The Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto on April 8, 2019.Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press
Ontario’s new associate minister of auto theft and bail reform says the provincial government will build as many jails as necessary to keep violent offenders behind bars and is calling on Ottawa to stiffen bail rules to keep people accused of violent crimes from being released into the community.
Graham McGregor, who was named to the newly created role in Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet last month, said the federal government is to blame for the “revolving door” that sees too many repeat offenders let back onto the streets.
Mr. McGregor said it’s up to the Liberals – or any future government – to decide how to go about strengthening the law, including whether to use the notwithstanding clause to override court rulings that have made it more difficult to keep some people in jail while awaiting trial.
“This is a federal responsibility. It’s federal jurisdiction. What tools they use or don’t use is fully within their purview,” Mr. McGregor said in a recent interview.
“We can’t have this revolving-door system where you have people let out three, four, five, six, seven, eight different times.”
The Ontario government, along with other provinces and the federal Conservatives, has been highly critical of the federal government on the issue of bail reform, arguing the system is too lenient and puts the public at risk. Those complaints have grown louder after a string of headline-grabbing incidents of violence in Ontario and across the country in which charges have been laid against people out on bail or on probation.
In response to provincial concerns, Ottawa passed a law last year intended to make it harder for repeat violent offenders to be released on bail by putting the burden on specific offenders – known as “reverse onus” – to prove they should be released, including those accused of violent offences involving weapons.
The federal government now says it’s up to the provinces to “step up and enforce the law.”
Chantalle Aubertin, a spokeswoman for federal Justice Minister Arif Virani, said Ontario appoints justices of the peace, who make bail decisions, and prosecutors have the ability to initiate bail reviews. She urged the province to collect and share its own data about how the bail system is working.
“Provinces, including Ontario, are responsible for the administration of bail, and more needs to be done to make sure police and prosecutors have the tools they need for effective monitoring and enforcement,” she said in a statement.
Mr. McGregor said the new reverse-onus law does not go far enough.
“As elected officials, we can’t order judges around,” he said.
“But federal politicians do write the Criminal Code, they do write the rubric that judges are held to account on. And there’s a lot more that can be done and a lot more that should be done.”
Mr. Ford has blamed not just the federal government but also the judiciary. He was criticized earlier this summer for promising to track bail decisions and hold judges and justices of the peace “accountable.”
Mr. McGregor declined to provide more details about what such a system of accountability would look like, but he said the government would have more to say about that idea in the future.
Previous attempts to strengthen bail rules at the federal level have faced court challenges over allegations that restricting bail violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the right of individuals “not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause.” The Supreme Court of Canada has issued rulings on the matter, including a landmark 2017 decision that said the default position should be releasing accused offenders on bail at the earliest reasonable opportunity and with minimal conditions.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said that, if elected, he would use the notwithstanding clause to override Charter-protected rights when it comes to matters of criminal justice. No federal government has ever used the clause, which is routinely used in Quebec and increasingly by other provincial governments.
Mr. Poilievre has not offered specifics on how he might use the clause, including on bail reform, aside from saying he would overrule a Supreme Court ruling that struck down life sentences with no possibility of parole for mass murderers.
Conservative MP Frank Caputo said the federal government’s “failed bail reform bill” has not kept Canadians safe, adding that a Conservative government would repeal two criminal justice bills covering bail conditions and mandatory minimum sentences if elected.
“Every single premier in this country came together to tell Justin Trudeau his reckless policies are endangering the lives of Canadians, but he has continued to ignore them and push ahead with his radical agenda. It should come as no surprise that a province is again sounding the alarm over the misery and crime Trudeau has caused,” he said in a statement.
Criminal defence lawyer Daniel Brown, a former president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, said the number of people waiting in custody for trials is higher than ever. He said bail conditions are also harsher than they’ve ever been, so many people fail to comply and are brought back into the court system.
“It’s just completely false that our bail system is too lenient,” he said.
Mr. McGregor, 31, a former political staffer and first-term MPP from the Greater Toronto Area riding of Brampton North, was elevated to his post in a crucial provincial battleground and with a federal election on the horizon. The issue of auto theft has been pervasive in the GTA, with reports of guns and violence being used to steal cars that are then shipped overseas to be sold at higher prices. Mr. McGregor, whom Mr. Ford recently referred to as a “pitbull” for his advocacy work in Brampton, said he receives countless calls from constituents who have had their cars stolen. Mr. McGregor also on Wednesday took over as Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, after the previous minister, Michael Ford, announced he was taking a leave of absence from cabinet to focus on his health.
Mr. McGregor said his first order of business on the auto theft file is to push Ottawa to fund two dedicated scanners to detect stolen cars at CN intermodal terminals, where containers are moved from one mode of transport to another, in Vaughan and Brampton.