TORONTO — The arrest of Christopher Husbands, the alleged Eaton Centre shooter, has inadvertently lifted the veil upon one of the justice system’s dirty little secrets — the joke that a “recognizance of bail” often is.
The 23-year-old Mr. Husbands, who is charged with one count of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in the Saturday evening gunplay at the downtown mall’s busy food court, was ostensibly on “house arrest” as a condition of his bail at the time of the shooting.
Court documents show he had eight conditions attached to the bail.
Aside from the usual provisions to stay away from his alleged victim and from drugs and guns, the key one was to reside with one of his two sureties — each of whom agreed to put up $2,000 if Mr. Husbands didn’t play by the rules — at an east-end apartment “at all times seven days a week” except to go to school (there is no evidence in the documents where Mr. Husbands may have been attending school) or when in the company of either surety.
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Blatchford: Eaton Centre shooting exposes farce of bail enforcement,
