18. The Director issues instructions with respect to criminal and penal prosecutions for the benefit of the prosecutors under the Director’s authority. The instructions must incorporate the policies and measures established by the Minister of Justice, and the Director ensures that they are accessible to the public.
These instructions apply, with the necessary modifications determined after taking into account the opinion of designated prosecutors, including municipalities, to any attorney acting for the prosecution in criminal or penal proceedings, including before municipal courts. The Director publishes a notice in the Gazette officielle du Québec indicating the date as of which an instruction applies to one or more designated prosecutors.
The attorneys must inform the Director of any non-compliance with or irregularity in the application of an instruction they are subject to. That obligation also applies to the authority they report to in the exercise of their functions as prosecutor in criminal or penal proceedings.
To ensure that an instruction is complied with, the Director may require the transmission of any information relating to the application of an instruction or the transmission of any information or any document relating to a matter or a category of matters necessary for verifying that the instructions are complied with, in accordance with the terms determined by the Director. The Director may also, after discussion with the prosecutor concerned, require that changes or adjustments be made concerning the conduct of a matter or a category of matters.
The Director may, if of the opinion that the public interest so requires, take charge of a matter or a category of matters under the responsibility of a prosecutor, at the cost of the prosecutor concerned. To that end, the Director may appoint any advocate authorized by law to practise in Québec to represent the Director and act under the Director’s authority.
The Director supervises proceedings instituted by private prosecutors and, if the interests of justice so require, acts as advisor, intervenes, conducts the proceedings or terminates them.
2005, c. 34, s. 18; 2023, c. 312023, c. 31, s. 5111.