I want to talk briefly about the Randall McKenzie matter. He is an accused. He has the presumption of innocence; I do acknowledge that. He was released after a bail review. My colleague, Frank Caputo, raised this with a defence witness this past Monday. We really haven't heard much evidence on the frailties, in my view, of our bail review system.
Under section 520 of the Criminal Code—I'm sure you're familiar with the language, but for the benefit of Canadians watching this and our committee members—there are two areas in which you can bring a bail review: where there's an error in principle in the actual order itself from the lower court, or where there's a material change in circumstances that will make it unjust not to vacate the order.
Mr. Taylor, with the resources I've been able to access with respect to the evidence, it's clear that Mr. McKenzie was denied bail at the Ontario court level by a Justice of the Peace, given his prolific repeat behaviour of breaching orders, breaching firearm orders, and given the significant, serious nature of the substantive offence. Regardless of the plan—which included house arrest, electronic monitoring and a surety—the Justice of the Peace felt that the tertiary grounds were activated, and he was detained on the tertiary grounds.
Six months later, he ended up in bail review in Hamilton. He is indigenous, and Gladue factors were referenced at the lower level. The same Gladue factors were talked about at the superior court level. However, he changed the deck.
I often saw this in my previous career. If you get one kick at the can and you don't choose the right surety—that surety gets rejected, or the plan gets rejected—then you just shuffle the deck. You go to the superior court, get a new surety, maybe add a few conditions, add to the quantum of the promise to pay, and take your chances.
In this particular case, it was the same terms that he had advanced in the lower court and the same amount by way of a promise to pay, but he swapped up the surety—it was originally the girlfriend—to his mother. Clearly, we have a disconnect here in terms of community safety.
Sir, I believe you to be the lead...the highest legal officer at the Department of Justice. Is that accurate?