We're in a different section, but we're still dealing with the concept of reverse onus. Green Party amendment 29 would restrict the type of prior offence that would trigger reverse onus if the accused is charged with an offence under subsections 145(2) to 145(5), which are the sections that deal with escape and being at large without excuse, to those prior offences that are processed as indictments only.
The advice we had here was from the Society of United Professionals, those lawyers who do legal aid work. Current reading of the code would place a reverse onus on any accused person who commits a hybrid offence while on release from another hybrid offence, regardless of whether those were summary convictions or indictments. The application of the reverse onus should never be overly broad, and if we don't amend this, that would leave the application of the reverse onus overly broad.
Thank you very much.