Welcome Message

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to Toronto!  It is an honour for me to host the 5th North American and Caribbean Conference of the IAP. 

Canada is a large and diverse country, a federation where collaboration is the norm.  It will be a pleasure for me, as Director of Public Prosecutions, to introduce colleagues from around Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean to Toronto and to our criminal justice system.  In Canada, there are 12 prosecution services – each province has its own prosecution service, responsible for prosecuting criminal offences in their respective jurisdictions.  My own prosecution service, an arm of the federal government, prosecutes all offences, both criminal and regulatory, in the northern territories, and a large variety of regulatory and economic offences in the rest of Canada. Finally, the Canadian Military has its own prosecution service, headed by the Director of Military Prosecutions. While the provincial and federal prosecution services are independent from each other, we work in close collaboration to ensure that the rule of law is upheld throughout the country. I wish to thank our sponsors, the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel, the Crown Counsel Association of British Columbia, the Crown Counsel Association of Ontario and the Association of Justice Counsel for their assistance in organizing the conference.

The conference’s theme, Essential Elements: Prosecuting in the 21st Century, aims to stimulate discussion between participants on the latest challenges and opportunities we face in our daily work, including wellness, civility, delays before the courts, and the aboriginal experience here in Canada. 
We look forward to hosting you in Toronto. 

Kathleen Roussel
Director of Public Prosecutions and Deputy Attorney General of Canada