We, the undersigned, are writing to express our serious concerns to provincial and territorial Ministers of Justice about recently passed bail reform in Bill C-14. We believe that everyone has a right to feel safe in their community, and that criminal justice policy must work toward that goal. Not only is Bill C-14 unlikely to result in greater public safety, it also makes matters worse by targeting far more than ‘repeat and violent’ offenders with a history of bail non-compliance. In fact, the legislation will narrow the availability of bail for many first-time accused, who have no history of bail non-compliance, because of new offence-specific reverse onuses.
As many experts made clear in testimony before Parliamentary committees, and as noted by the federal Minister of Justice, Canada does not collect adequate data about the bail system. The provinces and territories, as those responsible for the administration of justice, must step forward to work in partnership with the federal government to collect better data. Without it, there will be no way to evaluate the impact of Bill C-14 on those who go through the criminal justice system in order to make evidence-based policy.
We urge you to:
- Proactively work with Statistics Canada to identify gaps in the collection of bail data in your jurisdiction and commit to putting in measures to rectify them.
- Ensure that future requests to the federal government for criminal justice reform are evidence-based, and where data is inadequate, commit to collecting it before legislative reforms are made.
- Engage with experts and organizations involved in the criminal justice system, especially beyond police and law enforcement stakeholders, to ensure the broadest input and perspectives are taken into consideration when creating criminal justice policy.
- Pay close attention to conditions of pre-trial detention, given that new restrictions on bail will increase the prison population and the already inhumane conditions in many pre-trial detention centres.
