Ottawa’s bail reform bill will work, minister says. He just can’t say how

The House of Commons passed the bill by unanimous consent last week, skipping over the step of sending it to a parliamentary committee of MPs for review.

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani said Wednesday he is confident the Liberals’ bail-reform package will have an impact and make the country safer, but he says he cannot measure what exactly that will be.

Virani appeared before the Senate legal committee that is studying Bill C-48, which seeks to toughen up access to bail for certain violent offenders by expanding reverse-onus provisions for individuals charged with particular crimes, such as those involving a weapon who have been convicted of a similar offence within the past five years.

Reverse-onus provisions shift the burden away from Crown prosecutors, who must usually prove why an accused person should stay behind bars while awaiting trial. Instead, accused people would have to show why they should be released into the community.

Virani said while the legislation will make bail more difficult to obtain, the discretion to grant bail still ultimately lies with individual judges.

He added that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that reverse-onus provisions are constitutional when it comes to matters of public safety.

But how exactly the suite of bail-reform measures will affect safety in Canada remains the central subject of debate.

Senators pressed Virani on what kind of data or other evidence the government has that demonstrates such efforts will work as desired.

“We’ve seen both anecdotally and statistically a rise in crime,” Virani said, which includes an uptick in violent offences involving a weapon.