[Marty Minuk] and officials at Manitoba Justice were in regular, if not constant, contact with Don Slough, director of prosecutions, and Brian Kaplan, director of regional prosecutions. Commission counsel were able to identify nearly 50 individual contacts between Minuk and the senior Manitoba Justice staff.

Testimony at the inquiry did, at times, degenerate into a tiresome semantic argument over which words properly described Minuk's relationships with Slough and Kaplan. Minuk said he never sought "approval" from the two senior Crowns, but in fact was using them as "sounding boards" when he was faced with a problem. Minuk also suggested there was nothing wrong with this because Slough and Kaplan were essentially "the clients" and it was entirely proper for him to keep them up to speed on developments in the case. And, he maintained that he would have deferred to Manitoba Justice if Slough and Kaplan felt particularly strong about something.

Rather than a perception of independence, Minuk's decision not to call evidence after talking with Manitoba Justice creates the perception that [Derek Harvey-Zenk] was, indeed, given a break. Slough, Kaplan and Minuk have denied that was the case, but they cannot deny that they have created the very perception they sought to avoid.