A drastically higher rate of bail violations in Somerset ward compared to other Ottawa wards can be explained primarily by the location of the city’s courthouse and police station, according to Ottawa police.
Somerset Ward – an area of downtown Ottawa framed by the Rideau Canal to the east, the Ottawa River to the north, the O-Train track to the west and the 417 to the south – had a rate of just over 15 bail violations per 1000 residents in 2013, according to an analysis of police crime statistics. The next highest rate was Rideau-Vanier, at 6.4 violations per 1000 residents. Excluding Somerset, the average rate of all wards was 0.87.
The Somerset number is inflated because Ottawa’s courthouse and police station are both located in the ward, explained Ottawa Police spokesperson Cst. Marc Soucy.
Whenever someone appears in court and is not obeying their court conditions, and more charges are laid, the address of the courthouse is used, said Soucy. Same thing goes if they are arrested and brought to the police station and violating their bail conditions, the address of the police station is used.
“When they’re charged with their bail violation, they’re either at the court or here,” said Soucy. “So that’s the address we’ll use for the call.”
Some of the more common types of bail violations are failure to keep the peace, not attending bail appointments, violating non-communication orders and consuming alcohol or drugs, said Sue Morse, senior bail supervisor for the John Howard Society of Ottawa.
The John Howard Society of Ottawa provides a variety of social services for Ottawa residents that qualify. These services extend from legal advice, finding housing, finding employment and various other social services, said Morse.
“It’s to help them better their life while they’re on bail,” she added.
Stuart Konyer, president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa, said other factors may play into the high number of bail violations in Somerset ward, such as addiction and mental health issues.
“You’re seeing a lot of people with addiction issues who get released on bail with conditions that are extremely difficult to follow, like addicts released on bail with the condition not to drink, and drug addicts with conditions not to use, and that sort of thing,” said Konyer. “And those are often the people we see back for breaching bail conditions.”
Konyer and Morse agree that bail conditions are generally too restrictive, and the best way to reduce violations is to be more lenient and understanding when setting these restrictions.
When someone is charged with a crime, there is supposed to be a presumption of innocence, and they should be released until they have their day in court, said Konyer, but we’re seeing an increase in the strictness of bail restrictions over time.
“The idea of bail conditions is that they’re supposed to protect the community from undue risk, but we see house arrest, curfews, alcohol prohibitions in cases where, in my view, it isn’t warranted,” he said. “So there’s an excessive use of really restrictive bail conditions that leads to more breaches.”
Konyer said this “culture” of more restrictive bail conditions has been slowly growing over time. It’s a culture of risk-aversion that is setting people up to fail.
“No one wants to be the Crown who agreed to release the guy on a domestic charge who goes back and is in the paper because he killed the girl the next week or something,” said Konyer. “So when they do release, oftentimes it’s with really strict conditions that are difficult to follow.”