An urgent call on the federal government to tighten bail legislation.
The provincial government is urgently asking that the Criminal Code be amended to tighten the legislation to better protect public safety and keep repeat and violent offenders off the streets.
A list of measures has been given to the federal government, with the top three demands including restoring mandatory minimum sentencing for serious crimes, removing bail availability for violent offenders, and to mandate a three-strike rule requiring pre-trial detention for repeat offenders so they are not allowed back on the street before their court date.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, says it's about public safety.
"We want the federal government to understand that we have too many examples that repeat and violent offenders are on our streets, they're keeping our communities from enjoying everything that we have a right to enjoy, and that's to live safely in our own homes and communities."
He says if someone feels they want to commit a violent offence, they'll find room in prison for them.
"We've hired over 1,500 new correctional officers, that's why we are continuing to make hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in our existing correctional facilities so that we have the resources to put more people in. And at the end of the day, it's about public safety."
Kerzner says enough is enough.
"The other provinces and territories agree with Ontario. They say it's time that the federal government realize we've had enough studies, we don't need to spend the next 10 years collecting data, we need action today."
At the end of May, the Ontario government announced it will appoint 25 new judges and hire about 190 more Crown prosecutors, victim support workers and court staff to help address ongoing court delays and case backlogs.
The premiers of all 13 provinces and territories have written two letters to the federal government calling for meaningful bail reform.