{"id":403117,"date":"2025-11-25T07:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403117\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:36:21","slug":"ontario-looks-to-revive-use-of-cash-bail-raising-charter-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403117\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario looks to revive use of cash bail, raising Charter concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto in 2019. The Ontario government under Premier Doug Ford has long called for stricter bail laws.Colin Perkel\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ontario wants to reinstitute the widespread use of cash bail, more than a half century after the practice was mostly abandoned in Canada because of concern it unfairly harmed lower-income people.<\/p>\n

The move follows federal efforts to toughen bail and sentencing laws with changes to the Criminal Code. Both are responses to political and public pressure tied to violent crime and public safety. <\/p>\n

Bail is governed by the federal Criminal Code, yet the Ontario government plans to table legislation on Tuesday that would require an accused person, or a person who has pledged responsibility for the accused, to put up a full cash deposit if bail conditions ordered by a judge include a financial component. <\/p>\n

The requirement would indicate a serious obligation to abide by bail conditions, said Doug Downey, Ontario Attorney-General. It would also be easier for the province to collect the money if there were violations.<\/p>\n

Canadians say too many people are getting out on bail. The data paint a complex picture<\/a><\/p>\n

But legal experts, as well as British Columbia\u2019s Ministry of the Attorney-General, questioned whether it would violate the Constitution\u2019s federal-provincial separation of powers and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.<\/p>\n

Ontario under Premier Doug Ford has long called for stricter bail laws and the provincial government has described the bail system as broken. Ontario said it is the first province to move toward greater use of cash bail. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re designing the system so that it will work within the boundaries of the Constitution,\u201d Mr. Downey told reporters at Queen\u2019s Park on Monday.<\/p>\n

Unlike in the United States, cash bail in Canada is rare. When a financial condition is part of pretrial release, it is generally fulfilled by a pledge of assets rather than actual money. The Supreme Court of Canada in 2017, in a ruling that detailed how existing bail laws should work, instructed judges in the lower courts to rely on cash bail only in exceptional circumstances. <\/p>\n

Polls show a large majority of the public backs tougher bail laws, but data indicate a record number of people across the country are already being denied bail, an increase led by a surge in Ontario.<\/p>\n

The issue of cash bail has not been in question in recent years and, until this week, had garnered little to no debate. <\/p>\n

Ottawa proposes tougher bail, sentencing laws in overhaul of system<\/a><\/p>\n

Cash bail was the norm in Canada for a century after Confederation, but in the 1960s it became clear the practice was problematic. A study at the time showed a majority of people who were ordered to pay cash bail couldn\u2019t do it because they didn\u2019t have the money and thus were jailed ahead of trial for their inability to buy their release.<\/p>\n

In 1971, as the federal Liberals readied the Bail Reform Act \u2013 a framework of rules that remains in place today \u2013 then-justice minister John Turner told the House of Commons that cash bail was a tool that acted \u201charshly against poor people\u201d and declared it should be a last resort when judges consider bail conditions.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how Ontario will enact its goal of cash bail, said Nicole Myers, a bail expert and an associate professor of criminology at Queen\u2019s University. She said judges would be unlikely to rely on the provincial guidance, given that the bail rules are detailed in the federal Criminal Code.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a wrong-headed move,\u201d Prof. Myers said.<\/p>\n

One unanswered question is how the provincial plan would accord with the federal law on bail, said Melanie Webb, a Toronto lawyer and chair of the criminal justice section of the Canadian Bar Association. It\u2019s also uncertain whether Ontario\u2019s plan would overstep the Charter right not to be denied bail without just cause.<\/p>\n

If Ontario requires cash bail in every case, Ms. Webb said, \u201cthis would be completely contrary to the law of bail.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C. has supported tougher federal bail laws. But on Monday, a statement from the province\u2019s Attorney-General said it had initial concerns about the constitutionality of Ontario\u2019s plan and \u201chow it can fairly apply to people with a wide range of incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates warn Ontario\u2019s bail reform could harm mothers seeking recovery<\/a><\/p>\n

A unanimous Supreme Court, in the 2017 Antic decision, spoke strongly against cash bail.<\/p>\n

It said if there are exceptional circumstances in which cash bail is levied, the amount must be set at a reasonable level so it doesn\u2019t effectively jail someone because they can\u2019t pay. The court also said judges have to ask an accused person, when setting a financial component to bail, what they can afford.<\/p>\n

Richard Wagner, five months before he became Chief Justice, wrote the Antic decision. He highlighted the history of bail in Canada and pointed to the federal legislative changes in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cParliament limited cash bail for good reason,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The section on bail in Ontario\u2019s Crown Prosecution Manual reflects Supreme Court guidance. Prosecutors should not request a cash deposit if a surety \u2013 a person who promises to oversee an accused \u2013 can pledge assets. Prosecutors should not ask a judge for cash or pledges that are unattainable because \u201cthat has the same effect as a detention order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of Ontario\u2019s plan say it fails to address real problems, such as better supervision of people who are granted bail and the strengthening of day-to-day operations of overloaded bail courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we truly care about community safety, we have to look at solutions that actually work,\u201d said Michael Spratt, a criminal defence lawyer in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said, \u201cSomething [the government] could do right now is actually properly fund our court system so we don\u2019t have this huge backlog and so victims get justice sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto in 2019. The Ontario government under…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-403117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}