Law Enforcement. The Good , The Bad and The Abusive

DarthMaeglin said:

mickeyrat said:

DarthMaeglin said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

He was, but bail in this situation is pretty standard. It's easy to point fingers in hindsight, but you can't deny bail to every single person accused of assault. 

Court records show 26-year-old Tyrone Simard was charged with assault with a weapon and mischief for alleged offences that happened June 8.

The records show a Winnipeg court granted his release June 12 with various conditions, including a curfew and an order to not use drugs or alcohol or possess weapons.

That does raise another angle that needs to be addressed then: enforcement of those conditions. Have we gotten the toxicology tests back yet?

Assault with a weapon is much more serious than “simple” assault to most people.

In the end, though, the simple fact remains, he intentionally killed someone with a weapon while he was out on conditions that should have prevented the second incident. So another black mark on our bail system.

Getting back on topic, with Canadian bail as a backdrop, I completely understand the police if they feel a sense of futility as they perform their duties.

Just a general question that I'll ask you, but but what is  the purpose of bail to begin with?

I would assume the presumption of innocence applies in canada like it does here, no?

I guess it ultimately should serve several purposes, and you’re right about the presumption of innocence, but with bail I assume it’s being balanced against a presumption that the police have done their jobs properly and have charged (hopefully) the right person. I feel we should default to trusting the legal authorities, with a heavy dose of oversight.

Its primary purpose as I understand is to try to assure the accused shows up for their trial, essentially through the courts holding the accused’s collateral. I’m quite sure there have been cases of a genuinely innocent person fleeing charges or trials (as counterintuitive as that may be).

I think there’s also an element of the public seeing the wheels of justice turning as an assurance the system works. Often legislation gives the judge latitude to consider the severity of the charges when administering bail (or remanding the accused), and there have been accused here that were held in custody for trial (Bernardo and Picton come to mind but they’re the worst of our worst).