Shandro slams bail legislation at chamber luncheon

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 28, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Justice Minister and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro speaks to a Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro addressed a range of topics Wednesday in a luncheon sponsored by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.

An enthusiastic and focused audience listened to and engaged with the minister during the session at the Sandman Signature Hotel.

Shandro, the MLA for Calgary Acadia since 2019, served as the UCP government’s health minister until he was appointed Minister of Labour and Immigration in September of last year. In February, he replaced Kaycee Madu as Minister of Justice.

In his talk, the minister briefly addressed the history of his ministry (Justice and Solicitor General) which was created in 2012 when Premier Alison Redford merged them into one.

He talked about the negative impact mental health and addictions are having on communities across the province of all sizes and the impact Bill C-75, enacted by the federal government on March 29, 2018, has had on bail provisions.

Changes to Bill C-75, according to the federal justice department “streamline the process by increasing the types of conditions police can impose on accused so as to divert unnecessary matters from the courts and reduce the need for a bail hearing when one is not warranted.”

The amendments – which can be viewed at justice.gc.ca – also legislate what Ottawa calls a principle of restraint for police and courts “to ensure that release at the earliest opportunity is favoured over detention, that bail conditions are reasonable, relevant to the offence and necessary to ensure public safety….”

Shandro said Bill C-75 “made significant changes to bail which quietly had left a lot of our communities unsafe with a catch-and-release system … It’s so difficult now for people to be held in pre-trial custody. Not every offender should be treated the same way, not everybody should be in custody pre-trial but there are some offences and offenders who do need to be kept in pre-trial custody.”

The minister said he’s been working with Alberta communities and hearing the concerns people have of repeat offenders going back into a community “and what that means to residents and how unsafe they’re feeling as a result of those changes, not only as a result of C-75 but also due to the Zora decision made by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2020.

In that decision, the court ruled that to be found guilty of breaching bail conditions people have to know they are breaching them or that they are seriously risking a breach. The case centred around a man charged with drug crimes who was out on bail, one condition being a curfew. He was charged for breaching conditions when on two occasions he didn’t answer his door within five minutes when police checked on him.

Shandro said the province can’t spend its way out of the situation it’s been put in by Ottawa but “we can reinvest in our courts, which we have in 2022, we can increase the number of prosecutors we have. We’ve gone from 400 to 450. We can deal with turnover with prosecutors by working very quickly with them…dealing with those morale issues by paying them equitably,” Shandro said.

He said the province is also focused on providing options for people suffering with addictions. In previous years, people would have to bring out a credit card or sell a car or re-mortgage their home to afford treatment for themselves or loved ones.

“We said that as a government, that’s not going to be the case anymore. So making it a 100 per cent publicly funded part of the health care system and increasing those beds – I think we have 8,000 beds now – and making sure that families in our province have an option for recovery. That’s an important part of being to able to address addiction,” said Shandro.

He said he wanted to meet with the Chamber and its members to speak with them and answer questions, and get feedback.

Shandro noted the last three years have been tough to directly interact with people in person and get feedback and questions and it’s important for him to get to places like Lethbridge to get that feedback.

He said the province is working on innovative strategies such as recovery to address addictions matters.

The minister, in response to a question about rural policing, said of the 113 RCMP detachments in Alberta, 40 per cent have fewer members. That’s one reason why the UCP is looking at a provincial police force, he said. With civilian oversight, size of detachments could be increased, in some cases being doubled.

And he said the UCP has made a commitment to municipalities there would be no cost increase to them. He brought up Coaldale’s costs for its RCMP detachment, saying the town shouldn’t have to bear the entire cost of the service because he thinks it shouldn’t be treated as a new entrant to RCMP policing. But he says Ottawa isn’t answering calls to address the matter.

He also thanked Lethbridge Police Service chief Shahin Mehdizadeh for the relationship they’ve developed since he took over the justice ministry.

He told the chief he’s seen the “amazing work that you’re doing with this police service.….I want to thank you for the work you do for the community to keep the residents of Lethbridge safe.”

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