Everyone should watch this video and reflect on what this courageous young man is telling us…

Yesterday, Premier-elect Clark announced that Suzanne M. Anton, a non-practising lawyer who was admitted to the British Columbia Bar in 1980, would be the province’s new Attorney General and Minister of Justice.  This is a positive development.

In our previous post, we linked the Court of Appeal’s decision in Askin v. Law Society of British Columbia, 2013 BCCA 233, but the decision was subsequently removed from the Court of Appeal’s website.  The Court of Appeal dismissed Lesslie Askin’s appeal from a lower court judgment that rejected her argument that the Attorney General must be qualified as a lawyer.  If the decision reappears, we will provide a new link.

Premier-elect Christy Clark is poised to announce her new cabinet at 2:00 p.m. today.  Members of the public and legal profession should be watching closely to see who will occupy the important position of Attorney General.  Will the Premier continue to buck tradition, constitutional convention and common sense by installing a non-lawyer as the Attorney, or will she appoint someone with adequate legal training and experience?

The Court of Appeal has now posted its decision in our client Lesslie Askin’s legal challenge, and we have instructions to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada on her behalf.

In my view, the best candidate for the job would be MLA Andrew Wilkinson.  We’ll see….