Judge grants bail, citing reluctance to ‘criminalize homelessness’

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This article was published 15/11/2023 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge cited the need to avoid criminalizing poverty in his decision to grant a man bail despite opposition to his release by the Crown.

Brody Carr, 30, made a successful bid for bail in court on Tuesday. He is facing allegations of theft from stores in both Winnipeg and Brandon. The Crown opposed Carr’s release on his likelihood to re-offend, though ultimately the judge sided with the defence and released Carr to live in the community while his charges work their way through the court system.

Crown attorney Reid Girard read the evidence for the charges in court. The charges against Carr have not been proven in court and he remains innocent until proven guilty.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Winnipeg Police Service were patrolling around a large crowd coming from a concert at the University of Winnipeg when they were flagged down by a man. The man, a store manager of a Giant Tiger, told police that the store had been robbed.

Officers caught up with the suspect in the north parking lot of the Burton Cummings Theatre. Police, under the impression that the suspect was potentially violent and armed, verbally confronted the suspect with their stun guns out. They told the man to put his hands behind his back. The man responded, “F— you, I didn’t do anything.” He allegedly began to pull something out of a purse that was draped around his neck.

Officers saw what they believed to be a wooden handle of a steak knife and warned the man against taking the knife out. Police used the stun gun on the man and officers arrested him.

Officers seized the stolen property, which was two cans of chili and some granola bars. He was arrested and released.

More recently, in Brandon, police were dispatched to Dollarama on Victoria Avenue after a call about a theft in progress. Police caught up to the man and arrested him. A search revealed three stolen items and he told police that he was homeless.

Girard said that while the charges against Carr weren’t the most serious, he said that the Crown did not have confidence that Carr would follow court-ordered conditions.

“The Crown would certainly concede that the offences that are before the court are not the most serious, but they are continuing allegations in a recent, related, as you’ve seen in his criminal record, cycle of criminal behaviour that involves property crimes,” Girard said.

Carr’s defence lawyer, Jordon Hildebrandt, told the court that his client’s criminal record correlates with a rough patch in his life that led to homelessness. Hildebrandt said that the total value of the stolen goods were less than $20 and presented a bail plan that would have his client living at the Safe and Warm shelter in Brandon.

“This contested bail is for less than $20 of items [alleged to be] stolen by a person trying to survive,” the defence lawyer said.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said that Hildebrandt’s comments resonated with him and that the charges that brought Carr before the court are relatively minor.

Though he said that the allegations of possessing a knife in the Winnipeg charges was serious, he said that the court is aware of the circumstances of unhoused people and is “careful not to criminalize homelessness.”

Ultimately, the judge granted Carr bail to live at the Safe and Warm shelter, with conditions that include following a curfew and making an appointment with Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.

Carr’s matters will next appear in Brandon court on Nov. 20.

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