Cory Morgan: The Body Count Rises While Feds Dither on Bail Reform

Family and friends console each other during a vigil for Carol Ann Robillard and her 11-year-old daughter Sara Miller who were killed outside a school in Edmonton on May 6, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson)

Commentary

One of the key responsibilities of a government is ensuring the protection and safety of its citizens. Canada’s government has dropped the ball with this obligation and it’s costing lives. While we are being greeted with regular headlines about violent, repeat offenders harming or killing people, the government doesn’t appear to feel any urgency on the issue.

On May 5 in Edmonton, 35-year-old Carol Ann Robillard and her 11-year-old daughter Sara Miller were stabbed to death outside a school. The victims didn’t know their murderer, who was identified by sources as a man named Muorater Arkangelo Mashar. Mashar was shot by police while being apprehended and died later in hospital.

Had this been Mashar’s first offence, it would still be tragic and reprehensible but we could accept that perhaps it couldn’t have been prevented. However, the murders of Robillard and Miller were far from Mashar’s first offence. They were just the final ones from a man with a history of violent crimes spanning over 14 years.

In 2009, Mashar got a four-year prison sentence for a string of robberies. In 2014, he viciously stabbed and nearly killed a man at a bus stop. He got another four-year sentence for that. While in prison at that time, he assaulted a corrections officer and two inmates. His parole was revoked in 2018 after a positive test result for methamphetamine use. In September 2020 he was charged with assaulting a person and then racked up three more convictions for assault with a weapon from a November 2020 offence.

Mashar clearly wasn’t in prison for long for his string of assaults in 2020 as he was arrested and charged with several offences in Calgary in March 2021.

In April 2022, Mashar viciously beat a 12-year-old boy who was waiting for a train at an Edmonton LRT station. He was charged with attacking another person later that same month. In August 2022, Mashar garnered another assault with a weapon charge for attacking somebody in the remand centre.

Last April, Mashar was loose again and he allegedly assaulted a person on a scooter and was charged. He was released on bail three days later and murdered two people less than three weeks after that.

Any judge or justice of the peace would have seen Mashar’s record of violence before considering bail. How did they conclude this man was safe to be released into the public?

Canada direly needs to change policies regarding long-term incarceration for known violent offenders, whether in the prison system or mental health facilities. Far too many habitual offenders like Mashar are being released only to harm innocent citizens.

On the more immediate front, we need to fix our bail system. OPP officer Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala was murdered by a violent offender out on bail. Chard Patrick of Ajax, Ont., was on bail for assault before being charged with the murder of Arun Vigneswararajah last fall. Patrick is again out on bail today. I guess we are just expected to pray he doesn’t feel the urge to become violent again before his trial. The list goes on and on.

People charged with murder often have long, violent histories and the number of them out on bail is shocking. In Alberta, over half of the murders committed in Calgary and nearly half of those committed in Edmonton were perpetrated by violent offenders on bail at the time. The story is the same across the country. We had them in custody. We let them out, and they killed people. This is unacceptable to say the least.

Local politicians are losing patience waiting for promised bail reforms to come from the federal government. Police forces are increasing their ranks where possible while politicians examine other ways to keep people safe. In Alberta, Premier Smith has proposed having provincial authorities put tracking bracelets on violent offenders and assigning more workers to keep an eye on them. Municipal and provincial politicians wouldn’t have to go to such lengths if the bail system would quit releasing known, violent, repeat offenders. That is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s responsibility.

It doesn’t matter if murders are statistically rare. People don’t want to hear academics, progressive politicians, and criminologists saying that people are only perceiving themselves to be unsafe. Perception is reality and citizens have the right to feel safe. People should feel confident that the truly violent people among us will not be easily released once caught. That confidence has been shattered.

The body count is rising while the federal government dithers on the file. Statements from the government telling us they are working on it offer little more than cold comfort to the families of people murdered by offenders out on bail.

We have seen the government act swiftly on less pressing issues. It’s time they made bail and justice reform a top priority. There are no excuses left for waiting.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.