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Doug Ford appears to be setting himself up as the law-and-order premier ahead of next week’s return of the Ontario legislature. Ford was in Brockville on Monday, announcing the next steps in his push to expand Ontario’s jail capacity.

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It’s unfortunately a jail that the Ford government first announced back in 2020, but the government is only now issuing a “Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to build the new Brockville Correctional Complex and expand the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre.” This isn’t even a request for proposals, it’s not the tendering of a contract, it’s a call for companies to say they might be qualified to bid, which means this project is moving far too slowly.

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Ford and his team could point to the expansion of other correctional facilities as successes, and these facilities in Eastern Ontario do need work, but an announcement about taking the temperature of building contractors is weak sauce.

Steps could be taken now

So are some of Ford’s proposals for cracking down on crime when there are steps his government could take immediately, but won’t.

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Last week Ford’s attorney general Doug Downey wrote to his federal counterpart Sean Fraser with two concrete proposals. Downey asked Fraser to allow Canadians to legally carry and use pepper spray for self-defence purposes and to institute “mandatory DNA collection upon arrest for sexual offenses, with automatic sample destruction on acquittal or non-conviction.”

On Monday, Ford also announced that his government would allow bail hearings to be livestreamed online for greater access and transparency for the public. The premier also called for judges and justices of the peace to be forced to defend their decisions when they grant bail to a violent offender.

“Right now, when bail is granted to a violent offender, there is no written justification provided. We need to change that to ensure clear reasoning is provided with greater consistency in decisions and easier public review,” Ford said.

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Ford also called on the federal government to finally pass their bail reform which allows for bail to be denied in more instances. Under Bill C-75, passed more than six years ago, bail became the default option for judges and justices of the peace under the criminal code.

“In making a decision under this Part, a peace officer, justice or judge shall give primary consideration to the release of the accused at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions that are appropriate in the circumstances,” the read the changes Bill C-75 made to the criminal code.

Under Bill C-14, it will make it more difficult for certain violent offenders to get bail, but it still doesn’t go far enough.

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Training not good enough

Even if C-14 were passed tomorrow, the judges and justices of the peace running bail in Ontario would be ill-equipped. The training they are provided spends little to no time instructing new or existing presiders on how or when to deny bail, something they are still allowed to do.

Ford and his attorney general Downey need to fix that, or it won’t matter what the federal government does.

It’s the same with the instruction manual provided to police and prosecutors in Ontario needing to be updated on self-defence cases. Ford wants the public to be allowed to carry pepper spray for protection, but the way his government instructs police and prosecutors, anyone using pepper spray in Ontario would be facing charges.

Last summer, Ford called for Castle Laws to be passed in Canada. The truth is they already exist; the criminal code is clear on self-defence, it is provincial guidelines — especially in Ontario — that are murky and lead to people being charged for defending themselves or loved ones from violent offenders.

Ford is right to call for these changes; there’s just more that he could do that would be far more effective. He should focus on those changes first.

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