Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal government to tighten bail access to increase public safety, but experts point to better access to social services as the solution to reduce crime.
While the Ford government has been pushing for bail reform for months, Ford’s calls have gotten louder during a series of crimes in the Toronto area this month, which includes the biggest drug bust in Peel region’s history.
Nine people were arrested after nearly $50 million of cocaine was seized earlier this month, since then, seven of the suspects have been released on bail conditions.
“Can you believe that they actually got released on the biggest drug bust in Peels’ history, it’s crazy, this system is broken,” Ford said at an unrelated press conference Wednesday.
The premier went on to say that he will be “all over” Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government as he pushes for bail reform.
“They need to change the Criminal Code, they need to change bail reform, I will be all over him,” Ford said.
In addition to the drug bust, Ford’s own home was almost the victim of car theft, after four masked men attempted to steal a vehicle from his driveway in Etobicoke overnight Tuesday.
“Guess what’s going to happen? They’re going to be back out,” Ford said, when speaking to reporters about the incident.
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The premier went on to say that the justice system is “weak.”
“They have to get a backbone… we need to start throwing these people in jail,” he added.
The provincial government has previously called on the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to tighten bail legislation, this includes calling for the restoration of minimum sentences for serious crimes.
BAIL REFORM IS NOT EFFECTIVE TO REDUCE CRIME, EXPERTS SAY
Although Ford claims the system is “weak,” University of Toronto Criminology Professor Anthony Doob says Ontario already detains people in “huge numbers.”
“In Ontario, in the last year, we had 49,891 people who were detained by the police until their case was over,” Doob said.
Queens University Sociology Professor Nicole Myers also says that the bail system is not lenient, and says Canada has more legally innocent people in custody than it has those who have been convicted.
“Eighty per cent of the people that are in our provincial jails are legally innocent, and 20 per cent have been convicted and sentenced to be there,” she said.
She says that many of the ideas being proposed for bail reform would only make it more difficult for people to get bail in a system that is already difficult to get bail.
Doob says that attempting to put a dent in the crime through bail reform is “nonsense,” instead, governments should be looking towards increasing access to social services for offenders to reduce crime.
“You could get them stable housing, you could help them ease back into a job, you could do various kinds of things to put them into a stable circumstance,” he said.
Myers highlights that the bail system should stop being looked at as responsible for public safety, and also urges better funding and access to social supports.
“If we’re really serious about public safety, then we need to be looking at much bigger sorts of reforms or efforts to support people, rather than simply trying to be more punitive and restrictive,” she says.
