In 2019, the federal government passed Trudeau’s “catch-and-release” Bill C-75 to update the bail provisions in Canada’s Criminal Code that requires peace officers and judicial officers to default to releasing people on bail at the earliest opportunity with the least onerous conditions. This is referred to as the “principle of restraint”. Peace officers and judicial officers must also consider the circumstances of an accused person who is Aboriginal or a member of a vulnerable population who is overrepresented in the justice system and may be at a disadvantage for getting bail.

This bleeding-heart Woke approach to criminal activity has proven to be a gift to criminals who get to wreak havoc on the lives of law-abiding citizens and police officers across the country.

The Trudeau Liberals in their Bill C-5, also did away with mandatory minimum prison time for some criminals who commit crimes with guns. The Liberal approach has seen violent crime in Canada increase by 32 per cent since Justin Trudeau took office, with 124,000 more violent crime incidents in 2021 compared to 2015, and gang murders have doubled.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps in July of 2021 wrote to British Columbia Attorney General David Eby, expressing council’s concern about violent and repeat offenders being released on a promise to appear in court, citing growing concerns about public safety and increased pressure on the police department.

A sex offender is released on bail after breaking into his neighbour’s home, leaving Esquimalt residents on edge. Business owners are forced to replace windows and doors shattered by a man released from custody hours after stealing a Victoria Harbour Ferry vessel. A five-year-old boy is slapped in the face by a stranger. An elderly woman is pushed to the ground. A family is confronted at knifepoint in Beacon Hill Park.

Tyler Newton, a violent, prolific offender, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for the unprovoked murder of Caesar Rosales while travelling on a Kelowna transit bus in 2014. In 2019, he was granted statutory release from prison but ran afoul of the conditions set out for him by the Parole Board of Canada and his freedom was suspended. In October 2022, a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest for charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and using an imitation firearm in relation to an incident occurring in December, 2021. In the past, he blatantly disregarded release conditions but shortly after he was out in the community after being released on bail.

In Vancouver, the same 40 offenders were arrested 6,000 times in 2022. The same 40 people arrested 6,000 times, in a year. That’s 150 arrests per offender per year.

On January 8, 2023 B.C. paramedics were attending a scene in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside when they started being peppered with metal pellets fired by an unseen sniper armed with an air rifle. When police arrived on scene, they too were hit several times by pellets. The man accused by police of firing the shots was a 45-year-old who was already on release for theft charges. After a couple days of detention, he got bail again. 

The Winnipeg Free Press published an article examining the 53 Winnipeg homicides in 2022, of which, “15 of the accused were under a mandatory prohibition not to possess weapons. In at least 16 cases, the accused was already facing charges for other offences and was either out on bail, was the subject of an undertaking or actively wanted.”

In Alberta, in three years there were over 3,600 violent occurrences, including 2,200 assaults, by people who were out on bail in Edmonton. In two years, 26 homicides were committed by criminals out on bail. Calgary’s Chief of police stated that of the 45 persons charged with Calgary homicides in 2.5 years, 23 were out on bail at the time of their alleged offences.

In May 2023, a mother and her child were fatally stabbed in a horrific random attack outside an Edmonton school. The accused killer had been released on bail 18 days prior. He had a long history of violence.

In 2022, there were 44 shooting-related homicides in Toronto. Of these, seven were on a firearm-related bail at the time and 17 were on any type of bail. In 2021, 772 people were released on bail for firearms related charges. Of these, 165 were re-arrested while on bail for more firearms-related charges, and of those, 98 were re-arrested a third time for a firearms-related charge. 50 percent of these people were granted bail a third time.

In December 2022, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala was responding to a call about a vehicle in a ditch. When he approached the vehicle, he was shot and killed. The accused murderer, an indigenous man, was out on bail after being charged in 2021 with numerous weapons-related offences, including carrying a handgun with a defaced serial number and assaulting a peace officer.

The day after Const. Pierzchala’s funeral, a London, Ontario gold dealer was shot and seriously wounded during a daytime robbery allegedly committed by four men. One of the store’s female employees was hit in the head with a hammer. One of the four accused robbers, 21-year-old Tyreese Brown-Austin, was already out on bail for allegedly leading police on a car chase. What’s more, that alleged crime was also committed while Brown-Austin was already on bail for gun charges.

On December 14, 2022, Peel Regional Police charged a man with two counts of attempted murder after he allegedly fired a gun into a group of men following an argument. In a statement announcing the arrest, Peel Police noted that he was already out on bail after another alleged incident of attempted murder “and that he was also wanted by the Toronto Police for second degree murder and attempted murder”.

In January 2023, a 19-year-old Mississauga, Ontario man was walking down the street just before dusk when he was stabbed from behind in an unprovoked attack that may yet leave him with lifelong injuries. The suspect soon taken into custody for the attack was David Dytlow, 34, who was already on bail for a series of alleged violent crimes, including assault causing bodily harm.

In March 2023, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death at a Toronto subway in an unprovoked attack by a repeat offender, who is facing a charge of first-degree murder. He was released just two weeks before the Saturday stabbing for allegedly stabbing another person. O’Brien-Tobin was also allegedly in breach of probation in Newfoundland, he had several run-ins with the law here in Toronto, and he faced a prohibition order against possessing a gun.

Also in March 2023, a Quebec provincial police officer was killed while trying to arrest a man Monday night in Louiseville, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal in the province’s Mauricie region. The perpetrator was killed by police. In the last decade, he's been charged with uttering threats and assault multiple times. In three separate court proceedings, he was found not criminally responsible for his actions. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to assault and he was released on conditional discharge, given two years of probation and assigned to 200 hours of community service.

In January 2023 the premiers of the Canadian provinces and territories sent a letter to Justin Trudeau asking for changes to the bail system.

In May 2023, the Liberals, after pressure from provincial premiers, police chiefs, and opposition parties, introduced new bail reform legislation that includes new measures that would make it more difficult for some repeat violent offenders to get released on bail. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said during his own press conference that he would go a step further if he was prime minister and waive such offenders’ rights to a bail hearing in the first place. Poilievre said he would bring in laws that would require repeat violent offenders who are newly arrested for violent crimes to remain behind bars throughout their trial "jail, not bail."