LAKELAND – During a rural roundtable discussion earlier this month, Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro stated the changes in Bill C-75 “drastically” changed the bail regime in the country, negatively affecting the safety of communities.
Minister Shandro, alongside Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis explained the need for changes in Bill C-75 in order to reduce repeat offenders within the provincial justice system.
What is Bill C-75?
The federal government made amendments to Bill C-75 in 2018, aiming to modernize the criminal justice system and address issues of delays and inefficiencies in the courts. One of the major changes brought about by Bill C-75 was to bail provisions in the Criminal Code.
Ellis explained that there were three ways of detainment under previous provisions, known as “primary, secondary, and tertiary grounds.”
Primary grounds consider an accused person's likelihood of attending court. Secondary grounds are consideration of the accused person’s likelihood of re-offending. Tertiary grounds are the likelihood of an accused person undermining public confidence in the administration of justice, explained Ellis.
According to information from the Department of Justice Canada, the amendments in Bill C-75 include expanding the considerations to the particular circumstances of accused persons, the potential impact of pre-trial detention on the accused person's mental health, and the accused person's background and personal circumstances.
Concerns
Ellis and Shandro argue the changes lower the bar when it comes to bail hearings.
Shandro said the new bail regime made it difficult to hold anyone in pre-trial custody, stating that C-75 rewrote bail regime in a way that “made it very difficult in many circumstances, [and] almost impossible to hold anyone in pre-trial custody."
Acknowledged that while everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, Shandro believes there are situations where pre-trial custody is appropriate, particularly for serious crimes or repeat offenders who pose a risk to the community.
“So, as a result... we saw a lot of folks who would be arrested, and then be out on bail and reoffending the same day, as an example,” said Shandro.
Changes need to be made
In a meeting in Ottawa last month, Shandro and Ellis met with their provincial and federal counterparts, including federal Minister of Justice David Lametti, and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino.
According to Shandro, the meeting “went very well,” in that the federal government “at least... is now conceding that they do need legislative changes,” and the provincial government will continue to advocate for further changes.
When asked if there have been any actions taken so far by the federal government, Shandro said, “we have been waiting.”
“I think [Minister Lametti] is optimistic that he will be able to move forward with legislative [as soon as possible,] but didn’t want to commit publicly on a timeline,” said Shandro.
“But what he had said to us when we were in Ottawa... made the provinces and the territories feel confident that they understand how serious this is and how urgent it is for this to be dealt with.”
While no changes have been seen so far, Shandro said the province will continue to “invest in innovative ways of dealing with [crime.]”
