B.C. courts reject over half of prosecutors' attempts to keep alleged offenders in custody: Crown
Prosecution service data released as province pushes Ottawa to act on bail reform
Courts in B.C. are rejecting more than half of prosecutors' attempts to keep alleged offenders in custody rather than granting them bail, according to limited preliminary data from the province.
The B.C. Prosecution Service (BCPS) released statistics Monday saying Crown counsel tried to keep alleged offenders behind bars in more than a quarter of bail hearings conducted over seven weeks late last year and early this year, but judges freed those offenders on bail around half of the time.
The statistics were accompanied by a statement that said the province's recently revised bail policy is not enough on its own to move the needle on bail reform because the "law of bail" is ultimately established in Ottawa.
"It would be unreasonable to assume that a BCPS policy change alone could produce any particular outcome at a bail hearing," it read.
"Changes to the BCPS bail policy do not change the governing federal law."
The statistics come as B.C. continues to put more pressure on the federal government to reform the country's laws around granting bail, which had been promised before the end of the latest federal legislative session.
"Clearly, it's bail reform from the Criminal Code that's needed," said Attorney General Nikki Sharma to reporters after the data was released.
"The bail policies of this country need to be changed to ensure that repeat violent offenders are held specifically to keep communities safer."
The prosecutorial data released Monday was collected during the two weeks before and the three weeks after the Crown implemented a revised bail policy on Nov. 22. Two more weeks of data were collected in February and March.
The statement acknowledged it's not possible to draw a conclusion on the effectiveness of the new bail policy from the numbers given the small sample size of data and limited time period, but said it wouldn't be reasonable to believe the "policy change alone" would be enough to influence a bail hearing.
"In making their decisions, judges must apply the governing federal law under the Criminal Code and are not bound by the BCPS bail policy," read the statement, citing one of several reasons why bail reform isn't possible without federal action.
Last month, Premier Eby said B.C. residents are "very frustrated" by a small group of repeat, violent offenders who are "cycling in and out'' of the justice system.
He said B.C. has already taken a number of reformative steps, such as directing new teams of prosecutors, probation officers and police to focus on repeat offenders within existing federal law.
Eby says the province is also trying to provide programs such as peer responders and pairing police with mental health workers, but what B.C. can do is limited without a "strong federal partner."
What the province is looking for from Ottawa is "straightforward," Eby said: the ability to keep repeat violent offenders under police custody instead of having to grant bail and release them back into the public.
However, B.C. United MLA Elenore Sturko said the statistics showed Crown prosecutors were asking for suspects to be held without bail around 25 per cent of the time and argued that number could be higher.
"The B.C. Prosecution Service has brought us the receipts. What we've been saying is true — that this province is just simply not asking for dangerous people to be held in custody.
"We need strong measures because the proof really is in the pudding."
With files from CBC News