Department of Justice Canada Minister's Transition Book - November 2019

The briefing document listed below was prepared for the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Additional material will be added as it becomes available.

Please note the document has been processed under the Access to Information Act and certain information has been withheld from disclosure in accordance with the exemptions and exclusions in the Act.

The Department of Justice Canada’s Transition Book speaks to the three distinctive roles played by the Department. The department’s roles are to act as: policy department with broad responsibilities for overseeing all matters relating to the administration of justice that fall within the federal domain; provider of a range of legal advisory, litigation, and legislative services to government departments and agencies; and central agency responsible for supporting the Minister in advising Cabinet on all legal matters including the constitutionality of government initiatives and activities. The Ministerial Transition binders also address the organization structure of the Department and the financial duties and responsibilities given to the Department of Justice alongside the unique programs held under the portfolio of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice including providing Legal Services to the Government and supporting a bilingual and bijural system of Justice.

Further, the Ministerial transition Book addresses organizations related to the Department of Justice and the roles they play one of which is the Canadian Bar Association, a professional, voluntary organization that represents more than 37 000 lawyers and concerns itself with the carriage of justice and maintain the rule of law. The Ministerial Transition Book addresses the acts that preside over the Minister and the department itself, the Department of Justice Act that identifies the functions of the Attorney General and the power they hold; the Act describes why and how the Department was created, why it should exist in Canadian society. For Canadians, the Minister’s Transition Book provides valuable descriptions of work that is being done by the Department, and how decisions are made; there are links to exterior sources that inform legal decisions at Justice like the Director of Public Prosecutions Act and the Charter of Rights of Freedoms.