Ontario police associations call for federal bail reform

Three Ontario police associations released a statement Wednesday calling on the federal government to implement stricter bail policies, after plainclothes Toronto police officers were caught in a gunfight between two groups in the city's west end Monday night while conducting a unrelated bail compliance check. 

The statement from the Toronto Police Association (TPA), Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) and Police Association of Ontario (PAO) asks the federal government to take "immediate action" by keeping repeat and violent offenders in jail while they wait for trial. 

Close to 100 shots were fired outside a recording studio near Queen Street W. and Sudbury Street on Monday night, police have said. An unmarked police vehicle was struck by bullets while officers were inside, they said. 

Officers arrested 23 people, including a young offender with three firearms prohibitions, and seized 16 firearms, the statement said. 

No one was injured in Monday's gunfight, which TPA president Clayton Campbell called a "miracle."

"We are literally inches away from having a police funeral if one of those rounds would've hit one of our officers," he said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning. 

Person arrested Monday wore ankle bracelet: association president  

Campbell said he could "almost guarantee" that multiple people who were arrested Monday night were out on bail. One of those arrested was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time, he said. 

He said he's spoken to people in the community, at town halls, who are scared and concerned about violence in the city. 

"This is really not about politics, it's about public safety," he told Radio-Canada. 

Violent crimes and shootings in Toronto are up 45 per cent this year, Campbell said. 

Toronto has seen 114 more shootings and firearm discharges so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to the police data portal. With a total of 405 incidents since January, it also marks the most shootings the city has seen in four years. 

PAO president Mark Baxter said the incident should be a "call to action" for the federal government to implement stricter bail policies for repeat and violent offenders.

In October, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner released a public letter calling on the federal government to make several bail-related changes to the Criminal Code, including eliminating bail for certain offences and implementing a "three strike rule" for repeat offenders.

The letter was the latest in an ongoing push by provincial and territorial premiers for Ottawa to legislate stricter bail measures in the wake of several high-profile instances of crimes allegedly committed by offenders out on bail, including the fatal shooting of Ontario Provincial Police Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala in late 2022. 

Questions remain, however, about how the province's already over-crowded jail system would handle a further influx of inmates.

Meanwhile, data obtained by The Canadian Press via freedom-of-information laws showed the province's inmate population surged in 2023, with a vast majority of correctional institutions at well over capacity.

The union representing correctional officers has repeatedly raised concerns about overcrowding, saying inmates are triple-bunking in some facilities. The Criminal Lawyers Association has also said accused individuals are taking longer to get to a bail hearing, contributing to the rise in jail populations.