 This point was decided in 1897 by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in a case on appeal from the Canadian courts.The federal government asserted that it had sole power to appoint Queen's Counsel, because the appointment is an exercise of the royal prerogative and only the federal government could advise the monarch on the exercise of the royal prerogative.The province of Ontario responded that the Crown is just as much part of the provincial governments as at the federal level, and therefore the provinces could also advise the Crown to make appointments under the royal prerogative.