MP Caputo introduces bill C-274 (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

PRIVATE MEMBERS BILL

‘Caputo’s bill won’t target prolific offenders’; Kamloops lawyers

May 20, 2022 | 4:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops’ local MP has introduced a private members bill in the House of Commons. Frank Caputo believes bill C-274 will help deal with prolific offender by imposing presumptive detention to individuals charged with multiple indictable offences.

“I’m confident this bill will help Canadians in a balanced and nuanced way,” said Caputo on Thursday in the House of Commons.

If adopted by the commons, Caputo’s bill would remand any offender into custody if they were charged with three indictable offences, totalling five years in person of more.

“We are targeting the most serious offenders who are committing the most serious crimes. When you talk about penalties of five years or more, you aren’t talking about breaches, you are talking about indictable offences like break and enter into a dwelling or business, robbery, serious violence, gun offences, serious drug offences,” Caputo told CFJC News on Friday (May 20).

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Prolific offenders are an issue in Kamloops. Recently, RCMP Superintendent Syd Lecky told CFJC News, that a small portion of the criminals in this city are committing the vast majority of the crimes. However, speaking with local lawyers, they don’t believe the bill will target that group.

“That’s not a problem,” said defence lawyer and former Crown counsel Iain Currie. “None of the prolifics in Kamloops — no prolific offender that I’ve dealt with in my career in the criminal justice system —has met the criteria in Frank’s bill. It’s just not a problem.”

“We have a system in place where a person is detained if they are a flight risk, if there is a significant likelihood that they are going to commit other offences, or if the offences are so serious that they must be detained, because if they were released if would undermine the confidence of the public in our justice system. Those are the grounds, those are the three grounds that a person should be detained by. And it happens all the time,” said defence lawyer Jay Michi.

While it was agreed that Caputo’s heart was in the right place in his attempt to deal with repeat offenders, both mental health and drug problems need to be fixed first according to Currie and Michi.

“We need to be addressing it on a systemic level, we’ve got a shortage of treatment beds, we have an underfunded healthcare system, we don’t have a comprehensive network, all of our system are siloed. Our court system our hospitals they are not integrated,” added Michi.

Private members bills from the opposition benches are generally slow to move through the House of Commons, but Caputo is holding out hope it’s called.

“This bill really is a response to what has been asked for by the people of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo. My job is to listen to them and react,” said Caputo.

While the bill has been introduced on the House of Commons floor, the bill currently resides outside the order of precedence, meaning it could still be a while before Caputo can debate his bill.