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B.C. attorney general backs feds' gun-crime crackdown

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VANCOUVER -- Attorney General Wally Oppal yesterday backed a federal government plan to make it tougher for people accused of gun crimes to get out on bail. "I think it's a good idea to put more of the onus on those people charged with serious crimes involving firearms," Oppal said last night. "That's what this deals with."

Current Canadian law puts the onus on the Crown to convince a judge that someone charged with a gun crime should be kept in custody until trial.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday introduced legislation in the House of Commons that will instead require those charged with a serious gun crime to argue why they should not stay in custody until their trial.

Under the proposed reverse-onus legislation, it would be tougher for people like 29-year-old Dennis White of Vancouver to get out on bail. White is charged with shooting to death 23-year-old Lee Matasi in downtown Vancouver last December. White was released on bail into the care of his mother, despite protests from the Crown and outrage from Matasi's family. White's second-degree murder trial begins next year.

"Where a person is charged with robbery using a firearm, then the onus ought to be [for them] to show that they should be released," Oppal said. "This would be applicable in a case like [White]."
Oppal, who said he discussed the reverse-onus legislation with Harper three weeks ago, said it is rare for a judge to release a person on bail who is accused of murder, as was the case with White.

Simon Fraser University criminologist Gary Mauser said many violent crimes are committed by people who have been released after committing an earlier violent crime. "There's one thing that we know from looking at crime records and that is that incapacitation is the most powerful tool we have to reduce the crime rate," Mauser said. "That's keeping people in jail for a longer period of time, in this case holding them until they are judged."

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning applauded the proposal. "We get frustrated when we deal with people involved in crimes where they use a gun, and they're back on the street quickly and they get another gun. Trying to get guns off the street and people who carry guns off the street is a good start."

Harper, meanwhile, said he doesn't believe a blanket ban on handguns is the answer. "Simply banning guns we don't think would be effective," he said. "What we do need to do is stop the smuggling of illegal weapons."

Earlier yesterday, Harper's plan earned the endorsement of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayor David Miller.

"Gun crime is a menace to public safety and protecting Canadians must be the first priority of the bail system," Harper said at a Toronto press conference.

Harper added he was confident the legislation would withstand a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "Our belief is this is demonstrably justifiable and necessary for public safety and for the public to retain confidence in the criminal justice system," the prime minister said.