Strengthening Canada’s bail system 

Ottawa – The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that the criminal justice effectively keeps everyone in Canada, and the communities they live in, safe. This means ensuring our bail laws maintain public safety, instill public confidence in the justice system, and respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There are specific challenges facing our bail system posed by repeat violent offending, firearms, and other dangerous weapons that need to be addressed.

David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, joined by Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety; Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities; Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health; Gary Anandasangaree, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; and Randeep Sarai, Chair of the Justice Committee and Member of Parliament, introduced legislation to improve Canada’s bail system and promote public safety.

Bill C-48 proposes to make targeted changes to the Criminal Code’s bail regime to ensure our communities stay safe. The changes would address repeat violent offending with weapons including knives and bear spray, gun violence, and intimate partner violence (IPV). The proposed reforms would make it more difficult for accused persons to get bail if it is alleged that they engaged in serious violent offending involving weapons, specific firearms offences and IPV. The Bill focuses on reverse onus provisions, which refer to circumstances where an individual would be detained while awaiting their trial unless they can prove to the court that their detention is not required. The proposed changes seek to improve the safety of people and communities across Canada.

Specifically, the Bill proposes to:

• create a new reverse onus targeting repeat violent offending involving weapons
• expand the list of firearms offences that trigger a reverse onus
• broaden the existing reverse onus regime for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV)
• clarify the meaning of the term “prohibition order” in an existing reverse onus for offences involving weapons
• require courts to consider an accused person’s history of convictions for violence and the safety of the community when making a bail decision
• hold a parliamentary review of these measures after five years of the bill receiving royal assent

The proposed changes are the result of ongoing cooperation and collaboration with the provinces and territories who play a critical role in administering the bail system and in ensuring it operates as intended. The proposed reforms are also informed by engagement with other partners and stakeholders, including law enforcement and Indigenous partners.

As recognized at the March 2023 Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety, law reform is only one part of a broader solution. Cross-government collaboration is needed to ensure all Canadians can feel safe in their communities. That requires solutions other than law reform, such as improved data collection, policies, practices, training and programs to foster safer communities and address the root causes of crime.

The Government of Canada is doing its part. It is making significant investments to prevent crime and keep communities safe, and address the causes of crime as well. This includes the recent announcement of $390 million in programs to help stop firearm crime and gang violence. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is investing up to $10 million per year from 2022-23 to 2024-25 and up to $6.5 million in 2025-26 to support projects that prevent family violence and support the health of survivors. In addition, PHAC invests more than $8 million per year to prevent gender-based violence. This includes health promotion initiatives to prevent child maltreatment, and teen and youth dating violence, and to equip service providers to respond safely to gender-based violence.

Canadians deserve to be safe and feel safe in their communities and to have confidence that the criminal justice system will protect them and work as intended. The proposed reforms are an important additional step to achieve those goals.