Hollow Water killer out on bail during stabbing attacks

The man police say killed his sister and injured seven others in Hollow Water First Nation Thursday before he died in a highway crash with an RCMP SUV was out on bail at the time of the attacks.

Court records show at the time of the rampage, Tyrone Simard was before the court facing charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching from incidents alleged to have occurred in 2017.

The 26-year-old was also charged with assault with a weapon and mischief for offences that occurred June 8.

Simard was released on bail June 12 with the consent of the Crown. His bail conditions included an order that he live at a specific address on Hollow Water First Nation, have no contact with four alleged victims and abide by an absolute curfew.

Manitoba’s justice minister said Thursday’s mass attack, the latest violent crime involving an accused person out on bail, underscores the need for reform.

“We’ve had too many of these kinds of situations — tragedies in the community that have been perpetrated by people on bail,” said Matt Wiebe, adding federal legislation “can’t come quick enough.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed during last spring’s election campaign that his Liberal government would make bail stricter for people accused of violent and organized crime, home invasions, car theft or human trafficking — particularly for repeat offenders — via amendments to the Criminal Code.

Carney said earlier this year Ottawa expects to table bail reform legislation in the fall.

Wiebe said he recently met with federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser and discussed the issue from the province’s perspective.

“This is a federal issue, ultimately, at the end of the day, and our premier (Wab Kinew) has led the country, our premiers, at the national table in refocusing our calls for the federal government to bring forward meaningful bail reform,” Wiebe said.

“We’re calling on them, we’re pleading with them to consider these kinds of cases and to take meaningful action.”

In 2018, Simard, then 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief to property and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation after admitting to drunkenly forcing his way into two Winnipeg homes, believing he lived there.

Defence lawyer Marc Zurbuchen told court at the time Simard struggled with diminished cognitive abilities and had a longstanding issue with alcohol.

“He honestly believed he was at his residence,” Zurbuchen said.

Court heard Simard was taken into foster care at age 10 and at the time of his arrest had aged out of juvenile care and was living in an adult group home.

In April 2017, Simard was arrested after he walked into a Winnipeg home through an unlocked door while “heavily intoxicated” and punched two residents who confronted him. Simard later pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and two counts of breaching a court order to abstain from alcohol, and was sentenced to 17 days in jail.

High-profile crimes committed by people out on bail have prompted police leaders, the federal Conservatives, mayors and provincial justice ministers of all political stripes to repeatedly urge federal Liberal governments — under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and now, Carney — to reform the Criminal Code to make bail harder to get.

The Manitoba NDP announced policy in February 2024 directing provincial Crown prosecutors to take a tougher approach to bail, including considering the impact on community safety.

Some in the system, including prosecutors and defence lawyers, questioned the wisdom of that directive, given Canadian criminal law already sets out that those considerations should be made when bail is decided.

Wiebe has also pledged resources for monitoring people on bail, money for police to track down repeat offenders and, last year, brought back the use of ankle bracelets to keep tabs on some who’ve been released.

The provincial justice department is collecting data about those released on bail and sharing it with federal criminal justice counterparts, Wiebe said earlier this year.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca