B.C.’s attorney general says the province’s leadership played a big part in the federal Liberals’ highly anticipated bail and sentencing reform legislation, which makes dozens of changes to the Criminal Code.
The government says it will make it harder for violent and repeat offenders to get out of custody.
B.C.’s Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters on Thursday that she is happy to see the proposals addressing intimate partner violence.
During the press conference, Sharma referenced the case of Bailey McCourt, whose estranged husband, James Plover, is charged with beating her to death with a hammer in Kelowna.
Plover had been convicted of domestic violence but had been released while pending sentencing, just hours before McCourt was killed.
Sharma said she hopes that a new “reverse onus” bail law for strangulation and choking will prevent what happened to McCourt from happening to anyone else.
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Canada Bail and Sentencing Reform Act aims to quell repeat offenders, add tougher sentencing
“We’ll keep working at it,” Sharma said.
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“We know there’s lots of work to do, but there’s a lot of things in here that are reflected of B.C.’s leadership that will keep repeat and violent offenders off the street will target prolific offenders, will give us better tools for bail and sentencing on extortion that’s happening in our province and will protect people against intimate partner violence.”
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Justice Minister Sean Fraser said that among the proposed changes are new reverse onuses for several new offences that require the accused to prove why they should be released on bail, expanding the onus to cover offenders with previous convictions within the previous 10 years, and consecutive sentences for repeat violent offenders in certain cases.
One B.C. lawyer, however, does not think this legislation will make enough of a difference for everyday crimes.
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“Once this legislation is passed, are we going to see a difference on the streets? And unfortunately, the answer is no,” Rob Dhanu KC, a former Crown prosecutor, said.
“We have these reverse onus provisions that cover many major crimes already, so certainly they can say there’s a few more criminal offences that will be subject to reverse onus provisions, but it’s not going to change the tests that we see in courts every day.”
Dhanu also said that as far as the government making conditional sentences not available for many sexual offences, the Supreme Court has already ruled that’s contrary to the Charter of Rights, and so it may be challenged again.
-with files from Sean Boynton
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