Prime Minister Mark Carney during the Crime Announcement and media availability at the RCMP Toronto airport detachment in Mississauga, on October 16, 2025. Le premier ministre Mark Carney fait une annonce sur la criminalité et tient un point de presse au détachement de la GRC de l’aéroport de Toronto à Mississauga, le 16 octobre 2025.
OTTAWA — The federal government’s new Bail and Sentencing Reform Act is now in force, bringing tougher bail rules for repeat violent offenders and organized crime suspects, along with stiffer sentencing provisions for serious violent crimes.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the legislation has taken effect, saying it is intended to make Canadian communities safer by making it harder for repeat violent offenders to obtain bail.
“If a violent or repeat offender commits a crime, they should have to prove to the court why they can be released on bail,” Carney said.
“We introduced the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act to make that the law in Canada, to make your communities safer. Today it comes into force.”
The legislation amends the Criminal Code in two key areas by tightening Canada’s bail laws and increasing penalties for serious and violent offences.
The act forms part of the federal government’s broader public safety agenda, which also includes new measures to strengthen border security, combat organized crime and fentanyl trafficking, expand policing resources, modernize investigative powers for law enforcement, strengthen protections for victims and address hate-motivated crime.
The government says changes to Canada’s immigration and border laws will provide law enforcement agencies with additional tools to combat transnational organized crime, illegal fentanyl and illicit financing.
Ottawa has also pledged to hire more personnel to strengthen federal policing efforts targeting organized crime, cybercrime and threats to national security.
Additional legislation aimed at combating hate would strengthen protections for places of worship, schools and community centres while expanding measures targeting hate-motivated crime.
The government is also advancing reforms through the Protecting Victims Act, which it says will strengthen protections for victims of sexual violence, gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, while introducing additional safeguards for children.
Separately, Ottawa has introduced legislation to modernize lawful access laws, giving police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service updated tools to investigate crimes committed through digital communications and online networks.
The government says Canada’s laws must keep pace with evolving technology and increasingly sophisticated criminal activity.
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