Mayor releases first bail-offender bulletin

Mayor Scott Gillingham has released his first “repeat offenders bulletin” to bolster his calls for bail and sentencing reform.

In the video posted Tuesday, Gillingham discusses a Winnipeg offender in his mid-20s who was convicted of 24 violent crimes over 11 years and violated bail or probation conditions 12 separate times.

He was released on bail in April 2021 after being charged in a shooting. He was arrested for a carjacking that June while on bail for the shooting, and was released again on bail multiple times between then and April 2023, Gillingham said.

The man was later convicted in the shooting and the carjacking, among other offences, the mayor said.

“If this habitual offender had not been released on bail for their April 2021 shooting charge, then the offender wouldn’t have been free to commit that carjacking in June,” he said in the video.

Gillingham highlighted the same case in his state of the city address in March.

Last month, 178 people who were already wanted on warrants or for violating bail or probation conditions were arrested for new charges in Winnipeg, the mayor said.

Speaking with journalists after the video was posted, Gillingham said he does not have access to the names of the people being named in the bulletins, noting the information is provided to his office by the Winnipeg Police Service.

“This is a national issue. It’s impacting our cities, and as I said before, Winnipegers and I have had enough of repeat offenders breaching court orders, going on in our community to commit more crime while they are waiting to get their court date. In some cases, it’s having deadly consequences,” he said.

Gillingham announced Friday that he would launch a weekly bulletin to pressure the federal government to reform laws that govern the bail system. The bulletins are intended to “highlight local examples of habitual offenders and their impact on safety in Winnipeg,” the mayor said at the time.

University of Manitoba associate law Prof. Brandon Trask criticized the inaugural weekly bulletin, saying it undermines Charter rights inherent to all Canadians, including the presumption of innocence for people accused of crimes.

“Our charter rights are very important. We can’t have the starting point be that people are consistently denied bail,” he said by phone Tuesday.

“The bail regime is not intended to be punitive, which I think is being lost in these conversations… that comes later, after a person is proven guilty.”

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Trask said he feels the mayor is acting as “an extension of the police press office” by posting the weekly bulletins.

Trask and Manitoba Bar Association president Stacey Soldier both criticized the initiative after it was announced Friday.

Soldier said in a written statement Tuesday that most people released on bail comply with their conditions. Making it harder for people to get bail would result in more innocent arrested people spending extended time in pre-trial custody, she said.

In the Tuesday video, Gillingham again encouraged Winnipeggers to email federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser about bail reform.

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