Remand numbers in Nova Scotia’s jails could soar under new law, warn experts

Just two of 10 people in Nova Scotia’s jails have been convicted of a crime, while the other eight are waiting — often for months or years — for trial. 

Legal experts warn that new “reverse-onus” legislation could drive these numbers up even more.

Bill C-14, tabled by the federal Liberal government in October, would make remanding someone — denying them bail and holding them in pre-trial custody — the default for certain charges. Instead of the prosecution having to convince the court that someone should be detained, it would be up to the accused to show why they should be released. 

“Remand rates are going to go up if this new bill gets passed,” says Emma Arnold, a lawyer with PATH Legal, a non-profit law firm in Halifax. 

“Nova Scotia already has one of the fastest growing remand populations, but there’s no reason for it. We are not the most violent or dangerous province in the country.”

Statistics Canada data released in September showed that despite having one of the lowest crime rates in the country, Nova Scotia has the third-highest rate of pre-trial incarceration. Remanded individuals now make up 79 per cent of people in Nova Scotia’s jails. 

Remanding someone is meant to protect public safety, says Sheila Wildeman, co-chair of the East Coast Prison Justice Society. But in practice, she says, it often disproportionately affects “socially vulnerable” and marginalized individuals. 

The Department of Justice’s Key Indicators report showed that Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately overrepresented in Nova Scotia’s jails — and even more so in remanded populations. 

“The police officer and the prosecutor and the judge are all making these exercises of judgment about whether to release you or hold you,” says Wildeman. “What’s triggering those risk-based apprehensions? Sometimes it’s discriminatory intuitions and intuitions that are rooted in the systemic lack of access to social determinants of health and well-being that affect marginalized communities.”

Perry Borden, chief judge of Nova Scotia’s Provincial Court, says the criminal justice system deals with crime, but does not address the underlying factors that cause someone to commit a crime.

“A large per cent of our criminal population suffers from mental health or substance abuse addictions, and courts are routinely used as a conduit to deal with that,” says Borden. 

“If we had wraparound services that we could instigate on the front end, we would likely not see as many people on remand.”

Wildeman says Nova Scotia’s rising remand rates come down to a “failure” to invest in community-based supports.

Holding people on remand costs Nova Scotia correctional facilities nearly $140,000 per day — $50.7 million per year. If that money was rerouted to community-based supports, remand rates could fall, Wildeman says. 

When a person is remanded, they are still presumed innocent until proven guilty under Canadian law. But inside Nova Scotia jails, they are treated exactly like those serving sentences, Arnold says. 

“Remand takes them away from their community and their life,” says Arnold. “They often lose their employment, and I’ve had clients whose romantic relationships have ended because of it or who haven’t seen their kids in years. And again, this is all before they are found guilty of anything, so in some cases, these people whose lives are upended will just get let out down the road and have to act like nothing happened.”

Individuals also face “dehumanizing, life-threatening jail conditions,” which make it nearly impossible to maintain their mental and physical health, says Wildeman. 

“It’s a socially stupid way to deal with a whole range of complex determinants of behaviour that are criminalized, and it’s really violent and dangerous the way it criminalizes and risks people’s lives,” says Wildeman. “Why would you do that to people? Why would you flush their lives down the toilet?”