Juno News - Explaining the Liberals' bail mess

00:00:00.000 this is a special episode of the crime report with Ron Chinzer to support us visit junonews.com

00:00:09.560 forward slash Ron and subscribe to keep bringing stories to the forefront that Canada can't ignore

00:00:14.100 and I want to start by telling you about a tragedy so senseless so devastating that it

00:00:19.100 should shake this country to its core an eight-year-old boy Javai Roy was asleep in bed with

00:00:25.260 his mother in their apartment in North York it was just after midnight the kind of night where a kid

00:00:30.520 should be dreaming about the next day safe beside the person who loves him the most his mother but

00:00:37.340 instead of peace there was chaos gunfire erupted outside of their building not a single shot but

00:00:43.780 a barrage witnesses said it sounded like a war zone a dozen bullets at least sprang across the facade

00:00:50.000 of the building shattering glass punching through drywall and ripping into people's homes

00:00:54.900 now I've responded to shootings before as a police officer I stood on crime scenes where rival gangs

00:01:01.540 went after each other leaving bullet holes in houses apartments even cars parked outside I've

00:01:07.540 seen parents pulling their kids back from windows terrified I've watched the aftermath of bullets

00:01:13.020 flying into bedrooms where people should have been safe but never not once have I seen a case where a

00:01:19.560 child lying in bed with his mom woke up to the sound of gunfire look to her in fear and then in that

00:01:25.660 exact moment was struck by an additional round that ultimately killed him think about that a little boy

00:01:32.160 in his pajamas in his own bed next to his mother and in the blink of an eye he's gone that's not just

00:01:38.080 tragic that's something that should haunt every single person in this country and yet here we are the

00:01:43.660 culprits are still out there not identified not arrested not held responsible now imagine being 0.97

00:01:49.360 that mother imagine lying beside your son hearing the first shots grabbing him close only to feel him

00:01:56.380 ripped away by another round of gunfire imagine the blood the glass the chaos imagine knowing that his

00:02:02.020 last look was at you for comfort for safety and you couldn't save him because the violence came right

00:02:07.740 into your home this isn't just a Toronto problem it isn't just an urban crime statistic this is a

00:02:14.520 Canadian problem because if an eight-year-old child can be murdered in his own bed that every parent in

00:02:19.720 this country has a reason to worry and what makes it worse is that this isn't coming out of nowhere

00:02:24.200 for years Canadians have been demanding tougher stances on violent crime for years experts police

00:02:30.740 officers criminologists victims advocates people like myself have been warning about exactly this kind of

00:02:36.140 escalation and for years our federal government has ignored those calls instead while our communities

00:02:43.600 deal with bullets flying through windows Ottawa takes its summer break politicians jet around the

00:02:49.720 world talking about global issues while the actual pressing threats here at home are left unchecked and

00:02:55.300 the communities that bear the blood to this violence underserved underprivileged often marginalized

00:03:00.820 communities are the ones politicians claim to care about the most ironically these are the

00:03:06.000 same communities our liberal government panders to during photo opportunities but when the cameras

00:03:11.400 are off they're left to bury their children alone this eight-year-old boy was Canadian his mother is

00:03:18.220 Canadian their safety their future should have mattered more than political branding more than press

00:03:24.280 releases more than some international talking point but it didn't and that's the reality we're living in

00:03:29.980 and this is where the story reaches beyond Toronto because this isn't just about one child one city or

00:03:35.500 one apartment building this is about the safety of every Canadian family think about it if a child

00:03:42.060 isn't safe in his own bedroom where in Canada is safe this could have happened in Calgary it could

00:03:48.240 have happened in Winnipeg it could have happened in Halifax or in a small town in Saskatchewan

00:03:52.900 because what happened to Java wasn't a one-off freak occurrence it's part of a pattern we're seeing

00:03:58.660 across this country violent crime involving firearms rising random victims paying the price and a federal

00:04:05.100 government that continues to deflect delay or stay silent the randomness is what terrifies people

00:04:12.000 the most Javi's murder tells every parent every grandparent every neighbor that you don't need to

00:04:17.880 be involved in a crime to be its victim you don't need to be walking downtown late at night or going to a

00:04:22.900 bad neighborhood or living on the wrong block you could be asleep in your bed your kids tucked in beside

00:04:29.240 you and you could still end up burying your child let me paint the scene for you one more time a

00:04:36.980 shattered window glass across the floor bullet holes and walls not just in Javi's unit but in others

00:04:43.000 shell casings outside suggesting more than one firearm was used a mother covered in blood screaming for help

00:04:50.140 as officers tried to save her son's life this wasn't just a random shooting it was a moment of terror that

00:04:55.760 rippled through an entire community families in that building will never sleep the same again

00:05:00.700 especially those with kids and the national data tells us this isn't an isolated case statistics

00:05:07.900 Canada crime severity index shows violent crime has been rising since 2019 firearm offenses are up in

00:05:14.620 Toronto carjackings exploded from 60 in 2021 to more than 300 in 2023 the criminal intelligence service

00:05:21.780 of Canada reports that organized crime and gangs are taking full advantage of weak bail laws knowing

00:05:27.320 they'll be back out on the streets quickly meanwhile public safety Canada confirmed in its 2023 firearms

00:05:33.420 report that more than 80 percent of crime guns in Toronto come from the United States add to that a

00:05:38.760 growing number of ghost guns built with 3d printers or smuggled parts these are not guns Ottawa is

00:05:44.100 spending billions on to buy back from licensed hunters sport shooters and collectors these are weapons

00:05:49.260 flooding our streets through smuggled routes from criminal networks and they're ending up in the

00:05:53.700 hands of people willing to fire them into apartment buildings and yet federal leaders chose to stay

00:06:00.740 silent on the murder of an eight-year-old boy now let's take a step back because strategies like

00:06:07.480 Javes don't just happen in a vacuum they happen because of choices choices made by governments by courts by

00:06:14.720 lawmakers choices that have weakened our justice system to the point where violence repeats itself

00:06:19.520 offenders cycle in and out and the communities are left vulnerable to understand why you need to know

00:06:26.260 about bail bail is supposed to be about a balance on one hand we don't want to lock up people before

00:06:33.300 they're proven guilty on the other hand we need to protect the public from people who are dangerous

00:06:38.260 but over the last decade the balance in Canada has tipped too far so far that it now favors offenders

00:06:45.800 over victims and rights on paper over safety on the ground now some people will say while shootings

00:06:52.560 happen in every country this is just crime but in Canada we've made choices that make this problem

00:06:58.000 worse because at that very same time we've been seeing a rise in violence our justice system

00:07:04.280 has been moving in the opposite direction making it easier for violent offenders to get out on bail

00:07:09.640 to re-offend and to terrorize communities again and again that's not an opinion that's a fact

00:07:15.180 backed up by case after case police report after police report and the lived reality of victims and

00:07:20.620 families across this country and to understand how we got here we need to look at the decisions made

00:07:27.500 over the past decade court rulings political legislation and government policies that have transformed

00:07:33.920 our bail system into a revolving door when Canadians think about justice we picture fairness

00:07:40.380 balance and above all safety we expect that when someone violent is arrested when someone has proven

00:07:46.640 time and time again that they are a risk to the community that the person will be walking free the

00:07:51.880 very next morning we expect the law protects us first but in today's Canada that promise has been broken

00:07:59.660 and it has been broken by a combination of court rulings political choices and legislation that put

00:08:05.980 legal theory ahead of public safety to understand how we got here we need to go back almost a decade

00:08:13.000 to a supreme court decision that completely reshaped the justice system in 2016 the case of rv jordan

00:08:20.440 changed everything barrett jordan was accused of running a dial-a-dope operation in british columbia he was a

00:08:26.120 drug dealer his case took over four years to make it to trial four years the court ruled that this was

00:08:32.400 far too long that it violated his constitutional right to it tried to be tried in a reasonable time

00:08:38.580 now justices laid down strict ceilings being 18 months for provincial court cases and 30 months for

00:08:44.880 superior court cases being big ones if the clock ran out the charges could be stayed even in serious cases

00:08:51.180 and overnight hundreds of prosecutions across the country were tossed murders sexual assaults

00:08:57.800 trafficking cases gone not because of innocence but because of delay that was the first domino the

00:09:05.600 second came the following year with r versus antic in 2017 this case re-examined how bail should work

00:09:11.960 the accused michael antic was facing drug charges and was granted bail only under strict cash conditions

00:09:18.540 that he couldn't meet the court said that this violated the latter principle and that principle

00:09:23.680 means judges must start with the least restrictive form of release and only move to tougher conditions

00:09:27.760 if absolutely necessary cash bail in particular was to be rare the court emphasized that the presumption

00:09:34.620 of innocence is fundamental and conditions should be set to make life uh shouldn't shouldn't be set

00:09:39.940 to make life difficult for the accused now the latter principle made sense in theory we don't want people

00:09:46.860 languishing in jail simply because they're poor but when trudeau and the liberal government later wrote

00:09:51.900 this principle directly into law with bill c-75 they built a system that treated nearly everyone as low

00:09:58.300 risk regardless of the record or the danger they posed and in 2018 bill c-75 was introduced by the

00:10:04.860 liberal government it was marketed as a fix to the jordan style delays and as a modernization of the bail

00:10:11.020 system it hybridized dozens of offenses turning what were once indictable crimes into charges that could be

00:10:16.460 treated as summary offenses it directed police to release accused people at the earliest opportunity

00:10:22.220 with the least conditions as possible and it codified the latter principle and it treated breachable

00:10:27.900 bail conditions even repeat breaches as administrative matters rather than substantive crimes

00:10:33.820 on paper it was sold as fairness in practice it became a revolving door that we're living with today

00:10:40.060 police across the country quickly saw the results someone arrested for carrying an illegal handgun

00:10:44.380 could be out within hours a repeat violent offender could breach bail conditions again and again and

00:10:49.580 again with almost no consequence the courts followed a parliament's direction and leaned heavily towards

00:10:55.900 release and as a result communities from toronto to vancouver to smaller towns in saskatchewan

00:11:01.100 and the maritimes began seeing the same pattern the same names the same faces cycling in and out of

00:11:07.180 custody and re-offending while on release the consequences have been devastating let's take a look at one of the

00:11:13.820 most shocking examples in december of 2022 opp constable gregor priscilla was gunned down during a traffic

00:11:20.700 stop near hackersville ontario he had just passed his probationary period as a police officer man he was

00:11:26.540 only 28 years old now the man charged with his murder had been arrested earlier that year on serious

00:11:31.820 weapons charges he was granted bail cut off his ankle monitor and still despite these red flags was free when

00:11:38.540 constable priscilla pulled him over that day the officer never made it home his death sent shock

00:11:44.220 waves through the policing circles i remember i was working when this happened but it also stood as a

00:11:49.340 proof of what happens when theory collides with the real world another case in 2023 in british columbia

00:11:55.980 tori dunn she was killed in her own home by a man out on bail for previous violent stabbings the details

00:12:02.620 were chilling she was targeted in a place where she should have been safest and her killer should have never

00:12:07.660 been free her death was preventable but the system designed under bill c75 allowed it to happen and

00:12:13.980 these are just the stories that make the news every day there are carjackings armed robberies home

00:12:19.740 invasions assaults even murders happening on a regular basis committed by people on bail no province

00:12:26.700 has been untouched the revolving door isn't just a talking point it's a real reality felt in big cities

00:12:31.180 small towns reserve suburbs and rural communities and by 2023 the frustration reached the breaking

00:12:37.740 point all 13 provincial premiers every single one conservative liberal ndp alike wrote a joint letter

00:12:43.740 to ottawa demanding bail reform that level of agreement is almost unheard of in canadian politics

00:12:49.500 police unions joined the call victims groups spoke out families of victims told their heartbreaking

00:12:53.980 stories in committee hearings and yet for years the trudeau and liberal government had brushed these

00:12:58.940 warnings aside it wasn't until after the deaths of officers like prachala and repeated public air

00:13:05.500 cry that ottawa finally introduced bill c48 which created a reverse onus for certain repeat violent

00:13:12.540 offenders that means the burden shifts they must prove why they should be released rather than the

00:13:16.860 crowd having to prove why they shouldn't but this was a patch not a full repair judges still lean heavily

00:13:23.820 on the culture of release entrenched in bill c75 police still see the same criminals walk the streets

00:13:29.740 again and again victims still pay the price and at the same time while the government was loosening bail

00:13:35.900 it was pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a gun buyback program the idea was to compensate

00:13:41.020 licensed owners for their rifles law-abiding hunters sport shooters and collectors in the name of public

00:13:46.300 safety but the data tells us a very different story toronto police data shows that over 80 percent of

00:13:51.900 crime guns come from the united states many others are ghost guns produced by 3d printers or assembled

00:13:57.340 from smuggled parts organized crime groups and gangs are the ones bringing these weapons in

00:14:02.220 not licensed canadians yet the government the liberal government chose to target the lawful while

00:14:08.300 failing to shut the revolving door that allows the violence to re-offend with impunity the numbers are

00:14:13.980 staggering according to statistics canada violent crime has risen since 2019 firearm offenses are up

00:14:21.340 in toronto in toronto went from 60 in 2021 to over 300 by 2023 the criminal intelligence service of

00:14:28.460 canada has documented how gangs now exploit bail leniency knowing their members will be back on

00:14:33.500 the street quickly in some cities police chiefs have publicly said they feel like they're arresting the

00:14:38.380 same people every week think about that frontline officers the police officers who risk their lives

00:14:44.140 every day making arrests and prosecutions bringing charges and yet before the ink is dry those very

00:14:50.060 same individuals those bad guys are back in the community this isn't just a flaw it's a betrayal

00:14:55.180 of victims of communities of the very idea of justice when bill c75 was introduced it was defended

00:15:02.060 in parliament by the liberals as a way to modernize justice to make the system more efficient and fair

00:15:07.020 but the reality has been the opposite efficiency delays remain widespread with courts still overloaded

00:15:13.740 fairness victims and their families don't feel the fairness when the person who harmed them is back in

00:15:18.460 their neighborhood days later on bail safety ask the families of constable perjala or of tori dunn

00:15:25.020 whether they feel safer today and this is where we need to be honest the experts warned about this

00:15:30.700 experts like me police officers warned victims advocates warned premiers warned the people who live

00:15:36.220 with the consequences of crime every day raise the alarm and yet ottawa pushed ahead the liberals pushed ahead

00:15:42.060 ignoring those voices that's why we are where we are today because political theory was allowed to

00:15:47.580 outweigh the lived reality no community in canada has been spared rural ontario where seniors are being

00:15:54.140 targeted in home invasions prairie towns where meth fueled violence has become common vancouver's lower

00:16:00.300 mainland where gangs openly recruit teenagers montreal where shootings linked to organized crime are on

00:16:05.660 the rise even smaller towns in atlantic canada are seeing crimes they once thought only happen in big

00:16:11.340 cities at the heart of so many of these tragedies is the same question why was this person out on bail

00:16:18.700 why did the system allow this high-risk person to walk free and time and time again the answer comes

00:16:24.540 back to bill c-75 and the liberal culture it created this isn't about denying rights it's about balance

00:16:31.020 it's about saying that the presumption of innocence should not mean presuming safety when all the evidence

00:16:35.820 says otherwise it's about respecting the rights of victims and the safety of the public just as much

00:16:41.500 as the rights of the accused it's about ensuring that when police make an arrest the crown attorneys

00:16:46.300 bring charges the community isn't put at risk by a revolving door canada we need meaningful bail reform

00:16:54.220 not tinkering not patches not political spin real reform that restores public safety is the top priority

00:17:00.780 because canadians deserve to know when someone violent is taking off of the street they stay

00:17:05.500 off the street until the justice is served and until ottawa finds the will to do that we're going

00:17:11.740 to continue to see headlines about officers being killed in the line of duty women murdered in their

00:17:16.620 homes communities terrorized by repeat their offenders and those tragedies aren't inevitable they are the

00:17:22.620 result of choices political choices that valued ideology over safety it's time to choose differently

00:17:29.340 that's why bill reform is not just a legal debate it's truly a matter of life and death it's about

00:17:35.100 whether we want the justice system that protects canadians or one that abandons us and if we've

00:17:39.980 learned anything over the past few years it's that ignoring the front lines ignoring the experts ignoring

00:17:45.100 the victims leads only one way to more crime more victims more heartbreak we can't afford that any

00:17:52.380 longer this isn't theory this isn't abstract this is the reality of a country that has let violent crime

00:17:59.020 grow while parliament turns its back on victims canada has red balled this child's murder at the policing

00:18:06.380 level but it's time ottawa red balled public safety at the national level if we can't protect an eight

00:18:12.300 year old boy in his own bed then we have absolutely unequivocally failed as a country so here's the call

00:18:19.100 to the prime minister to the federal cabinet to the members of parliament of every party you need to act

00:18:25.500 right now rewrite the laws close the loopholes stop the revolving door of bill crack down on

00:18:30.540 gun smuggling and trafficking and start putting the safety of canadians the safety of our children 0.74

00:18:36.140 ahead of your political theory because until you do the next java roy is only a matter of time

00:18:42.700 this is the crime report with ron jinzer this special episode was on the murder of an eight-year-old child

00:18:48.300 and on bail reform the failure of the root of so much of canada's violent crime crisis

00:18:54.060 to support us at juno news you can subscribe at junonews.com forward slash ron and save 20

00:19:00.140 off of your subscription i'm ron jinzer thank you for watching stay safe and stay informed

Juno News - August 22, 2025

Explaining the Liberals' bail mess

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