CLA appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs’ study of Bill C-14

Three lawyers leaving Osgoode Hall.

Cassandra Richards, Co-chair of the CLA’s Legislation Committee, addressed members of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on how to thoughtfully amend Bill C-14, the ‘Bail and Sentencing Reform Act‘. You can watch the CLA’s submissions here. 

While the CLA welcomes some of the proposed amendments in Bill C-14, we have serious concerns about the impact that many of these changes will have on already marginalized communities.

The CLA made three key recommendations:

  1. Remove section 515(2.11), which would prevent pepole convicted of an indictable offence within the past 10 years from acting as a surety;
  2. Remove the “clearly demonstrate” language in section 515(6);
  3. Remove clauses 43(1) and (2), which restrict access to conditional sentence orders for certain offences.

Read our written submissions here.