This, I would state, is probably the most significant amendment being tendered by the Conservative Party of Canada. It has been the mantra and the position of our party, as I've indicated numerous times, including today, that the origin of catch-and-release—arrest, release, arrest, release—can all be traced back to the principle of restraint, which was introduced by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government through Bill C-75 in 2019.
Justin Trudeau, his then justice ministers, other various ministers, other MPs and backbench MPs all touted the line that, “All we did was codify exactly what the Supreme Court of Canada asked us to do”, in the decision known as Antic. I have read Antic, in my professional capacity, probably a half-dozen times and, probably, another half-dozen times as a parliamentarian. Nowhere in the Antic decision by the Supreme Court of Canada did it direct the federal government, at that time, to do anything by way of amending section 493.1 of the Criminal Code. They did that on their own, and the false, negative, wrong message that Justin Trudeau and his ministers provided this country was, again, that, “We didn't do anything other than what the court asked us to do.”
Leaving that aside, the principle of restraint, at its core, summarizes that courts—including judges and justices of the peace, who hear bail hearings every single day of the year because the criminal justice system does not take a break for any statutory holidays, it runs every single day of the year.... Since the year 2019, those judges and JPs have been directed by this Liberal government, with a failed Liberal policy, to mandate the release of the accused at the earliest opportunity, on the least restrictive conditions.
I have spoken, anecdotally, with a number of current and retired judges and JPs. All have told me that their ability to exercise the appropriate discretion under subsection 515(10), as it relates to the grounds of detention—the primary, secondary and tertiary grounds—were completely offset by the principle of restraint.
This particular amendment takes the language, the positioning that the Conservative Party of Canada has, literally, taken since 2019.... Specifically, since I became a parliamentarian in 2021, and, certainly, after the election of our leader, Pierre Poilievre, we have been laser-focused on articulating our position and asking the government to repeal that portion of Bill C-75 and, essentially, to replace it with what I have heard from stakeholders: Replace that principle of restraint with the principle of community protection and safety for victims.
This replaces clause 14 with a new section 493.1, which makes public safety and security the primary consideration when applying, under subsections 515(1) and 515(2), to decide release, detention and conditions. It also instructs that this applies when those bail principles are being applied via sections 498, 499, 503 and 515, which are different release pathways that have been referenced.
This particular amendment is taken directly from Arpan Khanna, our colleague from Woodstock, in his private member's bill titled jail not bail act.
Thank you, Chair.