The Role of the Commission Counsel

Commissions of inquiry have been prominently featured in this country for decades. For instance the Durham Report on the 1837 Mackenzie- Papineau Rebellion was the product of a public inquiry. As well, other inquiries have played a pivotal role in the development of our public and economic life. We had, for example, the Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the McDonald Commission on the Economy, the Dubin Inquiry on Aviation Safety and the Estey Inquiry on Bank Failures to mention a few. In 1979, the Law Reform Commission of Canada estimated that there had been 400 full-blown public inquiries and close to 1500 departmental investigations held since Confederation