N.S. justice minister complained to barristers’ society about predecessor

HALIFAX – It was inappropriate for Nova Scotia’s justice minister to file a complaint with the province’s barristers’ society regarding questions asked in the legislature by his predecessor, says a political scientist.

Becky Druhan, a lawyer and former justice minister, said she recently learned that Justice Minister Scott Armstrong had filed a code of conduct complaint with the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. 

The regulating body dismissed the complaint and did not release any details about its contents.

Druhan confirmed it was filed after she left the governing Progressive Conservatives to sit as an Independent. She is now seeking the leadership of the Liberal party.

She declined to share details about the complaint, but she said it focused on questions she had asked the government during the session of the legislature that ended in April, before she joined the Liberals.

Druhan said she was disappointed to learn that a cabinet minister would use a professional complaint to target another member of the legislature.

“My job as an opposition MLA is to hold Premier Houston and his government to account, and that means asking hard questions,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

“Sometimes those questions make the government uncomfortable, but it is disappointing to me that they would try to engage the professional complaints process in response to me doing my job.”

Druhan joined the Liberals in May after leaving the Progressive Conservatives in October 2025. She was a member of Houston’s cabinet for more than three years, serving as justice minister and attorney general for 10 months. 

In an emailed statement, Armstrong said Wednesday he contacted the barristers’ society in the spring “to seek their guidance about the professional obligations of a former attorney general, particularly solicitor-client privilege.”

Solicitor-client privilege refers to the legal protection of confidentiality between a lawyer and their client.

“We had an unusual situation with a former attorney general who crossed the floor, sat as an Independent, and made statements in the legislature containing innuendo,” Armstrong’s statement said. 

“Because of her previous role as attorney general, those comments could be taken as her having knowledge of something that she would have only gained in that capacity.”

He did not say which of Druhan’s statements contained innuendo or prompted the complaint. 

Alex Marland, a political scientist at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., said this type of complaint raises concerns. “You have a member of the government effectively trying to find a way to silence a member the opposition,” he said in an interview Wednesday. 

Marland said confidentiality is a serious issue, but a regulatory complaint is not the appropriate avenue to address it. 

“If the concern is really about a former minister revealing cabinet confidences, then the appropriate route is the RCMP,” he said. 

Armstrong’s department did not immediately say if the minister brought confidentiality concerns to the RCMP.

Tom Urbaniak, a political scientist with Cape Breton University, said a complaint of this nature is “misdirected.”

“That should not be a usual recourse, to run to an outside body for something that happens in the legislature. That’s simply not our system of government,” Urbaniak said.

The professor said the complaint was probably dismissed by the regulatory body “pretty quickly.”

“We are dealing with a fundamental and broad principle of parliamentary democracy, which is absolutely privilege in the legislature,” Urbaniak said. 

“I can’t think of an example of a barristers’ society censuring or penalizing a lawyer — who happens to be a member of the legislature — for something they said in the legislature.”

In February, Druhan asked the government about possible political interference in police investigations, prompting heckling from Premier Tim Houston.

Although she posed the question to Armstrong, multiple people present said the premier could be heard saying, “She should go out there and say it,” while pointing to the doors of the legislative chamber.

Parliamentary rules in Canada allow politicians to speak freely inside the chambers of legislatures, without fear of being sued for defamation, but they lose that protection once they leave the chamber.

At the time, Druhan asked the premier to waive cabinet confidentiality so she could share more information, but the premier denied her request. 

On Wednesday, Armstrong said a lawyer “potentially using their role and confidential information they gleaned in that role for the purpose of attempting to embarrass or disadvantage a former client and gain political advantage for herself is concerning at best.”

The minister said the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society dismissed the issue because it did not want to assume jurisdiction over matters in the legislature.

The barrister’s society declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of its complaints process.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2026.