Fewer than one in five British Columbians give the province's justice system high grades, according to a new survey.
Mario Canseco of Research Co. says the low number isn't surprising, as 82 per cent of residents believe the justice system needs more resources to speed up court cases.
He says the numbers show him three things about the B.C. public: "How much they understand that the system is underfunded, that sometimes it boils down to how good your lawyer is, and some sort of significant reform is needed to make sure the justice system works in a much quicker fashion."
Seventy-four per cent of those polled said the justice system is too soft on offenders in criminal cases – a number officials say could be tied to Bill C75.
The bill went in to effect in 2019, with a goal of modernizing bail provisions and reducing delays in the justice system.
“There will always be a group of people who want tougher sentences – ‘Never let them out’ – and even flirting with the idea of the death penalty,” Canseco said.
In October, the province's attorney general told CTV News the recent reforms to bail provisions was leading to more repeat offenders.
"Bail is the rule and remand is the exception,” said Murray Rankin. “Its an unintended consequence of the reform and now we need to see if we can get them to fix the Criminal Code part of it.”
The Ministry of Attorney General referred CTV News to its November plan to get tougher on repeat offenders by revising its bail policy by requiring Crown to seek detention in cases where suspected criminals are deemed "repeat violent offenders.”
Despite the change, British Columbians’ faith in the justice system isn’t where it should be, said Canseco.
"You want to be able to say most of the residents in the province feel that the justice system is working well, and what we see right now is a lot of people placing their grades in the middle of the pack,” said Canseco