabinet colleagues or his own party.”
Harper said his plan builds on precedents in other jurisdictions in Canada and abroad, including Nova Scotia, British Columbia, the United Kingdom and Australia. “Other countries and provinces have realized that high profile public prosecutions should be above any hint of politics.”
Details of the new office of the independent Director of Public Prosecutions include the following:
- The Director will be an independent, qualified prosecutor chosen from a list determined by an all-party committee;
- The office of the Director will be responsible for all federal prosecutions;
- Once the RCMP investigates findings of the Auditor General, the Ethics Commissioner or other officers of Parliament, it will be the impartial Director who decides on prosecution;
- To ensure complete transparency, the only way for the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General to overrule the Director would be by means of a public written notice.
“If we ever want accountability for the sponsorship scandal, we must have a change of government,” Harper said. “Only one party will take prosecution decisions away from politicians. We will let the independent Director decide what to do about the investigations into past Liberal scandals, and we will get on with the business of governing for the future.”
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For further information:
Conservative Party Press Office (613) 755-2191
Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Press Secretary to the Leader (613) 297-9479
