Attorney General Doug Downey’s office denied there is any connection between the donations and the decision to award the King’s Counsel honour.
More than a dozen of the recipients of a controversial new honour for Ontario lawyers donated to either Attorney General Doug Downey’s election campaign or his riding association, the Star has foundElections Ontario political contribution data shows that the names of 14
Downey decided to revive the honorary designation to mark King Charles’s coronation and to recognize lawyers for legal excellence and service to their communities, his office said this week. The designation carries no special privilege aside from allowing lawyers to use the initials K.C. after their names and wear silk robes in court.“It’s time they were straight up with Ontarians,” said NDP Leader Marit Stiles in a statement.
The government previously stopped handing out the special designations in 1985 under the then-newly elected Liberal government of David Peterson. He said the title — known as Queen’s Counsel, or Q.C.’s, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II — had become “corrupted” and widely used as a patronage tool.
The number of donors among the new K.C.’s has nevertheless raised questions among critics, who have called out the government’s secretive selection process. Stiles is also demanding to know when Mulroney first learned she was getting a K.C., and if it preceded her call to the bar last Tuesday, three days before the government made the public announcement in a Friday afternoon press release.The perception of patronage “erodes trust,” said Phil Triadafilopoulos, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto-Scarborough, speaking generally.
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