Home invasions, car thefts and the need for bail reform

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Terms like bail and probation don’t mean much these days, not in Justin Trudeau’s catch-and-release justice system. A horrific homicide in British Columbia and a car-theft ring in Ontario may not seem related, but on this front they are.

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Both cases involve people charged with committing crimes when they never should have been out in the first place.

Now, provincial premiers from across the country have written to the Trudeau government in Ottawa asking for further reform to Canada’s bail-and-statutory release system. Remember, this group of premiers includes two New Democrats and a Liberal in their group and they are asking for action.

This comes just months after the federal government passed new bail reforms under Bill C-48 that made bail tougher to get in certain but limited circumstances. The changes put a reverse onus clause on bail for those charged with gun or intimate partner violence if they had been convicted of similar offences in the past.

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“The amendments that Bill C-48 brought into law represent valuable progress in tackling this important issue,” the premiers wrote, “but recent troubling incidents, including the tragic death of Tori Dunn in British Columbia, raise the question of whether this legislation is functioning as intended.”

Tori Dunn was killed in Surrey, stabbed to death on June 16, in what police described as a home invasion gone wrong. The man accused in her murder, Adam Troy Mann, is someone with a rap sheet as long as your arm and who was out on probation when he was arrested and charged with two robbery charges.

He was still released on bail, despite those robbery charges being a breach of his probation, and he allegedly committed the murder of Dunn over two weeks later.

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It’s a disturbing story but sadly not a shocking story after years of Trudeau’s catch and release policies.

In 2019, the Trudeau government passed Bill C-75 which sought to reform bail conditions in Canada. The changes went further than anything previously passed and required any judge or justice of the peace to show what the legislation called restraint.

“In making a decision under this Part, a peace officer, justice or judge shall give primary consideration to the release of the accused at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions that are appropriate in the circumstances,” the Bill read.

Even with the bail reform passed last fall, this is what most people facing charges are released under, the earliest opportunity and the least onerous conditions. Adam Troy Mann was facing robbery charges, so his violent past didn’t apply, his past gun convictions didn’t apply, his propensity to reoffend didn’t apply and he was set free.

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Tori Dunn paid the price for that decision and this horrible legislation.

Now, about that car theft ring in Ontario, it’s not directly connected to Dunn’s homicide, except by the same catch-and-release policies being at play with people involved in home invasions.

On Tuesday, Peel Regional Police, just west of Toronto, announced that they had arrested 18 people and laid 150 charges in a car-theft ring that saw $1.2 million worth of stolen vehicles recovered. The police investigation that led to these arrests documented 17 violent home invasions, armed robberies and carjackings.

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If any of them had gone sideways, like Tori Dunn’s home being invaded, we would be talking about alleged murder.

Just like the Dunn slaying, there were many among the 18 charged already dealing with some form of statutory release. According to the news release from the Peel Police Service, two of the 18 arrested were charged with failing to comply with bail conditions, five were charged with breach of probation.

“It is yet another example of repeat and violent offenders being released into our communities without proper considerations,” the premiers wrote in their letter to Trudeau.

We need serious bail reform in Canada, not just tinkering at the edges. That said, it’s unlikely to happen until we reform and replace who is running the federal government in Ottawa.

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