B.C.’s premier said on Monday that Ottawa’s new proposed bail reform legislation is a responsive and effective bill.
“British Columbians have wanted to see the federal government introduce a bill that reflects the anxieties that are in many communities across the province,” Premier David Eby said.
“Anxieties which are based in the concern that there is a small group of individuals causing an outsized amount of harm and and that at root of it is a loss of respect for the criminal law, whether it’s repeat shoplifting over and over and over again, whether it’s violent offending where someone commits a violent offense and then is returned back to the community using the existing bail laws.”
The act, revealed last week, would make dozens of changes to the criminal code to make bail laws stricter and toughen sentencing for serious and violent crimes.
The government says it will make it harder for violent and repeat offenders to get out of custody.
B.C.’s Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters last week that she is happy to see the proposals addressing intimate partner violence.
During the press conference, Sharma referenced the case of Bailey McCourt, whose estranged husband, James Plover, is charged with beating her to death with a hammer in Kelowna.
Plover had been convicted of domestic violence just hours earlier, but was not taken into custody until he was accused of second-degree murder.
“I know that there are plans to introduce further changes to the criminal code and B.C. will be at the table presenting our ideas and our thoughts on what could tighten up the criminal code and what we need to do to make a justice system that everybody sees shows proper respect for the law, puts the right people behind bars and upholds what we all want, which safer communities everywhere across the country,” Sharma said at the press conference on Monday.
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser said that among the proposed changes are new reverse onuses for several new offences that require the accused to prove why they should be released on bail, expanding the onus to cover offenders with previous convictions within the previous 10 years, and consecutive sentences for repeat violent offenders in certain cases.
“The second (thing) is that we want to impose stronger sentences for those who commit the most serious crimes in this country to ensure that the criminal code reflects the experience that so many Canadians have seen in their communities over the course of the past several years,” he said on Monday.
“Too often, we wake up to newspaper headlines that indicate yet again a violent offender has been released on bail, only to have reoffended. Too often, we see cases make their way into public discourse where it’s hard to understand how a specific penalty has been issued, given the severity of the crime that’s being considered.”
Fraser said the reverse onuses are being expanded in this bill to capture new categories of offenses, one is specifically assaults and sexual assaults that involve choking or strangulation.
The bill also adds a reverse personnel provision for people who have been convicted but have not yet been sentenced.
Fraser said this bill also changes the way someone who commits violent extortion could get bail, with the reverse onus clause.
“The bill, as I mentioned at the outset, it doesn’t just deal with bail, but also deals with sentencing,” he added.
“Some of the changes that we will be making will involve consecutive sentences for certain offenses involving extortion. For example, oftentimes, for those who aren’t familiar, if you’re sentenced with multiple offenses, you can serve them both at once. If you, in my view, are sentenced to one offense that carries a penalty of four years and another that carries a penalty of two, you should serve both sentences for a total of six years.”
Fraser also said that anyone who commits a sexual crime, sexual assault or a sexual crime against children that house arrest will not be an option for the accused in those situations.
“Too often, we see entire communities seeing a small number of people responsible for an enormous majority of the criminal offenses that are committed,” he said.
“If people do not have respect for the law, seeing them simply released time and time again doesn’t seem like the appropriate outcome.
“At a certain point in time, we have to recognize people who continually violate court orders, people who continually violate the criminal law with impunity need to have that reflected, not only in what sentences may follow but also in the process of bail.”