The Carney Liberals can’t be called soft on crime anymore.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister was flanked by a bevy of Mounties as he announced that his government will introduce legislation next week to reform bail and bring in tougher sentences.
The Liberals have been claiming they would get tough on crime since the early summer, but few believed they would get this tough.
The federal government is promising to:
– Introduce reverse-onus bail for major crimes;
– Allow consecutive sentencing so multiple crimes mean longer time behind bars;
– Impose harsher penalties for organized retail theft;
– And restrict conditional sentences for a number of sexual offences.
These are measures the Conservatives have been calling for over the last several years. Provincial premiers across the country, and across the political spectrum, have beencalling for tougher bail conditionsas well.
The Trudeau government brought in bail reform in 2019 that made bail the defacto condition. In their amendment to the criminal code, the law instructed judges and justices of the peace to “give primary consideration to the release of the accused at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions.”
That effectively handcuffed judges rather than the repeat violent offenders.
It’s surprising that the Liberals are going as far as they are because they’ve been defending the current system recently in the House of Commons and also voted against a Conservative motion to make bail tougher to get.
Carney sounding like Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
In making the announcement, Mark Carney was sounding an awful lot like Pierre Poilievre.
“In Canada, you should be able to wake up, get in your car, drive to work, come home, and sleep soundly at night,” Carney said.
“When laws repeatedly fail to protect those basic rights, we need new laws. Canada’s new government is taking decisive action to combat crime and build stronger communities – where Canadians can feel secure in their homes, safe in their neighbourhoods, and in control of their future.”
While the legislation has not been released, and the devil will be in the details, this plan looks to be headed in the right direction. According to a source briefed on the full plan, the legislation will redefine judicial restraint on bail and make it easier to keep repeat violent offenders behind bars for more offences than is currently allowed.
Now it is up to provincial governments to speed up the judicial process and ensure trials happen in a timely manner of months not years. Many may also need to build more jails – something Ontario is in the middle of doing.
Canada’s bail and sentencing laws are about to get a lot tougher.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney)October 16, 2025
We’re amending the Criminal Code to help keep violent criminals and repeat offenders off our streets, and we’re introducing stronger sentences for auto-theft, organised crime, and home invasion.pic.twitter.com/tdDmkqCvyj
There is no doubt that crime in Canada, serious crime, has been on the rise – a point that Conservative justice critic Larry Brock made in criticizing the bill as not going far enough.
“For a decade, Carney’s Liberals dismantled tough-on-crime laws, gutted jail sentences, and let gangs and extortionists rule our streets. The results: since 2015, violent crime is up almost 55%, the number of sexual assaults increased over 75%, gun crime surged 130% and extortion has skyrocketed 330%,” Brock said.
He said the Liberal plan was a pale imitation of the Conservative plan the Liberals just voted against. Perhaps Brock is right, we will need to see the full legislation before passing judgment.
Having said that, the Liberals are going further than most would ever have expected, and for that they need to be given credit.
