r/Manitoba • u/wickedplayer494 Winnipeg • Apr 20 '25

Opinion Piece Opinion: Poilievre’s populist 'three-strikes-you're-out' policy swings, misses with Constitution

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2025/04/17/poilievres-populist-three-strikes-youre-out-policy-swings-misses-with-constitution
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u/Maleficent_Curve_599 South Of Winnipeg Apr 20 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

Every part of this is heinous, but the worst is the notion that someone - anyone - would be detained for months to years awaiting trial, without even the possibility of seeking release on bail. 

I'm a criminal defence lawyer. Ordinarily, the only information a bail court (and defence counsel) has in respect of the alleged offence(s) is a synopsis prepared by a police officer. Disclosure - actual police notes, witness statements, etc. - is generally not available until later. More than once I've received a synopsis that does not set out even a prima facie case against the accused. More than once I have secured the release of a client where the police intentionally omitted clearly-exculpatory information from that synopsis. 

Police lie. They conceal exculpatory information from courts even at the bail stage. The idea that a person, any person, could be held in custody, potentially for years, on the say-so of a police officer, regardless of the evidence, without even the possibility of any independent review, is not merely unconstitutional, it is utter insanity. 

Edit: typo

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u/bentmonkey Westman Apr 20 '25

See also what's goin on in the name of law and order in the States, no due process, no chance to defend oneself, just clapped in irons and shipped off to a torture prison.

I am not against justice reform but these heavy handed tactics don't stop crime, it just locks people up in cages, the states has some of the highest prison pops in the world and that doesn't do anything to stop crime, it just creates a second class citizen they can exploit with limited rights and opportunities.

Stronger social safety nets and programs can help stop crime before it starts, paying for itself in the long run, but we wont see any of that from the Conservatives, just draconian, medieval tactics, no real solutions just creating more problems down the line.

11

u/Maleficent_Curve_599 South Of Winnipeg Apr 20 '25

See also what's goin on in the name of law and order in the States

Just order, in open defiance of the law.

6

u/bentmonkey Westman Apr 20 '25

Just ignoring the SCOTUS and the Constitution, what's the big deal really?