The Impact of the Supreme Court of Canada on the Law of Bail

The Supreme Court of Canada, through a series of judgments, has had a significant impact on the law of judicial interim release (or “bail”) in Canada. As will be seen, this impact has occurred in relation to the law of bail at both the trial and appellate level and includes two decisions rendered this year. In this column I intend to examine this impact by briefly reviewing the law of bail in Canada and then illustrating the significant impact of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in this area. The starting point is that in Canada, bail is entirely a creature of statute.

It is solely governed by the provisions of Canada’s Criminal Code, R.S.C 1985, c C-46 (Can.) at both the trial and appellate level. It also has constitutional status.