Mark Carney’s Liberal government will introduce legislation next week that would change bail rules and the way some criminal sentencing works.
In a news release, Carney’s office said the legislation would introduce reverse-onus bail for major crimes – meaning the accused must demonstrate why they should be released from custody. Normally, the Crown is obliged to show why they should remain.
Ottawa also wants to allow “consecutive sentencing so multiple crimes mean longer time behind bars,” the news release stated, and restrict conditional sentences – sentences served in the community, rather than jail or prison – for some sexual offences.
Carney’s office said the changes would target “serious crimes like violent auto theft, breaking and entering, human trafficking, violent assault and sexual assault.”
Drug trafficking, a major concern in the NWT, was not specifically mentioned, though the detail of the proposed legislation has not yet been made available.
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The NWT’s premier and RCMP have called for stricter bail laws. Some lawyers and legal experts argue that’s not the right solution, calling recent developments “the politicization of our bail system.”
“In Canada, you should be able to wake up, get in your car, drive to work, come home, and sleep soundly at night,” Carney was quoted as saying.
“When laws repeatedly fail to protect those basic rights, we need new laws.”
The Conservatives have already put forward their own bail reform legislation.
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Pierre Poilievre’s party has said its approach “repeals the failed Liberal ‘principle of restraint,’ strengthens bail for major violent and organized crimes like extortion and home invasion, requires judges to consider an accused’s criminal history and stops prolific offenders from vouching for other criminals.”
The Conservatives’ approach similarly involves reverse-onus bail for people accused of certain serious crimes.
On Thursday, Carney also promised $1.8 billion over four years in the coming buget “to increase federal policing capacity across Canada.”
His office said that would involve the hiring of 1,000 RCMP personnel, though a time frame for that wasn’t set out.
The extra staff would work on the likes of “online fraud, money laundering, online child sexual exploitation, and organised criminal networks that threaten Canada’s economic and national security,” the prime minister’s office stated.
