Bail hearings in Ontario

Release from the station, or a hearing

After an arrest, police decide one of two things. Either they release you from the station themselves, usually on an undertaking with conditions, or they hold you for a bail hearing before a justice of the peace or a judge.

In Toronto, bail hearings are heard at 2201 Finch Avenue West, which stayed the adult bail centre when criminal matters moved to 10 Armoury Street in 2023.

The hearing has to happen without unreasonable delay. That sounds protective, and it’s, but it also means there’s very little time to organise the things that win bail. It’s why the call to us should happen immediately rather than the following week.

What the court is deciding

Canadian law starts from the position that an accused person should be released, and released on the least onerous terms, unless the Crown shows cause why detention is justified. Detention is justified on 3 statutory grounds:

• Primary ground. Whether detention is necessary to make sure you attend court.
• Secondary ground. Whether detention is necessary for the protection or safety of the public, which takes in a substantial likelihood of reoffending or of interfering with the administration of justice.
• Tertiary ground. Whether detention is necessary to maintain confidence in the administration of justice, having regard to the strength of the case, the gravity of the offence and the sentence in prospect.

On certain charges the onus reverses. For murder, for some firearms and trafficking offences, and where the alleged offence was committed while already on release, it’s the accused who must show why detention is not justified. Reverse-onus hearings are harder. They are contested all the same, and they are still won, though only where the groundwork has been done.

Sureties: who they are and what they risk

A surety is a person who comes to court, pledges an amount of money, and undertakes to supervise you in the community and to bring you back to court if you breach.

A good surety is generally someone with no criminal record, stable circumstances, a real and demonstrable ability to supervise you day to day, and an amount they could genuinely afford to lose. They will be questioned in court about their finances, their relationship to you and their understanding of the allegations, and we make sure none of it comes as a surprise to them.

This page is the law. If a hearing is already scheduled and you are deciding whether to bring counsel to it, what we do at a bail hearing sets out the practical side: what we need from you tonight, and what happens at the courthouse.

In most cases the money is pledged rather than deposited, so nothing is paid up front. The pledge is enforceable, though, if you breach your conditions.

If you’re supporting somebody in custody: find potential sureties immediately and get their details to us. It’s the single most useful thing a family member can do.

The plan of release

Bail is not won by argument alone. It’s won by putting a concrete, credible plan in front of the court: where you’ll live, who will supervise you, what your work or schooling is, what treatment or counselling is in place if that’s relevant, and what conditions you’re prepared to accept.

Proposing sensible conditions yourself beats having onerous ones imposed on you. A plan built properly answers the court’s concerns before the Crown gets to raise them.

Changing conditions after release

Conditions can be varied on the consent of the Crown, or by application to the court where consent is not forthcoming. This matters most in domestic matters, where a no-contact or residence condition frequently removes someone from their home and from daily contact with their children within hours of a phone call, before any court has heard evidence.

That situation drives a great many guilty pleas that would not otherwise have been entered. It should be dealt with by application, promptly. Not endured for months, and certainly not settled informally with the complainant, which is itself a breach.

See our domestic assault page for how these matters typically run.

If bail is refused

A detention order is not the end of the process. A bail review can be brought in the Superior Court, particularly where circumstances have materially changed: a new surety, a residential treatment bed, or a Crown case that looks weaker once disclosure has arrived.

Detention also has strategic consequences worth understanding: it accelerates trial scheduling, and time served in pre-trial custody is credited at an enhanced rate against any eventual sentence.