St. Paul's Safety Town Hall April 7th 6 PM

St. Paul's Safety Town Hall April 7th 6 PM

St. Paul’s Safety Townhall will take place on April 7^th, 6 PM – 7:30 PM at Yonge & Eglinton. At the event, constituents will have the opportunity to interact with MP Leslie Church and Police representatives from both 13 and 53 Divisions.

We want to share some information about recent federal actions that can help shape the conversation. This year our federal government has introduced several bills that will make major changes to the criminal code and has made significant investments in stepping up law enforcement. Here is some more information on actions that we are taking to address certain crimes:

• Auto-theft:

  • Budget 2025 funds hiring 1,000 new RCMP officers and 1,000 new CBSA officers to step up enforcement at ports

  • Bill C-12 provides new tools for CBSA to find stolen cars before they leave Canada

• Home invasion:

  • Bill C-14 adds reverse onus bail & consecutive sentencing for home invasions and auto-theft. The onus will now be on people alleged to have committed violent crimes like home invasion to prove why they should be released on bail, rather than the onus being on prosecutors to show why they shouldn’t

• Hate crimes and antisemitism:

  • Bill C-9 codifies the Supreme Court definition of hate, and adds new hate offences including intimidating people attempting to access places of worship and cultural centres, and willful promotion of hate through use of Nazi or terrorist symbols

• Drug trafficking:

  • Bill C-12 provides new tools for CBSA Officers to find drugs and supports the RCMP in disrupting illegal drug production

• Sexual Assault:

  • Bill C-14 adds a reverse-onus bail for sexual assault

  • Bill C-16 increases the maximum penalty for sexual assault

• Intimate Partner Violence and Deepfakes:

  • Bill C-16 creates a new offence to prohibit engaging in a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct against an intimate partner

  • Bill C-16 also expands the offence prohibiting the non-consensual distribution of intimate images to ensure that it applies to non-consensual deepfakes, and makes it illegal to threaten to distribute intimate images including deepfakes

• Youth Crime:

  • Bill C-16 creates a new offence of recruiting youth into crime

  • Bill C-14 allows the police to publish identifying information about a youth without a court order in urgent situations when the youth is at large and there is an immediate grave danger to members of the public. Also expands the legal definition of a “violent offence” for youth offenders

And here is some information on the progress of these bills through Parliament:

• Budget 2025 | Passed by the House of Commons; in the Senate

• Bill C-9: The Combatting Hate Act | Facing third (and final) vote in the House of Commons this week, after which it will go to the Senate

• Bill C-12: Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act | Passed by Parliament, soon to receive Royal Assent and become law

• Bill C-14: The Bail and Sentencing Reform Act | Passed by the House of Commons; in the Senate

• Bill C-16: Protecting Victims Act | Currently being studied by the Justice Committee

Residents of Toronto-St. Paul’s can register at https://lesliechurch.libparl.ca/events/.

We hope to see you there!