Windsor sees increase in alleged assaults by people out on bail, peace bonds

There's an increase in the number of reported assaults in Windsor allegedly committed by people out on bail or peace bond over a recent five-year period, according to new Statistics Canada data compiled for CBC News.

In 2021, the newest available data, 73 assaults involving a weapon or causing bodily harm were reported in Windsor involving someone released on bail. That's compared to just 17 of the same incidents in 2017, which is an increase of 329 per cent.

Stats Canada data also shows 89 incidents of assault causing little to no physical harm in 2021 by someone also facing a failure to comply order by the courts compared to 40 in 2017 — a 123 per cent increase.

In March, University of Windsor assistant professor in the Faculty of Law, Danardo Jones, testified before a federal committee examining Canada's bail system. When looking at this data, Jones said it would be interesting to see court outcomes for those charged.

This data does not capture whether the individuals were convicted of the original offence or the charge laid against them while out on bail.

"I think that would help us to perhaps either substantiate our fear or perhaps alleviate some of the fear folks may have about recidivism or risk to public safety by folks who are out on bail," said Jones.

When a court decides whether an accused individual is granted bail, Jones describes that weighing two very important considerations.

"It's trying to balance constitutional rights with the very real concern of public safety," said Jones. "The bail system is an attempt of trying to somehow strike a balance, an appropriate balance between these two objectives. It's difficult."

When you look at overall violent offences committed by someone released on bail, that's increased to 200 in 2021, from 81 in 2017  — an increase of 147 per cent.

There have also been slight increases in the number of incidents of forcible confinement or kidnapping, extortion, uttering threats, criminal harassment, robbery and assaults against a peace officer by someone out on bail between 2017-2021.

What this data doesn't show is whether the number of people out on bail has increased or decreased during that time, and whether overall violent crime is up or down.

"In my view, it's a really incomplete set of data and would be extraordinarily dangerous to make anything out of it," said Bobby Russon, a criminal defence lawyer in Windsor.

"We don't know if this is just simply a reflection of whether violent crime is up. I don't know if that's true or not. But if it is, it would be dangerous to glean that violent crime while out on bail is independently up."

In Ontario, there's also been an uptick — a 27 per cent increase — in overall violent crime among people released on bail. That captures a total of 5,305 incidents where a failure to comply order accompanies a violent offence in 2021 compared to 4,167 in 2017.