The federal government will propose bail reform legislation aimed at cracking down on violent crime and repeat offenders, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday.
The measures, which Carney said are set to be tabled in Parliament next week will “keep violent and repeat offenders out of our communities.”
“The government will table legislation to amend the Criminal Code for crimes committed by violent and repeat offenders – those accused of serious crimes like violent auto theft, breaking and entering, human trafficking, violent assault, and sexual assault,” Carney told reporters in Toronto on Thursday.
The new measures will include reverse-onus bail for major crimes, which means an accused would have to prove why they deserve to be let out.
The legislation will also include consecutive sentencing for major crimes and restrict conditional sentences for a number of sexual offences, Carney said.
The government will also invest $1.8 billion over four years in this fall’s budget in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and hire 1,000 new RCMP personnel.
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The Conservative Party of Canada in a statement said the new measures will only serve to “double down on a failed Liberal playbook.”
“Conservatives offered the Liberals a real plan to tackle crime by repealing their ‘Principle of Restraint’ and strengthening bail conditions with the Jail Not Bail Act. The Act won support from across the country, but when Liberals had the chance to make our streets safer, they voted against it,” the party said in a statement.
“Mark Carney said that keeping Canada safe has been his government’s focus since day one. Yet it has been six months without legislation and Carney is still refusing to repeal the ‘principle of restraint’,” Conservative justice critic Larry Brock said.
The ‘principle of restraint’ is a legal doctrine that requires judges to consider other forms of sentencing before incarceration.
“You can’t put a criminal only halfway in jail; halfway measures won’t end the scourge of crime and disorder in our communities,” he added.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association criticized Carney’s announcement, arguing that there was “no evidence that bail causes crime.”
“For years, civil society and even the Senate have urged the government to collect and publish standardized bail data. We do not even have basic numbers, like how many people allegedly commit new offences while on bail,” said said Shakir Rahim, director of the Criminal Justice Program.
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