Juno News - December 31, 2022


Pierre Poilievre says Justin Trudeau to blame for bail issues


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

153.39038

Word count

1,398

Sentence count

1

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Constable Greg Pierchalla was killed in the line of duty by an alleged offender who was out on bail and this is obviously quite a tragic case all around. Conservative leader Pierre Palliev points out that there is a political dimension to this and calls for the federal government to get tougher on bail.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the Andrew Lawton Show
00:00:05.920 tragic news out of Ontario an Ontario provincial police officer killed in the line of duty
00:00:14.200 Constable Greg Pierchalla just 28 years old was killed by an alleged offender who was out on bail
00:00:22.460 and this is obviously quite a tragic case all around but Conservative leader Pierre Palliev
00:00:28.200 pointed out that there is a political dimension to this now the Commissioner of the Ontario
00:00:33.720 Provincial Police Thomas Karik has also called for changes Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called
00:00:40.160 on the federal government to get tougher on bail the Liberal government actually went in the other
00:00:44.940 direction on bail in 2019 with Bill C-75 which was called out by Conservative leader Pierre Palliev
00:00:52.860 at a press conference Friday morning Pierre Palliev joins me now Pierre Happy New Year thanks very much
00:00:59.780 for joining me today great to be with you Andrew obviously and you spoke about this a little bit
00:01:05.880 in a press conference Friday very very unfortunate and tragic circumstances out of Ontario but what
00:01:14.520 I found noteworthy is that you said there was a political dimension to this tragedy
00:01:18.280 unfortunately so we all extend our hearts and prayers to the family and loved ones of Constable
00:01:30.240 Greg Pierchalla you know incredible loss for such a young man a young hero and we stand with our
00:01:37.440 officers across the constables the men and women who wear the uniform across the country
00:01:42.800 but unfortunately the federal government is failing them the bail provisions in Justin Trudeau's
00:01:50.420 catch and release law C-75 allow violent repeat offenders who are newly charged with another offense
00:01:59.480 to get out on bail almost automatically the wording in the law is that the bail is supposed to be
00:02:06.860 as easy to get and as lenient to to follow as possible and that means that judges are forced
00:02:15.320 to release people who are likely to reoffend and of course that's what seems to have happened here we have
00:02:21.120 an alleged murderer who was out on bail if he had not been on bail then he would be behind bars and the
00:02:28.520 constable would still be alive so that's unfortunately how politics made its way into into causing this tragedy
00:02:35.200 do you think it would be as simple as just repealing this law would that revert the bail system in
00:02:42.640 Canada back to a place that you'd be happy with
00:02:45.080 well I I would repeal the parts that allow for automatic appeal automatic nearly automatic bail for
00:02:53.500 repeat violent offenders that's that's we need to do we need to make it clear that bail is for people
00:02:59.980 who are unlikely to reoffend whose offenses are minor and not repetitious but not for repeat violent
00:03:07.960 offenders and that's very easy to inculcate in law there's no reason to believe that the courts would
00:03:12.900 reject it we think we can bring in a court proof law that will make it very hard for repeat offenders
00:03:21.800 to get bail and that would save lives of people right across this country now bill c-75 also has a
00:03:29.740 provision that calls on judges and justices of the peace to give particular consideration to aboriginal
00:03:35.840 accused and in this particular case in Ontario the alleged offender is aboriginal do you think that is
00:03:43.000 an appropriate caveat or do you think there should be no special consideration based on one's racial identity
00:03:48.560 well if we're going to take that into account we have to take into account that the victims of these crimes
00:03:57.480 are disproportionately vulnerable people the victims of repeat offenders tend to be more likely to be
00:04:06.060 minorities indigenous people and others who are vulnerable so if the system is supposed to be
00:04:12.760 designed to protect vulnerable and historically wronged people well let's keep in mind the victims
00:04:19.420 because they are the ones paying the price you know I think it's outrageous that you know a first
00:04:24.980 nation's mother has to worry that a repeat abuser is going to come back into the community and attack
00:04:31.120 her and her kids again so you know let's take into account both the victims and the perpetrators
00:04:37.640 not just the latter and that's what I think we just need to have a system that focuses on protecting
00:04:44.680 public safety first and the rights of the criminal should only come after that so do I take from that
00:04:53.200 that you don't believe there should be any consideration to the aboriginal status of accused offenders
00:04:58.860 well what I would say it what I say is that the bail should be granted based on whether or not
00:05:07.220 the judge finds that the accused is likely to re-offend or of course to escape eventual prosecution
00:05:17.860 by fleeing and that those should be those should be the criteria that determine whether a judge grants
00:05:24.600 bail and and what I was saying earlier is you know obviously we want a just system for people who have
00:05:33.300 historically been part of groups that have suffered in this country but it is not just for the victims
00:05:40.000 in those communities to live in fear because Trudeau's catch and release policies
00:05:46.120 put criminals violent re-offenders back in there in the midst of innocent people and that's what I
00:05:55.320 want to reverse if you're a repeat violent offender who's once again charged with violent offense
00:06:01.600 then you should stay in prison until such time as you can be tried and if you're convicted
00:06:07.540 you should you should serve out your sentence so that the people can be safe several of the tough
00:06:13.840 on crime justice reforms passed by Stephen Harper's government in which you were obviously a part have
00:06:19.480 been overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada so let me just ask you as a matter of practicality how do
00:06:26.280 you put forward some of these reforms that you'd like to see when there is a court in Canada that has
00:06:32.020 historically been quite hostile to some of these for whatever reason
00:06:35.640 well you write laws that are constitutional and valid and I think that you know our purpose in
00:06:44.240 the Harper era was to try and keep people safe and by and large we did that crime was a lot lower back
00:06:49.880 then than it is now and you know where the courts disagree I think we would do then is reintroduce the
00:06:56.300 law with changes that met the constitutional bar that the court set but at the same time strove to
00:07:03.620 protect strive to protect the innocent against the perpetrator that's not what the Trudeau government
00:07:09.340 is doing they introduced c75 for example even though the courts did not require it there was no
00:07:14.380 requirement by the court to bring in these catch and release policies this was an obsession of the
00:07:20.940 liberal government and the liberal ideology so my view is that we can respect the constitutional rights
00:07:28.820 of all Canadians while keeping violent re-offenders behind bars so that they can't harm the innocent
00:07:35.420 so you don't think the courts are the problem here then
00:07:38.820 in this case it's the Trudeau government that's the problem Trudeau brought in c75 no one forced him to do
00:07:45.400 it he passed it and he stood by it ever since Trudeau has introduced laws to reduce sentences for
00:07:51.640 violent gun offenses and that too will make life more dangerous and finally put aside the criminal
00:07:58.720 justice the criminal code the other thing he's doing is making life more dangerous by diverting police
00:08:04.920 resources away from public safety towards persecuting trained and tested vetted and licensed
00:08:17.640 law law law abiding firearms owners so you're going to have millions of dollars and actually billions if
00:08:25.560 you include the cost of buybacks spent going after the people who are least likely to commit a crime
00:08:31.640 you know the duck hunter in goose bay happy valley goose bay rather than taking violent offenders off the
00:08:39.000 street and so that that's actually going to make life more dangerous in Canada in addition to harassing 0.76
00:08:45.240 law-abiding Canadians and taking away their rights yeah and in the case in Ontario someone who was
00:08:51.000 prohibited from owning a firearm yet somehow that didn't stop a firearms offense from from taking place
00:08:57.160 uh Conservative leader Pierre Polyev thank you very much for your time great to be with you
00:09:01.880 Andrew many blessings to you and a happy new year to you and your family