Fraser, Canada’s justice minister, doesn’t get legal basics

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Mark Carney’s Liberal government has promised a bail reform bill this fall, which is a good thing, but I worry about what his justice minister will deliver. We’ve all seen story after story of someone out on bail on serious violent charges, often with previous convictions, just released on bail and then picked up on new violent charges.

This has been a growing concern over the last decade and has picked up pace over the past several years.

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Recently in Toronto, a 12-year-old boy was arrested along with a 20-year-old man in a violent crime spree that resulted in a murder. According to the Toronto Police Association, the union representing frontline officers, they were both out on bail at the time of the offences.

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It’s the latest stark reminder that our system is broken, that it needs repair, but Carney’s Justice Minister, Sean Fraser, is either oblivious to this or playing political games.

On Monday, Conservative MP Frank Caputo asked a question about the broken justice system.

“The Liberals say they are tough on crime, but they will not repeal Bill C-5 and Bill C-75. It is another bait and switch from another Liberal prime minister.

When will the same old Liberals get tough on crime and fix the system they broke?” Caputo asked.

Fraser’s response leaves you wondering how much he knows about the justice system he is running.

“When the honourable member poses a question about repealing Bill C-75, I would suggest it is a good idea to read it first. He does not seem to understand that that bill actually makes it harder for people who are charged with intimate partner violence to receive bail,” Fraser said.

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He went on to say that he will work with people in good faith but questioned if the Conservatives would work in good faith.

Any objective reading of this situation is that Fraser is not acting in good faith and he knows that but is relying on the public not knowing and most in the media being too busy or too lazy to call him on this. Bill C-75, passed into law by the Liberals did make it harder to get bail for intimate partner violence, but it made it easier to get for just about every other offence.

Caputo is a former prosecutor who understands the criminal code, Fraser spent a couple of years working in intellectual property and environment law before running for office.

Bill C-75 amended the Criminal Code of Canada to state that judges and justices of the peace “shall give primary consideration to the release of the accused at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions.”

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That is the problem with Bill C-75, that is what Caputo was calling for the government to repeal. As has every provincial government across the country regardless of political stripe because they have seen the horrible effects.

Liberals will claim that these changes were the result of court decisions that forced their hand, but the 2019 changes went further than required. There was a push by progressive governments across North America to make bail easy to get and some of the jurisdictions that enacted similar changes at the same time like Democrat-led New York State have walked away from those changes after disastrous results.

The Liberals under Trudeau were forced by provincial governments to make minor changes back in 2023 but those changes were minor.

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As it stands today, someone caught using a gun to conduct a carjacking while out on bail for similar charges would most likely be granted bail again under the current law and if denied bail in the first instance would be granted bail on appeal. There is more to fixing this broken system than just fixing the problems of Bill C-75, but that is a first step.

We need greater jail capacity — something Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised but hasn’t delivered on yet. We can’t have the population grow as rapidly as it has but still have a jail capacity for a province half our size.

The speed of trials also needs to pick up if we want to keep people behind bars pre-trial. It is unworkable to keep people locked up for three years on trial in overcrowded jails while they await trial.

We should be seeing trials in 90 days or so, meaning three months and not three years.

All of that said, changing the federal law that made bail the default position is a step that must be taken. It’s just not clear that our current Justice Minister realizes that.

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