Justice minister says federal government could not go much further on bail reform

Canada's justice minister says the federal govern‐ ment could not have made its recently proposed bail reform much stricter, giv‐ en constitutional con‐ straints.

In an interview on Rose‐ mary Barton Live airing Sun‐ day, David Lametti said his government had only a very narrow margin to work with when it comes to infring‐ ing upon Canadians' right to bail under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"My honest answer is that

I don't think you can go fur‐ ther," Lametti told CBC chief political correspondent Rose‐ mary Barton.

"What we've done here is target a really narrow set of offences: repeat violent of‐ fenders with a weapon," along with some firearms offences," he said.

"By staying in that very, very narrow lane, we feel that we're quite compliant with the Charter, but we're also ad‐ dressing a number of very specific needs." The Liberal government implemented more comprehensive bail re‐ form earlier in its tenure, re‐ sponding to rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada.

WATCH | Justice minister addresses new bail reform legislation:

The new piece of legisla‐ tion, Bill C-48, would change rules to make it harder for some offenders charged with violent crimes involving a weapon and who have similar past convictions to get bail. It would do so by implementing a "reverse onus" provision.

In most cases, prosecutors must show that accused per‐ sons are either a flight risk, a danger to the public or that detention is needed to "main‐ tain confidence in the admin‐ istration of justice" in order to prevent release on bail. Re‐ verse onus shifts the burden to accused persons.

The new bill responds to the calls of police associations and premiers across the country, who have urged Ot‐ tawa to introduce reform — especially after the killings of several police officers in re‐ cent months.

Lametti said the bill was developed in consultations with groups across the coun‐ try. He added that he was committed to making sure the bail reform changes did not have negative conse‐ quences for Black and Indige‐ nous people, and the efforts to solve the issue of their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.

Welcomed by premiers, police

After a long period of de‐ cline, violent crime has been on the rise in Canada since about 2014, according to Sta‐ tistics Canada.

The bill has met with a range of responses. The union representing RCMP officers called the measure a "good first step," and it was similarly welcomed by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

The Canadian Civil Liber‐ ties Association said, "We be‐ lieve that every person in Canada deserves to feel safe in their community but this bill will not accomplish that. It is possible to protect the right to reasonable bail and ensure public safety. The federal gov‐ ernment can and must do better than Bill C-48."

Karen Kuwica, president of the Nanaimo Area Public Safe‐ ty Association, told Barton in a separate interview airing Sunday that the bill was "en‐ couraging, it's a step in the right direction ... but on a community level, I'm not sure that it's going to make a sig‐ nificant change."

Kuwica said more needs to be done, in both the justice system and social services, to address a "hat trick of social crises" that includes the opi‐ oid epidemic, the lack of af‐ fordable housing and mental health.

The bill has been harshly criticized by the leader of the Official Opposition, who ar‐ gues it does not go far enough and will not address the safety concerns of Canadi‐ ans.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has proposed a stricter approach to bail, in which people convicted of vi‐ olent offences who are arrest‐ ed on a new charge would be denied bail throughout the course of their trial and po‐ tential sentence.

"Not bail, and not early pa‐ role. That's common sense," he said earlier this week.

"Major overhaul is needed in the catch-and-release poli‐ cies that [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau and the minis‐ ter put forward in the last number of years. This will not fix that problem."

Legal experts, though, question the constitutionality of Poilievre's proposed ap‐ proach.

The idea "completely ig‐ nores the foundational princi‐ ples of our criminal justice system," Nicole Myers, a Queen's University sociologist with expertise in bail and pre‐ trial detention, told The Cana‐ dian Press earlier this week.