In our system of government, the Attorney-General of a province or the federal government is not a minister like all the others. An AG is both a cabinet minister and the Chief Legal Officer to the Executive Council.
In Ontario we have something called the Ministry of the Attorney-General Act and in Quebec i'ts something called "An Act respecting the Ministère de la Justice" that sets out the unique responsibilities of an AG.
The Quebec Act states that "The Minister of Justice is the legal adviser of the Lieutenant-Governor and the legal member of the Conseil exécutif du Québec." I know this sounds like not much but it's important - I will come back to this clause.
The Quebec Act goes on to state that the Minister:
( a) is responsible for establishing the public policy of the State in justice matters;
(b) sees that the administration of public affairs is in accordance with the law;
(c) exercises superintendence over all matters connected with the administration of justice in Québec except those assigned to the Minister of Public Security;
(c.1) develops policies and implements measures with regard to criminal and penal matters...
The Ontario Ministry of Attorney General provides the following very helpful summary of what is entailed in an AG's role as "Chief Legal Officer of the Executive Council":
Chief Law Officer of the Executive Council (s. 5(a))
"The role of chief law officer might be referred to as the Attorney General's overall responsibility as the independent legal advisor to the Cabinet - and some have even suggested that the role possibly extends to the Legislature as well. The importance of the independence of the role is fundamental to the position and well established in common law, statutes and tradition.
As chief law officer, the Attorney General has a special responsibility to be the guardian of that most elusive concept - the rule of law. The rule of law is a well established legal principle, but hard to easily define. It is the rule of law that protects individuals, and society as a whole, from arbitrary measures and safeguards personal liberties.
The Attorney General has a special role to play in advising Cabinet to ensure the rule of law is maintained and that Cabinet actions are legally and constitutionally valid.
In providing such advice it is important to keep in mind the distinction between the Attorney General's policy advice and preference and the legal advice being presented to Cabinet. The Attorney General's legal advice or constitutional advice should not be lightly disregarded. The Attorney General's policy advice has the same weight as that of other ministers."
At this point we obviously have no idea whether Premier Jean Charest or Marc Bellemare are telling the truth in this matter. If Charest did nothing wrong then this has the potential to be the biggest defamation suit in Canadian history. Literally.
On the other hand, if Bellemare's accusations are proven to be accurate, Charest's political career is almost certainly over.
But even so, Bellemare will have a lot of questions to answer for namely why did he wait until years later, at a press conference, to bring to light crimes - and yes, what he alleged yesterday would constitute serious crimes - being committed by a government he swore to serve in a unique role. Sure he resigned from cabinet after only a year but he had a duty to ensure that "the rule of law is maintained and that Cabinet actions are legally and constitutionally valid," something that according to his own accusations was not the case while he served in cabinet. Again, if his accusations are accurate then surely he had a higher duty as a member of both cabinet and the Quebec bar then to go away, say nothing for years and then hold a press conference.
While Charest's political future is certain to get most of the attention in this matter, Bellemare still has a lot to explain.