Ontario Taking Tough-on-Crime Approach to Protect Communities from Criminals

The Ontario government is proposing changes to improve public safety by getting tough on crime and putting violent, repeat offenders behind bars. The proposed changes, including new legislation to be introduced later this week, would strengthen the courts’ ability to deal with serious crimes by streamlining the judicial selection process and allocating additional judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, as well as creating dedicated prosecution teams for serious crimes.

“Our government is protecting Ontario communities by cracking down on criminals in our communities,” said Attorney General Doug Downey. “Specialized prosecution teams will be laser focused on holding offenders accountable, while stronger and more efficient courts will support victims of crime and keep our communities safe.”

To support the government’s goal of getting tough on crime and ensuring violent, repeat offenders remain behind bars, Ontario will introduce proposed changes that would streamline the judicial appointments process. These changes include a new pool-based recommendation process for judicial positions that would allow the government to speed up appointments to the Ontario Court of Justice. These changes would also require the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee to consider criteria set out by the Attorney General when reviewing and evaluating judicial candidates.

Ontario will also allocate 17 additional judges to the Ontario Court of Justice to help the court keep pace with a growing number of complex cases and address the existing backlog of criminal cases.

Ontario will also strengthen its ability to prosecute serious crimes, including through the introduction of a new cybercrime and cryptocurrency prosecution team that will support police investigations and prosecute major cybercrime cases. In addition, the province is expanding its dedicated guns and gangs units in targeted regions of the province to bolster border security by addressing the impact of illegal firearms coming into Canada. The Provincial Gun and Gang Support Unit that provides early advice to police investigations has also been made permanent.

“We know that crime no longer happens just on the streets, but in the digital world as well, that’s why our government is taking decisive action to bolster prosecution of these criminals,” said Associate Attorney General Michael Tibollo. “Human traffickers, drug dealers and illegal firearm sellers who operate on the dark web will have nowhere to hide as the cybercrime and cryptocurrency prosecution team build cases against them.”

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