This session will look at Bill C-48, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (bail reform) which comes into effect January 2024. How will the bill work in concert with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Criminal Records Act.

• Creating a new reverse onus to target serious repeat violent offending involving weapons
• Expanding the list of firearms offences that trigger a reverse onus
• Broadening the reverse onus targeting repeat offenders of intimate partner violence
• Clarifying the meaning of the terms “prohibition order” in an existing reverse onus for offences involving weapons
• Requirement for:
  • courts to consider an accused person’s history of convictions for violence when making a bail decision
  • courts to state on the record for any bail decision that they have considered the safety and security of the community in relation to the alleged offence (thereby increasing accountability to the public)
  • courts to state on the record for any bail decision how they have considered the particular circumstances of Indigenous accused and accused from vulnerable overrepresented populations, as required by section 493.2 of the Criminal Code