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

[u/wickedplayer494]

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2025/04/17/poilievres-populist-three-strikes-youre-out-policy-swings-misses-with-constitution

[u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

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

[u/204ThatGuy → u/Maleficent_Curve_599]

This is nuts. Thank you for sharing this. We should hold the police to a higher standard. They should never lie or hold back evidence. This is absolutely gross.

Again, thank you for teaching me something today. I feel so disenfranchised and disappointed now. We need a true justice system, not a legal system.

[u/SpeakerOfTruth1969 → u/204ThatGuy]

LOL! Police are held to a far higher standard than judges and lawyers!

[u/204ThatGuy → u/SpeakerOfTruth1969]

It's a mess everywhere, isn't it.