One would hope that any minister of the crown would act honourably, but one has to be aware that excessive ministerial discretion is fundamentally at odds with the rule of law. Every minister requires some discretion in carrying out the functions of his or her office. There is no doubt about that. But this goes far beyond what is necessary to carry out the office. Unfortunately, in Canadian history, we do have cases of ministers acting quite improperly and having to be corrected by the courts. The most extreme examples we see...for example, Roncarelli v. Duplessis, so many years ago, but they remain beacons in Canadian history of what we must guard against.
On November 15th, 2010. See this statement in context.