An Ontario Superior Court judge has suspended the province’s new cash bail requirements, granting an injunction Monday that pauses the rules while a constitutional challenge moves through the courts, Global News reported.
Justice William Chalmers ruled that the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA) had shown the rules could cause “irreparable harm” if allowed to remain in force. His seven-page decision orders the requirements temporarily suspended ahead of a full hearing on their constitutionality.
The rules at the centre of the fight took effect August 17 under the Ford government’s Keeping Criminals Behind Bars Act, 2026 and the Protect Ontario Through Safer Streets and Stronger Communities Act, 2025. They required anyone accused of a crime and granted bail to pay a cash security deposit — in cash, money order or bank draft — within two business days of release. Previously, an accused person only had to forfeit that money if they breached their release conditions and a court ordered payment. Critics said the upfront-payment requirement effectively priced bail out of reach for lower-income defendants regardless of their risk to public safety.
The CCLA and CLA argued in court that Ontario’s rules intrude on federal jurisdiction over criminal law and violate the right to reasonable bail guaranteed under section 11(e) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The two groups appeared before the court last Thursday seeking to have the rules struck down as unconstitutional, and asked the judge to pause them in the meantime while that broader challenge proceeds.
In a joint statement welcoming Monday’s ruling, the CCLA and CLA said: “Our organizations argued that the province does not have the power under the Constitution to remove judicial discretion to decide the terms of bail or to violate the s. 11(e) Charter right to reasonable bail.”
Ontario’s attorney general did not immediately respond to Global News’ request for comment on the ruling.
The bail rules were part of a broader push by Premier Doug Ford’s government to toughen bail conditions for repeat and violent offenders, a campaign that included public criticism of federal bail reform efforts and calls for stricter release conditions following a string of high-profile cases involving accused people out on bail. The province has framed the cash-deposit requirement as a way to make bail conditions more consequential and to support enforcement against repeat offending.
Monday’s injunction does not resolve that underlying dispute — it simply keeps the new rules on hold until a judge rules on whether they are constitutional. That means bail across Ontario reverts, for now, to the system in place before August 17, where money is only forfeited if release conditions are broken. No date has yet been set for the full constitutional hearing.
— with files from Global News (Isaac Callan and Colin D’Mello) and The Canadian Press
