Justice committee  Maybe I would just point to paragraph 82 of the Nur decision, which talks about the other end of that spectrum, which is the responsible gun owner who would fall under that, but—

Justice committee  Yes, and it's probably even faster paced at Surrey.

Justice committee  I think that in many cases, they either changed it or reinforced what many were already practising, that the right to reasonable bail must be protected, and jealously so. I would say, yes, for some it did change that, and for many others it reinforced what we already knew.

Justice committee  I don't know that there is a trend of being harder or easier. I think really what the focus has become is what the least onerous conditions are. Some people who weren't going to get released before Zora probably still aren't going to get released. To answer your question very briefly, I don't think I've seen a specific trend of bail courts becoming more lenient.

Justice committee  That's fair, yes.

Justice committee  I think it's been a focus on reminding ourselves that we need to look at the conditions that are truly necessary for the specific grounds at issue. The one that we're most concerned about today is the secondary ground, protection of the public, so, again, it's been a matter of, first of all, are there conditions upon which this person could be released that will not put public safety substantially at risk?

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  That is certainly part of the approach.

Justice committee  It typically falls to the defence counsel to do all of the legwork. We'll, say, find a recovery house, find treatment and those kinds of things, yes.

Justice committee  I don't have statistics on that.

Justice committee  Anecdotally, it's hard to say. It would really come down to the specific cases. Being very candid, in my own experience I haven't seen a trend of it being more or less likely. It all comes back to, obviously, what the issues are for that person. There are going to be some for whom it doesn't matter how many treatment centres they may have access to; they're just not going to be released.

Justice committee  I'd agree with that.

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Thank you for the invitation to address this committee. I'm a criminal defence lawyer in Vancouver, and I'm here on behalf of the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society, an organization of defence lawyers from throughout British Columbia. This committee has an opportunity to meaningfully improve Canada's bail system, uphold constitutional rights and protect the long-term safety of our public.