Many in Canada’s legal community are expressing concern about how the overloaded court system could be affected by a Liberal bill that wouldSenators on a committee probing the legislation will enter the final phase of their study next week by going over the legislation clause by clause and suggesting amendments.has encouraged the Senate to pass the bill quickly, saying the fact that all provincial and territorial governments pushed for the measures underlines their urgency.
But civil society groups and legal advocates representing people who are Black, Indigenous or otherwise marginalized say its measures could worsen the overrepresentation of such groups behind bars — something Liberals have promised to address — while failing to make communities any safer.The bill is drafted to target offenders who have a violent criminal past.
Criminal lawyers, legal aid groups and some senators say they worry about straining legal aid services and provincial court systems, which are already struggling to ensure that cases are heard in a time frame that complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.“We just need to be more attentive to what are the consequences of the legislation for the actors who will have to deliver the program,” Saskatchewan Sen. Brent Cotter, who chairs the Senate’s legal committee, said in an interview.
Cotter added that the expansion of reverse onus provisions will affect people who are of lower income, and have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous and Black people.
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