Judges need to ensure stricter bail principles are being upheld: minister

Justice Minister Arif Virani says if repeat offenders are being released on bail following the passage of reform bills, certain court principles may not be being employed.

Justice Minister Arif Virani says he wants to ensure principles meant to guide bail decisions are being upheld as police anecdotally report high rates of people on bail reoffending.

“Bail decisions are made by justices of the peace and provincial court judges around the country. They’re meant to be guided by basic principles. Two of the basic principles are, is that person a flight risk, do we think that we’re not they’re not going to come to court if they’re released? And secondly, are they a risk of reoffending?” Virani said in an interview with The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson.

“The fact that we’re seeing people who are let out on bail and then subsequently returning because they are, in fact, reoffending, means that we need to ensure that those principles are being properly applied by justice of the peace and by provincial court judges.”

At the start of January, amendments to Canada’s bail legislation came into force, reversing the onus for certain people accused of violent offences such as those charged with firearms offences and intimate partner violence. Reverse onus means the accused needs to demonstrate why they should be eligible for bail, rather than the onus being on Crown prosecutors to prove to a court why someone shouldn’t be eligible for bail.

Virani said the goal of this legislation, Bill C-48, is to “make it more difficult” for “serious repeat violent offenders” to get bail.

Last week on The West Block, two senior police officers said they are waiting for more data before making a pronouncement on whether they see a change in what they and their colleagues have been experiencing.

“Between 2019 and 2022, in the RCMP jurisdiction, 53 per cent of those that committed a homicide were on some form of community release,” RCMP deputy commissioner Jodie Boudreau said.

“I can tell you from my own experience in Winnipeg, we see about 20 per cent of those that we’re arresting for violent offences that are, in fact, on bail. So that will be something that, collectively across the country, we’ll really try to watch,” Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police president and Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth said on the show.