Lawyers and politicians have leapt to the defence of Canadian former prosecutors who were subjected to a withering attack by Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans.

In the House of Assembly on Wednesday she accused them of "bending over backwards to get a conviction" and "strutting about the streets" thinking they were the greatest.

But top defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said he learned a lot from Canadian lawyers during his time as a prosecutor in Bermuda.

He said: "The Canadians I worked with were extremely capable and professional.

"They were aware they were brought here to do a job and to my mind fulfilled the standard test as set out for prosecutors - do you have a case, is it in the public interest to bring it and is there a reasonable chance of success?

"When the answer is yes to those you have to do a lot of work. Those people to my recollection burned the midnight oil, working late and working hard.

"As far as bending over backwards, they worked hard to do the best with their case.

"They didn't do anything improper, if they bent over backwards to do the best they could do then they should be applauded.

"A lot of Bermudians benefited greatly, myself included, from what they learned under people such as Stephen Harrison, Brian Calhoun, Sharon Kenny and Saul Froomkin. I don't know where all this comes from."

Opposition Legislative Affairs spokesman John Barritt said the attack was unnecessary and wrong and Government was developing double standards in chastising the Opposition for attacking civil servants at Bermuda Housing Corporation and then attacking former civil servants themselves.

He said: "It's a poor way to bring up the esteem of current DPP staff by trying to attack people who served before and who, I have no doubt, tried to do their very best. It was a knee-jerk response to people's expressed concerns about results of court cases."

He said Canadian prosecutors in Bermuda had a good track record and the criminal justice system, which is adversarial, worked best when both sides were matched.

"I agree with the Attorney General in this respect - the job of the prosecution is to present the evidence fairly and allow the judge or jury to decide.

"Maybe the average person won't agree but you can't tot up the wins and loses, you have to evaluate on the strength of the case, what investigation was done.

"What the Attorney General has done is to make comments like that which invited people to engage in that type of analysis. It's why the whole outburst was misguided."

Dame Lois did not name specific Canadian prosecutors during her attack but she said some were still on the island on work permits. This would include former Principal Crown Counsel Brian Calhoun and experienced former prosecutor Patrick Doherty.

Mr. Calhoun refused to comment about Dame Lois' comments while Mr. Doherty said: "As I prosecutor I enjoyed appearing before various courts in Bermuda and I consider I served the public at all times in the proper traditions of a prosecuting attorney."

Peter Eccles, who served for two years as a senior crown counsel until he returned to Canada in April 2000, said there was an implied threat in Dame Lois' words.

"It's a case of don't contradict me because you are here on a work permit. It's not surprising Mr. Doherty is circumspect and Mr. Calhoun won't comment.

"It's also odd because Dame Lois had nothing to do with prosecutors, they didn't work for her. I was two floors below and rarely even saw her.

"Perhaps she's being defensive because the DPP's office is not having the same success."

He said boasting about cases you had won would be counter productive as it would make you a target for relatives of criminals prosecutors had convicted.

"I wasn't strutting about the streets, I was riding a bike. You keep a low profile, you don't want someone putting a stick through the wheels of your bike."

He said the British and Canadian system of justice was the same in that prosecutors present the evidence to the jury and let them decide.

Mr. Eccles went on: "But you don't simply role over, you are not a conductor on a choo-choo train calling out the stations.

"It's an adversarial system, you have an obligation to your clients - the Bermudian people."

Asked about Dame Lois' comments Director of Public Prosecutions Khamisi Tokunbo said: "It's not for me to comment, that's obviously her view."