One is the accused getaway driver for a recent Toronto murder attempt. Another allegedly pistol-whipped and Tasered two in Ottawa over a drug debt.
A third was allegedly involved in a Toronto strip mall shooting. A growing number of suspects arrested on serious criminal charges have been ordered released from custody in recent weeks by judges concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in Canada’s prisons. “These are extraordinary, dire times,” a judge wrote Monday in a decision ordering the release of a man accused of firing a bullet through his ex-girlfriend’s apartment window in Hamilton, Ont.
Although the courts have effectively shut down due to the pandemic, they have heard from detainees arguing they should be released from custody because