When Edmonton police criticized Alberta’s prosecution service this month for its handling of the homicide of an eight-year-old Indigenous girl, they were doing something rarely, if ever, done in Canada. They were intervening in a prosecution to demand accountability from the next link in the justice-system chain, after a plea deal they objected to. They were baring their fists and coming at the prosecutors. All this in public, too.
Now the police are being pilloried for it. Prominent criminal lawyers from a national organization are accusing the Edmonton Police Service of trying to intimidate prosecutors and thereby undermine their independence. Those lawyers say the police are threatening the rule of law and undermining the public’s confidence in the justice system.
“You have a public duty. You need to be able to put it on the record”
– Anthony Moustacalis, a former president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, describing Mr. Chaloner’s guidance to him when he was starting out with the Crown.
