The Star had a supposed explainer piece on bail reforms over the weekend, which talked a lot about over-incarceration, and poorly explained stats about certain offenders being out on bail with no context as to the charges they were facing prior to the alleged second offence, but absolutely nothing about the actual problems that the system faces, which is the continued and pervasive under-funding of courts by provinces, and Ontario most especially. It’s absolutely maddening how an explainer piece can lack that whole entire and most vital piece of the supposed puzzle. (It’s not a puzzle).
Part of the problem is who the reporter spoke to, being the “balanced” choices of the Toronto Police Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The CCLA is just fine, because they provided a lot of relevant points about lack of data that means we don’t actually have any proper information on reoffences on bail, or anything like that (because—wait for it!—provinces have refused to fund that data collection). But police associations, by and large, are not credible sources. (Police associations, by and large, exist to protect bad apples within police forces, and remain a huge problem when it comes to reforming police services). There was nobody from the broader legal community interviewed for this piece, neither Crown nor defence counsel, who could have explained the resourcing issues. Am I biased because I write for legal publications? A little, but the perspective from my piece on bail reform differs vastly from the “explainer” in the Star for that very reason.
This is one of the most quintessential policy issues of our times where provincial underfunding is having an outsized impact on the system in question, this being the justice system, and it keeps getting ignored by the vast majority of legacy media, while the federal minister is behaving naively when he says that his provincial counterparts say they understand the problems in the system. But the problem is them, and their governments not funding the system. They like to complain that the problem is the Criminal Code, or that judges are being too lenient, but no, the problem is the provincial funding, and no changes to the Criminal Code will ever change that. And for yet another legacy media publication to ignore this, and let the provinces off the hook yet again, is beyond irresponsible.
Ukraine Dispatch
Russian attacks on Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk killed four and wounded at least twenty early Saturday, while attacks early Sunday wounded at least 29 in Kyiv.
Good reads:
- At the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Mark Carney is selling Canada as a reliable trade partner, and points out that we respect trade rules (unlike certain presidents).
- Trump declared that Canada would face an addition 10 percent tariff because he’s still angry about the Reagan ads (and no, there is no deal to be had with him).
- Government House Leader Steve MacKinnon says once again that he doesn’t have the votes to pass the budget when it comes.
- New rules mean that American border guards will be photographing everyone entering and leaving the country, including Canadians, for biometric reasons.
- Digital asbestos researchers say that it’s risky for the CRA to turn to using more digital asbestos tools. Gosh, you think?
- None of the declared NDP leadership candidates are bilingual, and all say that they’re working on their French ahead of the French debate.
- Former New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs claims his party is losing its identity after members rejected his dragging it to the Christian nationalist camp.
- The Ford government is walking back its plan to end security of tenure rules for renters after public outcry.
- Here is more of a clear-eyed look at what killed previous pipeline proposals.
- Kevin Carmichael muses about Carney’s choices of ambition versus pragmatism, and how we reshape our economy given the collapse of geonomics.
- Shannon Proudfoot notes the way in which Carney is asking Canadians to give him the time he needs to get the major transformations done.
- Susan Delacourt wonders if good cop/bad cop no longer works with Trump given his utter volatility.
Odds and ends:
New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week I talk about John Rustad, and why there is always a way to oust an unpopular leader, even if you don't think there is. #cdnpoli
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-10-26T20:59:54.015Z
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