View From the Legislature

This past week Manitoba led the effort to bring tougher laws against repeat offenders who are often being released back onto our streets after acts of violent crime. At meetings of all provincial and federal Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety held October 12th-14th in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I was pleased to receive widespread support for the need to make changes to Canada’s Criminal Code.

A key proposal by our government was to change the Criminal Code to ensure that it is more difficult for those who are accused of committing a violent offence with a bladed or edged weapon to obtain bail. Currently, the bail provisions in Canada under the Criminal Code are such that it is almost impossible to deny bail to even violent or repeat offenders unless a gun has been used or in other rare circumstances. And yet, we have seen repeatedly in Manitoba in recent weeks that violence using knives and other weapons is on the rise and often these crimes are committed by individuals who are already out on bail.

Along with other changes, our government proposed that there be a reverse onus on bail for those accused of violence using a knife or edged weapon. This would shift the onus to the accused to demonstrate why they would be safe to be on bail in the community. This proposal and other Manitoba suggestions were accepted at the meeting by all provincial Justice Ministers.

In fact, Justice Ministers were able to secure a commitment from the federal government to meet again shortly to consider other proposed changes to make our communities safer. As the federal government is responsible for the Criminal Code in Canada, their support is critical. This is especially true given the federal government made changes to bail provisions in 2019 that may be in part responsible for these current challenges.

In addition, in Halifax I again reiterated Manitoba’s position that we are very concerned with the lack of available RCMP officers in rural areas of Manitoba. The vacancy rate has remained too high and there are concerns that it could go higher without a plan to train more RCMP officers.

I reinforced our government’s position, along with Saskatchewan, Alberta, and New Brunswick, that these scarce policing resources should not be used to enforce the federal “buy-back” plan on law abiding gun owners. Now more than ever it is vital that all our policing resources are fully dedicated to preventing and investigating crime and ensuring that calls can be responded to. Participating in a time consuming “buy-back” program against law abiding citizens is unlikely to improve safety and has the very real potential of causing even more staffing and safety concerns.

Our government will continue to put the safety concerns of Manitobans first and advocate that the federal government make the necessary changes to federal legislation like the Criminal Code.