Winnipeg’s mayor, who has long pushed for stricter bail conditions for repeat offenders, didn’t hold back Thursday when given the chance to address a Senate committee studying the issue.
“Criminals who have been proven guilty over and over again are released with light conditions,” Scott Gillingham said during an appearance via teleconference before the standing Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs.
“Why are we so surprised then, when these same people go on to stab or shoot or steal or assault or exploit again when freely given yet another chance to do so?”
The committee is currently studying Bill C-14, the federal Bail and Sentencing Reform Act, to review proposed changes to the Criminal Code, Youth Criminal Justice Act, and National Defence Act.
Introduced in October 2025, the bill passed second reading in the Senate last month.
It aims to make bail harder to obtain for repeat and violent offenders, directing police and courts to prioritize public safety. Part of the committee’s role is to examine the bill’s compliance with constitutional standards, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Gillingham acknowledged the right to be presumed innocent is a critical principle, but said the Charter also allows for reasonable limits to freedom in order to protect peace and order.
“As long as habitual offenders are repeatedly rereleased into the community, there is a practical limit to how effective police and prosecutors and prisons can be in preventing crime,” he said.
Thompson city Coun. Kathy Valentino spoke to the committee in her role as second vice-president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. (Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs)
The committee has already heard from representatives from the retail council, victim assistance centres and other municipal officials.
There’s no publicly specified deadline to complete the review but once done, the committee will report to the Senate for a third reading of the legislation.
Repeat offenders are “a considerable public safety challenge” because their actions “pile pressures on local policing and emergency services” and erode a local sense of safety, said Kathy Valentino, a city councillor in Thompson, Man., who spoke to the committee in her role as second vice-president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The consequences of inadequate bail restrictions are stark, she said, citing the death last year of Kellie Verwey, killed in a highway crash three kilometres east of Portage la Prairie.
James Lorne Hilton, 24, who was charged in connection with the fatal crash, had a warrant out for his arrest at the time for violating bail conditions, police said.
“This is just one of countless stories from across this country,” Valentino said.
Bill C-14 could help make it difficult for repeat offenders, especially violent ones, to be released on bail, she said.
“We want a justice system that instills public confidence.”
Call for system-wide reforms
However, the municipalities federation doesn’t consider Bill C-14 a “magic bullet,” said Valentino.
It must be paired with system-wide reforms that includes a “co-ordinated national approach” to data-sharing so justice officials have access to the same information on charges, conditions, compliance and re-offending trends of individuals.
Increased court capacity — including more judges and prosecutors — is also needed to ensure timely, evidence-based decisions, she said.
It all must be combined with measures to address root causes of repeat offending, including mental-health supports and housing, said Valentino.
“This legislation is only the beginning of what is really needed, but it’s an important beginning.”
Committee deputy chair Sen. Denise Batters noted some witnesses have spoken against C-14, saying there is already too much pretrial detention in Canada, and asked Valentino for her response.
“The day-to-day realities [experienced by municipalities] clearly show why Bill C-14 needs to be put into place,” Valentino said, citing data provided by Gillingham.
A joint Winnipeg Police Service-RCMP warrant unit, launched in 2023 to target violent offenders, has said more than 80 per cent of its arrests in 2024 involved offenders who were on bail, probation or parole.
In 2025, those offenders made up 80 per cent of the arrests, Gillingham told the committee, saying that in both years, bail breaches were the most common violation. The unit averages one arrest per day, he said.
A bail compliance unit of the Winnipeg Police Service that started operating in mid-December last year had performed 922 checks by late February, more than a third of which resulted in arrests or arrest warrants, justice officials said last month.
“[But] statistics don’t capture just how futile this can feel when police arrest the same individuals over and over and over,” Gillingam said.
“Our support for bail reform isn’t about blindly being tough on crime. It’s a rational public policy response to obvious threats, destructive patterns and repeated outcomes.”
Batters, a Conservative senator from Saskatchewan, applauded Gillingham for weekly repeat offender bulletins he issued during the fall to pressure Ottawa to act on bail reform.
“That’s a very smart thing to do, and also sort of sad that we would need to do that,” she said.