Mayors intensify push for bail reform

Even as the federal Liberals are poised to introduce their justice-reform bill today, Manitoba mayors are continuing to press for meaningful changes to bail laws.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham spent his afternoon Tuesday advocating for those changes in Ottawa’s House of Commons, while Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett spoke out about bail reform on social media.

In a video posted to Brandon City Council’s Facebook page and reposted by Brandon police, Fawcett said there are too many violent repeat offenders on the city’s streets.

“Our communities are paying the price while the same individuals cycle through the system, reoffending with little consequence,” he said. “It’s time to put our communities first.”

Fawcett said he will post biweekly videos sharing “repeat-offender stories” in Brandon to support his call for bail and sentence reform — something Gillingham has done weekly since mid-September.

The first story Fawcett shared was about a reported assault with a weapon near Kirkcaldy Heights School. He said the Brandon Police Service found the suspect nearby and arrested him.

The man was charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breach of a release order.

At the time of the incident, Fawcett said the man was on a release order and had several charges pending, including single counts of assault with a weapon and use of an imitation firearm while committing a robbery, along with two counts of robbery with a weapon.

“If this habitual offender had not been released on their prior charges, then the offender would not have been able to commit these dangerous offences,” he says in the video.

Fawcett, who has worked closely with Gillingham and Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox on the issue, joined in on posting bulletins to show that bail reform isn’t just a Winnipeg issue, he said in an interview with the Sun on Tuesday.

“Manitoba is doing a good job of bringing that to the federal government, to the point that Scott is actually at (the House of Commons) today … He’ll be speaking on behalf of all of us in there,” Fawcett said.

Gillingham said he believed the invitation to the House of Commons was a followup to the letter that he, Fawcett, Knox and Thompson city councillor Kathy Valentino, who is president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, sent to the federal justice minister pushing for bail reform, he said during an interview with the Sun on Wednesday.

Gillingham called for a number of specific changes, which included:

• Putting public safety at the forefront of bail decisions and ensuring that an accused’s history of breaching release conditions is considered before bail is granted.

• Increasing support through rehabilitation to give people a better chance to break habits of habitual crime.

• Reforming statutory release laws so offenders are more likely to serve a full sentence for any serious breach of conditions.

• Improving the collection and sharing of data on crimes committed while the offender is on bail.

Gillingham said public data is “critical” to making decisions on what is and isn’t working.

“Our justice system should have a clear set of data that is publicly available and reported regularly on how many individuals are recommitting crime while they’re on bail,” he said.

“We should be able to understand the number of people granted bail in any given month in our community, and the number of people arrested while on bail, and the types of crimes that they have been committing while on bail.”

He said he has had “off-line” conversations with people involved in the justice system, including attorneys, judges, police officers and parole officers, who agreed that people are losing confidence in the justice system.

“As a society, we need to have confidence that the justice system is working, is protecting the public and is providing justice for victims.”

Gillingham said the fact that Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week that there will be changes to bail and sentencing legislation shows that federal politicians know “changes need to be made.”

Federal Justice Minister and Attorney General Sean Fraser will hold a press conference in Ottawa this afternoon to discuss the new bill, which is titled the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act.

Knox said she appreciated that Gillingham had the opportunity to speak about bail reform at the House of Commons and said his messaging has been strong.

Bail reform has been on Knox’s radar for a long time, but the death of Kellie Verwey, who worked as a tourism co-ordinator for Portage, “lit a fire” under her to push for change.

The alleged drunk driver charged in relation to Verwey’s death had a warrant out for his arrest at the time after he had violated bail conditions.

“We lost one of our team members to a very preventable accident where a repeat offender was involved,” Knox said.

She said both Fawcett and Gillingham reached out after Verwey’s death, and the three mayors shared their frustration with the bail system.

“We really believe that because we have different-sized municipalities … we have a strong story,” she said. “There needs to be change that can help all of the size of our communities, not just major centres.

“I hope that the supports can come through the whole system to be able not just have legislative change, but have the different levels of support needed to make them work and to protect our communities.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com