Excerpts from The Star: Bail for a $1 coin? Inside the chaotic first week of Ontario’s controversial cash bail system
In courtrooms across the Toronto area this week, the Star has watched as judges and justices of the peace have at times pushed back against the Ontario government’s new bail regime. In practice, the rules are being followed by asking for much lower and more readily available cash deposits. The rules are also being met with considerable confusion, and even defiance. In one case, in Milton on Wednesday, a Superior Court justice refused outright to enforce cash bail — a stunning rebuke to the province.
In Milton this past week, Superior Court Justice Scott Cowan jumped the gun by releasing a woman charged with human trafficking without requiring her to pay a cash deposit. In court, the Star sat near the woman’s parents — retirees who appeared tense and visibly strained, seated quietly in the public gallery.
Within hours of the Star’s story on the Milton case, some commentators labelled Cowan an “activist judge” overstepping his authority.
“That’s not the case,” Oshawa-based lawyer Krystal Manitius said of such criticism after a judge this week agreed to release her client — homeless at the time of alleged kidnapping offences — on his own recognizance and a $50 deposit.
People are innocent before proven guilty and have a constitutional right to reasonable bail, she said.
The other key concept is that pre-trial detention, as dictated by the Supreme Court of Canada, is supposed to be a last resort.
One practical reason for this is that the province’s correctional facilities, many overcrowded, have run at average capacities of 113 to 130 per cent. So there are few available beds. And jailing more people is expensive for taxpayers, too. In 2022, the federal Justice Department noted that bail supervision and verification programs cost about $3 a day, while custody costs $135 a day per inmate.
Even so, more than 80 per cent of inmates in Ontario jails are awaiting trial or sentencing, and are legally innocent.
While some may believe bail courts are filled with scary, violent offenders, the vast majority of people in these courts are facing relatively minor offences. They may come from low-income communities, have limited means, and addiction or mental health issues. Many find themselves before the courts over and over again.
The system now requires administrative work to process even a one‑dollar cash payment. And if a client doesn’t hand over that loonie, he could be charged and face that fine of up to $5,000. That’s a new hearing, and hours of court time. In other words, the government is spending exponentially more to enforce the penalty than the original amount.
Lesley Pasquino, president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys’ Association … (of) Ontario’s 1,200 Crowns across 54 courthouses in Ontario, (says) There can be 10, 20, 30 hearings in a single morning, with police “still pulling evidence together” and defence counsel emailing at 6 a.m. to ask prosecutors, “What’s your position on bail?” In that environment, she argues, demanding cash up front adds “a whole other layer” to the analysis.
She also wonders if the government is so intent on tightening bail and prioritizing public safety, why are Crowns simultaneously being told to curtail cross‑examinations of sureties and compress bail hearings into 30 minutes?
A June 1 directive issued by the Ontario Court of Justice spelling out those new orders is “completely inconsistent” with the premier and attorney general’s push for stricter bail, she says.
