‘Jail not Bail’ Town Hall
Raquel speaking at the “Jail not Bail” Town Hall at Gateway Recreation Center.
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Canadians are seeing rising violent crime, from assaults to home invasions, and victims are paying the price while repeat offenders walk free.
I recently hosted a packed Jail Not Bail town hall at Gateway Recreation Centre with my Conservative colleagues MPs Colin Reynolds, Larry Brock, James Bezan, and Arpan Khanna to hear directly from residents concerned about safety in their communities.
The consequences of a soft-on-crime approach has led to lives lost, families without loved ones, survivors left to rebuild their lives with life-altering injuries and PTSD, businesses closing from thefts and concerns for staff safety. Failing to control crime affects us all.
While Conservatives welcome the changes to the Criminal Code the Liberals have proposed in their new crime bill, it is not enough to fix the problem they created by weakening jail time and bail laws.
Past Liberal Bills C-5 and C-75 removed mandatory jail time for serious offences and directed judges to follow the “Principle of Restraint” which releases offenders “at the earliest opportunity, under the least onerous conditions” leaving dangerous repeat offenders free to reoffend.
Conservatives Jail Not Bail Act (Bill C-242) would help solve the crime issue in our communities by:
Repeal and replace the Liberal “Principle of Restraint” with a directive for the primary consideration to be the protection and safety of the public.
Introduce a new “Major Offences” category with reverse onus bail conditions for firearm, sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking, home invasion, robbery, extortion, arson and assault charges.
Strengthen bail laws by mandating judges consider an accused’s full criminal history, prevent anyone convicted of a major offence in the last 10 years while also on bail and charged with a major offence from getting bail, and toughen the risk assessment standard from “substantial likelihood” to “reasonably foreseeable”.
Prohibit anyone with an indictable conviction from acting as a guarantor (who ensures bail conditions are followed), require judges to enforce bail conditions on guarantors and require non-residents to surrender their passports upon request.
These long-overdue and common sense reforms will restore safety to our communities are backed by police and victims’ advocates across Canada—those on the front lines of our crime epidemic. Conservatives are coming to the table with solutions. The government needs to finally look out for victims and put the criminals repeatably terrorizing our communities in jail where they belong.
Conservatives will always stand with victims, law enforcement, and communities demanding real consequences for violent crime. It is time for dangerous offenders to be kept where they belong—in jail, not on bail.