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Legal loophole

Four years ago, the community of St. Albert suffered a terrible loss when RCMP Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond were shot by a man with a long and telling criminal history, Shawn Rehn.

Four years ago, the community of St. Albert suffered a terrible loss when RCMP Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond were shot by a man with a long and telling criminal history, Shawn Rehn.

Rehn’s criminal record had for decades been filled with violent offences – more than 200 since 1994. The year before the fatal shooting, which took the life of Wynn and seriously injured Bond, Rehn had several arrest warrants issued for failing to appear in court. At the time of the shooting itself, he had racked up a total of 29 charges that had yet to be dealt with in court.

Over the course of his life, Rehn was charged with seven offences against the administration of justice and 46 compliance or breach offences. His criminal history was not presented at his bail hearing prior to his encounter with Wynn and Bond.

The shooting prompted a review by then-deputy minister of justice Kim Armstrong into the Crown’s involvement with Rehn. Questions arose as to how Rehn had been granted bail in the first place given his prior history, and Armstrong wrote in her report, “the availability of complete, accurate and up-to-date information plays a vital role in the bail process.”

Last month, St. Albert-Edmonton Conservative MP Michael Cooper wrote a letter to the federal minister of justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, about a loophole in the federal government’s omnibus Bill C-75.

The bill introduces a new possibility for people who commit administration of justice offences (which include failures to appear, not complying with a summons or undertaking, not attending court as required or non-compliance with a release order), called a judicial referral hearing.

This new measure would allow the courts to give warnings, vary bail conditions or revoke bail, instead of laying new charges against people who breach bail conditions.

As Cooper noted in his letter, the prospect of not laying new charges has a dangerous side-effect: breaches would not be entered into CPIC, the police database that records charges and criminal histories. Thus, an incomplete picture would be provided at future bail hearings.

There are plenty of merits to judicial referral hearings, and allowing the courts more flexibility to deal with offenders is a good move. Offenders are often handed conditions that set them up for failure, such as requiring someone with an alcohol addiction to not drink alcohol, or requiring someone who is homeless to adhere to a curfew. These hearings have the added benefit of not bogging down the courts with administration of justice offences.

However, even if breaches are dealt with through a hearing instead of through charges, there should be a record kept of them. Legislation needs to be created carefully and that means recognizing and closing loopholes before they pass into law.

Bill C-75 should make provisions for flexibility while not inhibiting the ability of courts to see the whole picture of an accused person’s past.


Editorials are the consensus view of the St. Albert Gazette's editorial board.

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