I'll deal generally with the role of an attorney general in prosecutions. All I can say is that the Attorney General doesn't make decisions in respect of whether charges should be laid. That is generally done by the police in our system. If the RCMP, for example, have evidence for a charge, it is they who lay the charge. They will consult with crown attorneys—sometimes federal crown attorneys, sometimes provincial crown attorneys—as to whether or not there is sufficient evidence and will make that decision.
Ultimately, in my experience, with one very notorious exception—and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense—in British Columbia, where the Crown screens criminal charges to determine whether or not they should go ahead, generally speaking the police lay the charges and the crown attorney then prosecutes them. I would be surprised that an attorney general would be involved in the laying of a charge. In fact, I'd be very concerned. In all the years I've been a prosecutor and a government lawyer and a provincial minister of justice, I've never had a minister involved in the laying of the charge. It would be, in my opinion, very inappropriate.
I can't tell you why the last government did or why the last minister didn't, but I would hope the reason the minister did not was because it would be highly improper for him to do it.