Global Courant 2023-05-18 13:03:31
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Author of the article:
The Canadian Press
David Fraser
Published on May 18, 2023 • read for 3 minutes
Conservative leader Pierre Poilièvre addresses reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick /The Canadian Press
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OTTAWA — Conservative party leader Pierre Poilièvre said this week that if he became prime minister, his government would pass legislation to deny repeat violent offenders access to bail — and while the proposal addresses Canadians’ growing concerns about crime, experts suggest that it probably would be unconstitutional.
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“A violent repeat offender, recently arrested for another serious violent crime, will serve his entire term in prison,” Poilièvre told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
“No bail, and no parole. That’s common sense.”
The opposition leader’s comments came amid the federal government’s announcement of its own plans to reform Canada’s bail laws by introducing measures to make it more difficult for some repeat offenders to be released on bail.
The Liberals made the proposed changes in response to increasing pressure from counties, police associations and victims’ rights groups to strengthen the system amid a spate of high-profile crimes.
Poilièvre said the measures do not go nearly far enough to improve public safety. But experts were skeptical of his alternative proposal.
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Boris Bytensky, a criminal lawyer, said legislation denying some suspects access to bail hearings would not pass the constitution.
The approach does not consider the possibility of innocence, he said.
“Somewhere in there should be room for someone to be found not guilty. Because presumably we don’t convict people until they’ve been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, he said.
“But that doesn’t seem to be included in the story.”
Bytensky said Poilièvre seems to suggest that the existence of a criminal record means people should be found guilty and sentenced as soon as possible so they can stay behind bars.
“That’s essentially what he’s saying his government promises to do, if elected, so I’m a little surprised about that.”
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Danardo Jones, an assistant professor at the University of Windsor’s law school, said the pledge “doesn’t make a lot of sense” from a constitutional legal perspective.
“I’m not exactly sure what society these people are imagining, whether it’s a society where there’s no risk or a society where there’s no crime,” he said.
“I would love to live in such a society, but I don’t know if draconian criminal law measures will usher in such a society.”
About 70 percent of people already in Canadian detention centers are there because their bail has been denied, Jones said.
“Then we will see an even higher representation in our provincial detention facility of people who have not been criminally convicted of the crime they were charged with,” he said.
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Nicole Myers, a sociologist at Queen’s University with expertise in bail and pre-trial detention, said the idea “completely ignores the fundamentals of our criminal justice system” and the fact that the right to be released on reasonable bail is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is a right that has been repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court.
Poilivre’s pitch seems to be more about politics, Myers said.
“He’s trying to grab hold of and exploit public fear and concern.”
The slogan used by Poilièvre to promote the idea that certain offenders should give up their right to bail hearings — “Jail, no bail” — is “misguided,” Myers said.
“We don’t have a smooth bail system in this country. We have more people in pre-trial detention than in county detention since 2004,” she said.
In addition, she said spending time in prison makes people more likely to commit a crime upon release.
And if people who are eventually convicted spend more time in jail awaiting trial, then time will be shaved off at the end of their sentences after they’re convicted, Myers added.
“If he was really interested in public safety, as he says he apparently is, then we wouldn’t be trying to put more people in jail.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 17, 2023.
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