Justice committee  In my experience, these people are being detained. Listen, transcripts are available from bail hearings. If people can point to specific bail hearings and say “this bail hearing illustrates a problem”.... I urge people to get the transcripts to understand concretely what it was that took place at the bail hearing and why a person was released.

Justice committee  Certainly there is some data with respect to how many people are held pretrial, but if you're trying to drill down into public safety, I think it's a different kind of data, particularly if it's about public safety with respect to what happens when certain people are released on bail.

Justice committee  I have no doubt, because part of a submission on bail, as a defence lawyer, is to propose a plan that is going to give a judge comfort that a person is going to be stable in their lifestyle, such that they can abide by bail conditions. If that stability does not otherwise exist, and if it could be provided through bail supervision, then that is going to increase the chances of people getting bail and being successful while on bail.

Justice committee  Bail supervision programs can help address risk. To the extent that risk arises because of instability in a person's life, either through housing issues or addiction issues or poverty issues, all of those things can be addressed through bail supervision rather than jail. Jail is a very, very blunt tool through which to address risk, and it should be an absolute last resort.

Justice committee  We don't keep statistics. We're just not equipped to do that. In my experience, sitting on various committees and attending various meetings where these issues are discussed, it's always the government's institutions that are best able to gather statistics. Of course, what is kept depends upon what you want to measure.

Justice committee  Thank you for the invitation to appear. The study of bail is hardly new. In 1965, Professor Martin Friedland studied the problem of pretrial incarceration and published his results in his book, Detention Before Trial. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force in April 1982.