Greenwood Law principal Jessyca Greenwood, Vice President of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA), spoke to CBC News about Ontario’s new mandatory cash bail rules after a Superior Court judge released an accused person on bail without ordering an up-front cash deposit.
A Milton Judge Declines to Order Cash Bail
Under provincial rules that took effect on Monday, August 17, 2026, people granted bail in Ontario are required to hand over a cash security deposit within two business days of release. Previously, an accused person or their sureties only had to forfeit a pledged amount if the accused breached their conditions and a court ordered payment.
Days after the rules came into force, a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a woman in Milton on an $11,000 pledge and a promise to pay, declining to require the up-front deposit the province’s new framework contemplates. The decision drew immediate attention as an early test of how the courts will treat the new regime.
Where Federal and Provincial Bail Rules Collide
The Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) have filed a constitutional challenge to the new rules in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and are seeking an injunction to pause them until the matter is decided.
Speaking to CBC News, Jessyca Greenwood set out the core of the associations’ position. Bail and criminal procedure fall under federal jurisdiction, and the Criminal Code already gives a justice discretion over whether to order a security deposit. Where a provincial rule conflicts with federal criminal law, the federal law prevails, the principle practitioners know as federal paramountcy. Requiring payment as a condition of release, she noted, is unfair to accused persons who do not have the means: those who cannot pay may remain in custody despite the presumption of innocence and the right to reasonable bail protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is not the first time Jessyca has spoken publicly on the subject; she previously weighed in on Ontario’s cash bail proposal when it was first floated.
