News Release
Law Society Issues Notice for Lawyers Acting for Police Officers in SIU Cases
Case Number: N/A
Mississauga (21 November, 2012) --- On November 6, 2012, the Law Society of Upper Canada, the body that governs all of Ontario’s lawyers, issued a notice for lawyers acting for police officers in SIU cases.
In effect, the notice says that a lawyer who acts for more than one officer may be in an untenable conflict position under the Rules of Professional Conduct because the lawyer has a duty to share all information among multiple clients. In other words, the lawyer cannot hold back information received from one client from another client.
According to the Law Society, this Rule puts the police lawyer in a very difficult position because the SIU regulation to the Police Services Act prohibits officers from sharing information directly or indirectly with each other until the SIU completes its interviews.
The notice was published as a result of a recommendation from a report written by The Honourable Patrick LeSage, Q.C., regarding the SIU, released in April 2011. Former Attorney General Christopher Bentley referred Mr. LeSage’s recommendation to the Law Society in June 2011.
SIU Director Ian Scott commented, “This notice by the Law Society will do much to advance the cause of civilian oversight of law enforcement. In my view, it is now clear that a lawyer cannot act for more than one police officer in relation to SIU investigations. I thank Mr. LeSage for making this recommendation, and am grateful to the Law Society for clarifying the role of lawyers acting for police officers in these circumstances.”
The full document can be found at: http://www.lsuc.on.ca/newsarchives.aspx?id=2147485737&cid=2147489984.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
- publicly report the results of its investigations