Premier David Eby says his provincial and territorial counterparts are unanimous in a call on the federal government to implement bail reforms and expand support to fight guns and gangs in communities. Eby speaks about hubs to target violent crime during a news conference in front of the Provincial Court of British Columbia in Nanaimo on April 12.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
British Columbia’s new bail rules, aimed at keeping dangerous offenders off the street, have not persuaded judges to agree to detention in a majority of cases, the province’s Attorney-General says.
Niki Sharma, in an April 21 letter to her federal counterpart, says the results underscore the need for Ottawa to toughen its bail law.
“In November last year, we directed the BC Prosecution Service to do everything possible under current federal law to address the risk of repeat violent offending in B.C.,” she wrote in the letter to federal Justice Minister David Lametti. Under a new directive, B.C. Crown prosecutors were urged to oppose bail in cases where public safety was deemed to be at risk.
According to preliminary data – which will be publicly released next week – judges granted bail despite the recommendations of Crown prosecutors in more than half of cases, Ms. Sharma said. She did not say how many cases were reviewed, nor what impact the bail directive had on detention rates.
“To have only half, or less than half of the cases in which Crown counsel show cause for detention result in a detention order is deeply concerning,” she wrote. “Crown prosecutors only seek pretrial detention of the accused at a bail hearing because they are not satisfied that the risk to public safety posed by the accused’s release can be reduced to an acceptable level by bail conditions.”
Earlier in the day, premiers met with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to discuss public-safety concerns that have ramped up after a string of random stranger attacks, many in Toronto and Metro Vancouver.
B.C. Premier David Eby, in a statement after that meeting, said Ottawa urgently needs to follow through on its commitment to bail reform.
“Police and prosecutors in B.C. are doing their part within existing laws to keep people safe. The federal government must act on its promise to amend federal bail laws to address this national risk to public safety showing up in every province and territory,” he said.
Mr. Lametti has committed to move forward quickly on “targeted reforms” to the Criminal Code that would update Canada’s bail system. However, he has cautioned that any changes need to avoid violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, since access to bail is a fundamental right.
The B.C. government imposed its bail directive – a rare intervention in the independent Crown prosecution system – after urban mayors called for action in addressing a small number of repeat offenders who commit an outsized amount of crime.
At the call of the mayors, the provincial government commissioned a report on repeat offenders, which noted the frustration of law-enforcement stakeholders who said Crown counsel are resistant to approving breach-of-bail conditions without an additional substantive charge, rendering police “essentially powerless to stop repeat crimes.” That finding prompted the bail directive.
Section 11 of the Charter states that those charged with an offence have the right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause.
A 2017 Supreme Court of Canada judgment has called the provision “an essential element of an enlightened criminal justice system” that safeguards the liberty of accused persons.
In response to that ruling, the federal government introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code in 2019 that codified a “principle of restraint” that emphasized the release of detainees at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions.