Is Canada's new justice minister ignoring bail concerns？
Episode Stats
Summary
New Justice Minister Sean Fraser dismissed concerns about two Liberal bills that enable criminals to be released on bail as weird . Despite talking tough about trade on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Mark Carney s recent exemptions on U.S. goods essentially cancels out any retaliatory tariffs. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for refusing to release a federal budget this year.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Canada's new Justice Minister Sean Fraser dismissed concerns about two Liberal bills
00:00:09.420
that enable criminals to be freed on bail as quote weird. Despite talking tough about trade
00:00:16.140
on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent exemptions on U.S. goods
00:00:20.900
essentially cancel out any retaliatory tariffs. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev blasted Liberal
00:00:27.280
Prime Minister Mark Carney for refusing to release a federal budget this year. Hello Canada,
00:00:32.580
it's Friday, May 16th and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton
00:00:38.260
Demain. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories
00:00:43.820
of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else. Canada's freshly minted Justice
00:00:52.460
Minister Sean Fraser thinks it's quote weird to want to repeal justice bills that make it easier
00:00:59.000
for criminals to re-offend, even as police associations are raising the alarm over current
00:01:04.820
catch and release legislation. On Wednesday, Fraser used one of his first media opportunities to
00:01:11.440
flippantly dismiss Conservative leader Pierre Polyev's call to repeal two bills he blames for
00:01:17.540
the current lax attitude to letting accused criminals out on bail who often go on to re-offend.
00:01:24.620
During the federal election, multiple police associations echoed the need to repeal at least
00:01:30.080
two liberal soft on crime bills. When pressed on whether he would introduce legislation amending
00:01:36.820
the criminal code as per Polyev's request, the new justice minister and attorney general said he found
00:01:43.480
the proposals quote weird. While light on details and explanations, Fraser added that he thinks the
00:01:50.820
bills actually strengthen Canada's justice system. Fraser said quote, I find it very weird frankly that
00:01:58.620
the Conservatives would be championing the repeal of legislation that actually strengthens the bail
00:02:05.200
system. Polyev has called for the Liberal government to repeal bills C5 and C75, both pieces of
00:02:13.200
legislation instruct judges to approach bail decisions with more leniency and to release accused
00:02:19.540
criminals with less onerous conditions. Conservatives have called the current system a liberal catch and
00:02:25.980
release approach to bail. Months earlier, Fraser, who was previously the immigration and then housing
00:02:32.080
minister, said he was leaving politics to spend more time with family. Along with criticizing the Liberal
00:02:38.180
Party's approach to criminal justice, Polyev has laid the blame for high housing costs and an overburdened
00:02:45.620
health care system squarely at Fraser's feet, given his previous cabinet assignments. The Conservative
00:02:52.320
Party leader lamented to reporters on Tuesday that Fraser is now quote, the minister responsible for
00:02:58.760
addressing the liberal crime crisis. Some of our listeners might not have heard of bills C5 and C75
00:03:07.320
specifically. Clayton, could you explain what are some of the major issues that police and legal experts
00:03:15.160
have raised about these bills specifically? Right, so you have police unions, crown lawyers, and even
00:03:23.640
victims advocacy groups who have all raised concerns about these bills. So police unions have been
00:03:29.240
arguing that Bill C5, for example, which repealed mandatory minimum sentences on several offenses,
00:03:36.280
including drugs and crimes involving firearms, emboldened violent offenders by reducing penalties
00:03:43.160
for gun-related offenses. They say that it had the opposite effect one would hope for as gun-related
00:03:49.960
violence increases in major cities. They argue that being softer on gun-wielding criminals does nothing
00:03:56.920
to reduce the rate of those crimes and may even worsen it. C5 also mandated that courts prescribe
00:04:04.360
conditional sentencing when possible, reducing the number of criminals in jail, but also increasing the
00:04:11.240
likelihood that those convicted and placed on house arrest could reoffend. Some Crown attorneys and police
00:04:17.400
have warned that resources can't be used to prevent individuals on house arrest from simply leaving
00:04:23.240
their homes and reoffending. With C75, on the other hand, it's been criticized as the bill which made
00:04:29.960
courts give the least restrictive conditions possible to those arrested for crimes, including violent ones.
00:04:36.600
Police lawyers and victims advocates have all warned that the intent of this bill isn't connected with
00:04:42.680
the reality Canadians are seeing as a result of the legislation. While the intent is likely not to
00:04:49.160
have innocent people awaiting sentencing in jails where they might become more likely to become
00:04:55.560
criminals, victims advocates have warned that the bill values the rights of potentially dangerous
00:05:01.080
criminals over public safety and the rights to security of victims. It's worth noting that several
00:05:07.240
premieres including David E. BNBC, Alberta's Danielle Smith, Ontario's premier Doug Ford and Scott Moe in
00:05:15.480
Saskatchewan have all written letters or otherwise called for these acts to be amended or repealed
00:05:22.360
as they contribute to the environment where the same violent offenders are repeatedly arrested and
00:05:27.400
released for similar crimes. Exemptions announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney have effectively
00:05:37.000
nullified most of the retaliatory tariffs Canada had imposed on trade with America, despite
00:05:44.520
previously pledging to support maximum impact trade measures. According to Oxford Economics, the carve-outs
00:05:51.880
cancel out nearly all of the retaliatory tariffs that Trudeau and Carney both introduced in response to
00:05:58.520
the Trump administration. Although the move may help alleviate some inflation, economists say Canada may
00:06:05.480
still see a recession before the end of the year. Canada hit the U.S. with several retaliatory tariffs in March,
00:06:13.160
implementing 25% across-the-board tariffs with a further round of tariffs levied in April. The first suite of
00:06:20.680
tariffs involved new import taxes of 25% on about $60 billion in U.S. goods before adding additional levies against American
00:06:30.680
vehicles in early April. Despite his elbows-up message while on the federal election campaign trail,
00:06:38.360
Carney has since announced a six-month tariff exemption for products used in Canadian manufacturing,
00:06:45.400
processing, and food and beverage packaging. Carney said during the federal leadership debate last month,
00:06:51.640
the principle in terms of our counter tariffs is to have maximum impact in the United States,
00:06:57.640
minimum impact here. Automakers such as General Motors Company are now also permitted to import select
00:07:04.520
vehicles into Canada without being tariffed. There was an additional carve-out for items related to health
00:07:10.280
care, public safety, and national security. So Carney seems to be making large concessions to Trump rather
00:07:17.400
than fighting the existential threat of his administration, as he said during his election
00:07:22.680
campaign. But maybe this is all part of his secret plan we've heard about on the campaign trail as
00:07:28.360
well. But Cosmin, will these exemptions provide any relief for the Canadian economy, or is this too little
00:07:35.560
too late? So yeah, I think too little too late is an accurate assessment. As Oxford Economics revealed,
00:07:42.920
while this does actually reduce some of the inflationary pressure the economy is seeing from
00:07:51.000
these tariffs, with all these exemptions, right? Essentially, these exemptions repeal all of the
00:07:59.240
tariffs placed in retaliation to US President Donald Trump. And it makes me wonder whether this was
00:08:06.120
conceived after Carney's meeting with Trump, despite the fact that on the campaign trail he essentially
00:08:13.640
promised to conduct tariffs that would have a maximum impact on the US economy. Well, this seems to be the
00:08:23.000
opposite of a maximum impact. And there were plenty of people telling the Liberal government beforehand,
00:08:30.280
before they even first introduced tariffs in March, that retaliatory tariffs was not the way to go.
00:08:37.480
And here we are two months later, and the Liberals, I guess, have suddenly seen the light. But just to talk
00:08:44.920
more about some of the things we might see as a result of this, as Oxford Economics mentioned,
00:08:52.360
it will reduce inflationary pressure, but the recession risk remains high. And a recent poll by Reuters
00:09:00.920
shows that economists still expect Canada to have near zero growth by the end of this year, and essentially
00:09:09.880
enter a recession. And we don't know and there's no predictions right now on how long that recession
00:09:16.280
might last. But it could be just around the corner. Additionally, there have been recent data on the
00:09:24.520
labor market, which isn't a good sign, right? Like employment fell actually in manufacturing specifically
00:09:31.560
by 31,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate went up to 6.9%. So we're seeing job losses already
00:09:41.320
materializing in the economy, particularly in those sectors that US tariffs targeted. Donald Trump's big
00:09:49.320
plan is to reshore manufacturing to the United States. And just this week, we saw Honda announcing
00:09:57.160
that they want to move its SUV model production to the United States out of a plant in Ontario.
00:10:04.920
So all these signs indicate that while perhaps the retaliatory tariffs are no more effectively,
00:10:12.920
that doesn't mean the damage hasn't already been done.
00:10:19.160
Conservative leader Pierre Polyev said he's willing to sit down with Prime Minister Mark Carney to develop
00:10:24.760
federal policy and called on him to release a federal budget. On Wednesday, Finance Minister
00:10:30.840
Francois-Philippe Champagne said the governing minority liberals had no plan to release a federal
00:10:37.160
budget anytime soon, despite it being over a year since the last one was tabled. Champagne said the
00:10:44.200
next fiscal update would come in the form of a fall economic statement. Polyev said a budget, quote,
00:10:51.320
determines and informs Canadians of the size of the debt, future interest rates, inflation,
00:10:57.480
and the current government's tax policies. This helps companies determine whether to hire or fire
00:11:03.800
employees and whether policies will block major infrastructure projects. He said the lack of a plan
00:11:11.000
sends a quote, bad signal to investors and ratings agencies and to Canadians wondering if the government
00:11:17.640
has something to hide. Polyev added that conservatives will push him to implement a real income tax cut
00:11:24.360
and to axe the federal sales tax on new homes to lower costs and promote house building. He added
00:11:30.280
that cutting taxes would help offset the losses incurred by U.S. tariffs. If accepted, Polyev vowed to
00:11:37.560
work with the liberals to help pass proposals in parliament, quote, before Canada Day. When asked if
00:11:43.320
Polyev would work with liberals for other proposed tax cuts, he said he would have to wait and see what was in
00:11:49.640
the bills brought forward in parliament, but that the conservative party supports tax cuts generally.
00:11:56.040
So, Clayton, how long has it been exactly since the last federal budget? And is Carney falling back
00:12:04.520
on prior promises he made during the campaign that he would reintroduce fiscal restraint to the liberal
00:12:12.440
Treasury and transparency by delaying the budget again?
00:12:17.720
So the last federal budget was presented on April 16th of last year. So it's been 394 days since Canada's last
00:12:27.640
federal budget. And it's worth noting when the federal budget was announced that finance minister, well, then finance
00:12:35.000
minister Chrystia Freeland, who has a role now in Carney's cabinet today, set a $40 billion guardrail for
00:12:43.080
the government. And it shot past that self-imposed limit by over $21 billion. And right before she
00:12:50.120
was set to give the address announcing the liberal government's failure, she resigned, which started
00:12:55.960
the domino effect that led to the leadership change from Trudeau to Carney. But towards the second part of
00:13:02.280
that question, Polyev certainly believes Carney is failing to fulfill his promises of fiscal restraint
00:13:09.720
and transparency. And really, how can Canadians hold him accountable if he doesn't even show them his
00:13:16.120
plan? And if you recall during the campaign, he repeatedly ran on the promise that he indeed had a
00:13:22.840
plan. So much like during the campaign, Canadians are just asked to suspend critical thought and accept that
00:13:29.880
he has a secret plan that will save the country that nearly 10 years of liberal policies have destroyed.
00:13:40.040
That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by
00:13:45.720
subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with