Justice committee  Are you referring to the view that we are prepared to challenge releases for serious crimes?

Justice committee  Particularly with respect to section 515 of the Criminal Code, all the reasoning is indeed in place for judges to rule on a case-by-case basis. At the end of the day, it will always be case by case, even when there is no reverse onus or when the onus is on the Crown. It is standa

Justice committee  The criminal record will inform the assessment of dangerousness in a very objective way. The person's criminal history will be one of the factors considered, as well as the nature of the crime, the circumstances surrounding the crime, the use of a firearm and therefore access to

Justice committee  Practically speaking, interim release actually prevents us from doing our job well. As defence counsel, representing an accused is the first step toward a guilty verdict for us and for that person. Even the prosecutor will have a totally different approach with us, knowing that h

Justice committee  In conditional sentence cases, the person under house arrest is assigned to an official probation officer and subject to a concrete supervision plan. The probation officer takes charge of the inmate, a term they continue to use even if the person is serving their sentence at home

Justice committee  We talked about this earlier. According to the statistics, conditions are not met in a great number of bail cases. However, it's not even the same order of magnitude in conditional sentence cases. If an inmate with a conditional sentence breaks the conditions imposed on them, the

Justice committee  That's another can of worms. If you open it, you'll see that there are long delays. The law says three days, but if the bail hearing continues for a while, it can go beyond three days. In my opinion, the government needs to invest in supervision and enforcement right now.

Justice committee  That's exactly right, because section 515(1)(c) of the Criminal Code specifically mentions the public interest. That interest is going to evolve over time, and that will help the courts remain vigilant. The problem I raised at the end of my speech is that practical experience te

Justice committee  Thankfully, those of us who practice law don't convey that message. I'm sharing this with you today because you're interested, but legal practitioners are not going to spread that message among litigants. Otherwise, it could be a problem if clients knew that. As legal practitione

Justice committee  The same thing goes for checking up on plaintiffs, as we discussed earlier. This concludes my opening remarks. Thank you for your attention.

Justice committee  Esteemed members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, thank you for inviting me to participate in this study you are conducting on the Canadian bail system. As president of the Association québécoise des avocats et avocates de la défense, or AQAAD, I'd like to