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.

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, 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.

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, 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.

Responsibilities

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

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. 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. 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.

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.

Portfolios

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.

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

List of attorneys-general

Upper Canada

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)

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 (Canada)Confederation)

See also

• Government of Ontario

References

Further reading

External links