Pierre Poilievre is a Canadian Member of Parliament and the leader of the Conservative Party. He has been pointing to rising crime and pinning the problem on Prime Minister Trudeau. One of the specific criticisms he has made involves current bail policies which, he argues, allow people suspected of violent crimes to wind up back on the streets where they commit more violent crimes while awaiting trial. He made a speech about this in Calgary a few months ago.

“Here in Calgary, we’ve seen a whole spate of violent crimes targeting innocent people that are the direct result of (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s broken bail system and the ridiculous catch-and-release policies that he’s implemented,” Poilievre charged…

In January, the Calgary Police Service joined calls for bail reform, describing a local effect from repeat offenders, including a resource drain from assigning officers to ensure those on bail are complying with release conditions.

The issue presented itself directly with 2022’s final homicide on Dec. 25, when Yosief Hagos allegedly shot and killed Samuel Welday Haile in the southeast community of Forest Lawn while out on bail.

Poilievre’s messaging on bail reform is “hyperbolic,” but not without merit, said Mount Royal University criminologist Doug King.

One crime in particular has made bail reform into a national issue. In December a 28-year-old Ontario police officer named Grzegorz Pierzchala was murdered by a man out on bail. Officer Pierzchala responded to a call about a vehicle stuck in a ditch and was murdered shortly after he arrived.

“The officer was essentially ambushed and stood absolutely no chance of being able to defend himself,” [Ontario Police Commissioner Thomas] Carrique said…

Twenty-five-year-old Randall McKenzie and 30-year-old Brandi Crystal Lyn Stewart-Sperry are each facing a charge of first-degree murder in Pierzchala’s death…

Carrique said he was “outraged” that McKenzie was out on bail at the time of the shooting.

“This should have never happened. Something needs to change,” he said.

The wave of outrage among police and the public was serious enough that, back in February, the Trudeau government said it was taking a look at bail reform. In fact, changes to the law were expected to be made this week:

Justice Minister David Lametti and the federal government are expected to bring forward legislation to enact bail reform as early as Tuesday…

Lametti has said he will make “targeted reforms” to the Criminal Code after the provinces and territories publicly raised concerns about repeat offenders…

“We have heard the call with respect to repeat violent offenders, we’ve heard the call with respect to offences with weapons,” he said. “We’ve promised to act. It’s a complicated problem, but we’re doing it together with the provinces and territories.”

I’m not familiar with Canada’s Justice Minister but based on what I’m seeing, he sounds a lot like the progressive prosecutors in some of our major cities, i.e. someone more worried about mass incarceration than the victims of violent repeat offenders. This week he seems to be in agreement that changes are necessary but back in February when conservatives like Poilievre were demanding these changes he accused them of “using tragedies to try to score political points.”

Anyway, that brings us to this clip in which Pierre Poilievre is talking about the new bail reform measures and a reporter at the press conference attempted to press him on why this would help reduce crime.

“How can you attribute bail to this increasing crime?” the reporter asked.

“They’re committing crimes on bail,” Poilievre replied. He then offered an example noting that in Vancouver the 40 most prolific criminals had been arrested more than 6,000 times. That stat was taken from this letter sent last April by the British Columbia Urban Mayors Caucus. The same letter stated “In Vancouver, the 40 super-chronic offenders have an average of 54 convictions per offender (2,152 total).”

“Is this not a failure of social services and support for people who have committed crimes?” the reporter asked.

“Are you serious?” Poilievre replied. Here’s the exchange.

At a press conference on the Trudeau government’s bail reforms, Conservative leader @PierrePoilievre argues with a reporter about the consequences of releasing repeat violent offenders onto the streets. pic.twitter.com/MMfDiFEl7I

— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) May 16, 2023

If you’re interested in the full press conference it’s here. After the exchange above, another reporter tried to follow up with a similar question. “There’s got to be some help with homelessness, mental health, things like that. There’s got to be some other thing than just locking people up,” he said. Poilievre’s answer was basically that rehabilitation can happen for some offenders but it can happen after they are put away not instead.