On Oct. 2, Toronto Police pulled over a car they suspected had been involved in a series of robberies. As officers approached the car, a man climbed out and shot one of the officers in the abdomen.
Although the officer’s wound was listed as “serious,” he thankfully was able to leave hospital the next day.
But he should never have been shot in the first place. The man arrested and charged with his shooting, Tibor Orgona, 21, was out on bail at the time. Not only that, he was out on bail after being arrested in May for violating the terms of an earlier probation he had received after being convicted of nearly two dozen earlier crimes.
Orgona, the alleged shooter, is a glaring example of how the federal Liberals’ revolving-door bail rules have made Canada more dangerous.
But what was the Liberals’ first instinct when Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre raised the shooting during question period on Thursday? Was it a mea culpa and a promise to tighten our country’s laughable bail rules ASAP?
Nope. Indeed, the Liberals think they have already tightened our bail laws — laws they themselves amended back in 2019. The most recent amendments, which took effect in January 2024, are so minor it’s hard to call them reforms.
Basically, it is still super easy to get bail. The Liberals’ 2019 rules instructed judges in all cases to release offenders as quickly as possible and with minimal conditions. Rarely was bail to be denied. This, the Liberals argued at the time, would speed the reintegration of criminals into society and help them see the error of their ways.
That philosophy has not been changed with this year’s amendments, except in some limited cases of spousal abuse and in cases where the suspect has been charged with the same violent offence he had been convicted of in the previous five years.
Almost no one qualifies for stricter bail.
While expressing the government’s “heartfelt” concern for the wounded officer, Liberal House Leader Karina Gould revealed that what truly “alarmed” the government was Poilievre’s “trampling of the Charter rights of Canadians.”
Huh!?
How on earth was Poilievre infringing on Canadians’ Charter rights by pointing out that, at the time of his arrest, Orgona was “out on probation for many crimes. He gets arrested for violating probation. So he gets released on bail and (allegedly) shoots a police officer.”
Also, don’t the rest of us have a Charter right to be kept safe in our communities from criminals who think nothing of shooting a cop?
According to StatsCan’s latest numbers on murders, homicides in Canada are 33% above the 10-year average. And every year since the Liberals’ 2019 bail liberalization, they have been between 18% and 44% above average.
That doesn’t mean every one of these extra murders was committed by someone on one form of “release” or another — bail, probation, parole or statutory release — but when you add in statistics from local police and the RCMP across the country, showing criminals on release are responsible for between 38% and 53% of total homicides, it’s legitimate to put two-and-two together.
It’s also the height of arrogance and disconnectedness for the Liberals to try to deflect attention from the mess they have created by claiming a desire for safer communities is an attack on Charter rights, without explaining which rights are being “trampled” and how.
I might have been more sympathetic had Gould objected to Poilievre calling the suspect a “dirtbag” and assuming he was guilty before his trial. The presumption of innocence is a Charter right.
But Gould seemed to be suggesting it’s a Charter right to be allowed to walk the streets no matter how many convictions one has for previous crimes, particularly violent ones.