Bail denials rising sharply in Ontario amid national clampdown
David Epner – The Globe and Mail
The number of people denied bail in Ontario last year spiked to its highest level in data going back to 2018, and has more than doubled over the past two years.
The new data from the Ontario Court of Justice are the latest indication of how the justice system applies the law of bail on a day-to-day basis. The 2025 numbers are more evidence that courts across the country are denying bail to an increasing number of people.It is a long-established trend, one that Ontario has led in recent years.
Other evidence also shows that people accused of crimes in Ontario are being denied bail in record numbers. As of last September, according to Statistics Canada, more people in the province’s jails were there on remand after being denied bail than at any point since the late 1970s, when those records began.
This is happening under federal bail laws that are about to become stricter. Last fall, the federal government introduced Bill C-14 to make it more difficult for people accused of serious crimes to get bail. People denied bail must remain in custody. They have been charged with crimes but have not yet had trials and are presumed innocent.
In Ontario, 86 per cent of people in provincial jails are on remand, having been denied bail. Jails in the province are over capacity. The Canadian Press this month reported Ontario plans to spend $4-billion to expand jails in the next six years, enabling it to imprison more people.
