Justice committee  I think the presumption of innocence, among many other constitutional issues, including the very right to reasonable bail in section 11(e), were at stake. Prior to Bill C-75, the Supreme Court decisions really didn't introduce any new ideas. They confirmed codified language and existing jurisprudence.

Justice committee  I think I would respond by saying that the bail system actually causes harm and causes violence. Anyone who is concerned about violent crime needs to really think about what we need to do in order to prevent it, and there's just no evidence that says putting people in jail and warehousing people in deplorable conditions prevent harm from occurring.

Justice committee  I think that we don't know yet. I don't think that we have any.... Bill C-75 is in the last number of years, and we really don't have much of an understanding of how it has operated. We know that there are certain aspects that I don't think are being made use of. Judicial referral hearings, for example, are not being made proper use of.

Justice committee  Could you repeat the question?

Justice committee  Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today. In addition to being an assistant professor who writes about the bail system in Canada, I'm also a criminal defence lawyer. I worked as duty counsel in the criminal courts in downtown Toronto for a number of years. If restrictive bail measures, pretrial custody, prisons and policing were capable of ameliorating crime, we would live in a crime-free society.