Is bail reform keeping violent offenders off streets? Hard to tell, police say

Police in Canada say they are still waiting on more data to become available to determine whether Canada’s bail reforms over recent years are keeping violent offenders off the street.

Prior to the changes, the RCMP tracked that more than half of suspects in murder investigations in that force’s jurisdiction were released early from custody.

“Between 2019 and 2022, in the RCMP jurisdiction, 53 per cent of those that committed a homicide were on some form of community release,” RCMP deputy commissioner Jodie Boudreau told The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson.

It’s a trend that extended to urban areas too that have their own police services, according to current Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police president and Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth.

“I can tell you from my own experience in Winnipeg, we see about 20 per cent of those that we’re arresting for violent offences that are, in fact, on bail. So that will be something that, collectively across the country, we’ll really try to watch,” Smyth said on the show.

At the start of January, amendments to Canada’s bail legislation came into force, reversing the onus for certain people accused of violent offences such as those charged with firearms offences and intimate partner violence. Reverse onus means the accused needs to demonstrate why they should be eligible for bail, rather than the onus being on Crown prosecutors to prove to a court why someone shouldn’t be eligible for bail.

Smyth says that generally speaking, most people who are arrested and charged with an offence are released the same day on some kind of order to later appear in court.

“That reform took place in January of this year. It was passed and started Jan. 4,” Boudreau said. “We don’t really have the stats for the last few months.”

Smyth echoed those comments.

“We’re really in a monitoring stage right now,” he said.

1:54 Bail reform bill goes into effect targeting violent repeat offenders

As the most recent bail reforms are studied, Smyth says that it is important that any future considerations find balance between public safety and the right to bail.

“I think focusing on repeat violent offenders, it’s not a panacea but I think it’s a good first step. And then I think it respects the rights of an individual as well, so that we’re not denying people bail for lesser offences,” Smyth said.

When someone is on bail, probation, or some other form of community release, Boudreau says that violations are shared and warrants are displayed in a national database.

However, Boudreau said it is not so simple as just going out and arresting an offender.

“Although that that information gets uploaded and the local detachments of our police service will be aware of the warrant, it isn’t a matter of someone always being available to go out and arrest them, and part of the issue is finding them,” she explained.

“Sometimes bail is revoked. They’re not living where they’re supposed to be living, as happened with James Smith Cree Nation, and trying to find the person can be hard sometimes.”

In September 2022, Myles Sanderson went on a mass-stabbing spree that started at the northeast Saskatchewan First Nation. He killed 11 people and injured 17 others before ultimately dying of a drug overdose shortly after being arrested.

Between 2008 and 2017, Sanderson racked up 46 criminal convictions. He’d received statutory release from custody in August 2021.

1:05 Myles Sanderson’s parole officer breaks down their relationship before mass stabbing rampage

Statistics Canada has been reporting rising crime rates in the country following a drop in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To better address this, Boudreau says bail reform can only be one piece in a broader puzzle.

“I think we need to continue to reform the criminal justice system. This bail reform is one piece of it, and we are one piece of the system. I think we need to continue to reform it, but making sure both in custody and out of custody that those social supports are in place,” Boudreau said.

“I think everybody would agree there’s a lack of those resources, just like there’s a lack of mental health support.”