First of all, it's very important to look at the context. I think that was a quote, perhaps from the Globe and Mail, when it put a scenario to me.
What I mean is pretty much consistent with what I've said today, which is that all public officials must point to lawful authority to ground their actions. If they're senior administrative officials in government, whether in the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's Office, whether it's the Prime Minister or a member of cabinet, all public officials must point to lawful authority. If any public official seeks to influence a prosecution in any form, or bring information to a prosecution, they must point to lawful authority for that.
In my respectful view, the Shawcross doctrine is very flimsy authority in terms of the rule of law in Canada and whether or not it even has the status of a legal convention.... What does have clear legal status is the independent and quasi-judicial role of the Attorney General and the director of public prosecutions, who is an assistant attorney general.
Certainly I'm very reluctant to ever be in a role to play prosecutor because I highly respect the decisions of prosecutors. I do not think prosecutors are unaware of their lawful obligations, but I do worry about people who approach prosecutors and claim to be able to have discussions with them, and claim that there's legal authority. They must point out the explicit legal authority because these are highly sensitive issues, and we have a range of offences in the Criminal Code that speak to integrity. One should be able to point very clearly to your committee what legal authority they are claiming should they be seeking to intervene with an Attorney General who's made a decision on a prosecution.