Violent crime on bail up in Ontario, stakeholders agree system is broken, but not on how to fix it

Nicola Lightstone's dog, Noodle, needed to go out in the middle of the night in January. 

While outside in her central Toronto neighbourhood, Lightstone says she was approached by a man who was "in a bit of a mental health crisis" when he chased her back toward her building and cut her off. 

"I began to scream and yell for help and that was when he punched me right in the face," she said. "As soon as he punched me he booked it back the way he came."

Several of Lightstone's neighbours in her Regent Park condo building called 911, and a day later she says a Toronto police sergeant told her the man had been arrested and it wasn't the first time something like this had happened. 

"It was always women that he physically assaulted and though he was brought in on criminal charges, he was repeatedly let out on bail," said Lightstone.

"It saddened me to know that there's clearly a flaw in this system where this individual's not getting help, that he's still out on the streets in a state of mental crisis."

Given several high-profile violent incidents in recent months involving people out on bail and probation in Ontario, CBC Toronto went looking for data to show how frequent these incidents actually are, whether they're increasing and what systemic factors might play a role in what's happening.

Data from Statistics Canada on incidents where someone has allegedly failed to follow bail or peace bond conditions and committed a violent crime show that the numbers are up across Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) over five years. 

There was a 27 per cent increase in these incidents in the province — amounting to roughly 1,100 more incidents in 2021 compared to 2017 — and a 16 per cent increase in the GTA, about 200 more incidents in that same period. For both Ontario and the GTA specifically, assault and assault causing bodily harm made up the biggest share of that increase. 

"I think that my assailant was as much a victim as I am," said Lightstone, a registered psychotherapist in the qualifying stage. "When the system fails an individual — like the person who attacked me — it fails me, it fails my wider community and it fails all Torontonians."

Police, government, academic, legal aid and bail program stakeholders all told CBC Toronto about ways in which the bail system is failing to serve the public, what they believe is contributing to those failings, and what needs to be done to fix things. 

But there's a divide on where to direct reform, funds and resources to try to prevent these repeat violent offences. Calls from police and changes from provincial and federal governments are largely aimed at making it more difficult for people who allegedly continue to commit violent crimes to get bail, and putting more resources towards bail compliance units. 

"Sixteen per cent is not a small number," said Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, referring to the five year increase, in an interview with CBC Toronto.

"It highlights precisely the importance of the work around bail reform that we need to be laser focused on — managing repeat violent offenders in the best way we possibly can to ensure the safety of our communities."