The Liberal government will table a bill this fall introducing stricter bail conditions and sentencing for some crimes, particularly those involving organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion and car theft, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview.
"It's perhaps obvious, given the tenor around the criminal justice system, that reforms are in order," Fraser told The Canadian Press.
The government will consider including additional reforms but "at minimum" will implement the crime policies the Liberals promised during the spring federal election, Fraser said.
Fraser was named justice minister by Prime Minister Mark Carney in May, following an election campaign which saw Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blame the Liberals for a wave of violent crime.
In their campaign platform, the Liberals in turn promised to make bail more difficult to get for some offences, including car thefts involving violence or organized crime, home invasions, and some human trafficking and smuggling offences.
They also promised tougher sentencing guidelines for repeat car thieves and violent and organized crime, and to allow for consecutive sentencing for some cases of car theft and for serious and violent offences.
Fraser said some parts of the country have seen an increase in certain kinds of criminal activity.
"Auto thefts, though they may be down in the GTA this year compared to last, we have seen a trend where it was becoming a bigger problem," he noted, adding some of that was driven by organized crime.
The changes to the law will establish a stronger deterrent, Fraser said.
"It's not just a reaction to something you read about in a headline," he said. "It's meant to send a signal to deter problematic behavior that you want to address, to help people feel safe."
Fraser said the government will consult on its plans and he’s open to suggestions based on expertise and evidence.
This bail reform plan comes two years after the Liberals introduced other bail-reform legislation in 2023. That came after calls from provincial leaders and many police chiefs to make bail more difficult to access for repeat violent offenders.
The bill, which took effect in January 2024, made changes to bail for some firearms and weapons offences, and some circumstances in which the alleged crime involves intimate partner violence.
The plan to introduce tougher measures comes after years of Conservatives accusing the Liberals of taking a "soft" approach to crime.
Asked whether the coming legislation amounts to an admission the Conservatives had a point, Fraser said he views it "differently."
"We hear from Canadians more broadly that there is a challenge with the criminal justice system," he said. "There is a challenge with the bail system."
Fraser said that while he takes issue with what he called the Conservatives’ "simplistic" slogans, Canadians across the country have "real concerns" that can’t be dismissed "just because it's being raised in the House of Commons in a way that some may find inconvenient."
He said that while there are areas where the federal government can do more, provincial governments — some of which have called for federal bail reform — have a big role to play.
That role includes making sure judges and justices of the peace who make bail decisions have proper training, and detention centres have enough capacity, Fraser said.
"We want to come into this conversation knowing that we've taken care of the challenges that fall within the federal government's purview, but we also want to enter a conversation with provinces and territories to say that we are not the only cook in the kitchen," he said.
Fraser added the federal government also wants to bring provinces and territories together to work on gathering the data needed to address crime and justice issues at the local level.
"The circumstances in rural Nova Scotia may not reflect the circumstances in downtown Toronto or in Canada's North," he noted.
The federal government wants to take a wider approach to crime prevention that also addresses mental health, addictions, youth employment and affordable housing, Fraser said.
"We also want to make sure that we go upstream and prevent fewer people from falling into a criminal lifestyle," he said.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle
