It's my opinion, based upon research we have from canvassing defence counsel across the country, that people charged with firearms offences, unless they're accidental discharges in northern Saskatchewan, do not get released on bail. If they get released on bail, the bail restrictions are so severe that it amounts to house arrest. Actually, house arrest is the package that defence counsel proposes in almost every case where they are representing someone. On the package that a defence counsel has to present now with a gun charge or an offence that has guns associated with it, you have to propose house arrest or your client will not be released.
In Toronto, and I think in Vancouver, the government has guns and gangs prosecutors, and a lot of resources are put into the prosecution of these cases. I don't know where the problem is. I have not seen evidence, because I can't get it for you. No defence counsel is going to say—I respectfully submit that the crowns would tell you that people just don't get out.
It's an enormous task to represent someone on bail. I think what's happening a lot, Mr. Ménard, is that people don't even contest bail. They see a detention order, and there is pressure to move the case on because they're not going to get out.
I don't know whether that has answered your question. If you have a case where someone has a gun, the only way you're going to succeed is if you have house arrest and you are able to show that the Crown's case is not as strong as it optically is. Therefore you end up with a mini-trial at a bail hearing, which costs money and time. That flies in the face of all kinds of work going on in this country by people of all political stripes to try to figure out a better way to manage bail hearings.
We do such a poor job of managing each criminal justice case. We find out after it comes off the assembly line that what we thought was going to be a Ford is really a Pontiac. It's a job for the police, the crowns, and the defence to make sure they look at things at the front end. Rarely do you get a case at the bail stage that's ready to go to trial.