Bail Lawyer in Markham. York Region Bail Hearings

Home › Markham Criminal Defence › Markham Bail Lawyer

Reviewed by Fadi Matthew Kazandji, Founding Partner, Kazandji Law · Serving Markham & York Region

A Markham bail lawyer gets people released, fast, and on conditions they can actually live with. When someone is arrested in Markham and held by York Regional Police, they must be brought before a justice within 24 hours where one is available, and the hearing happens at the Newmarket courthouse (50 Eagle St. W.), the Ontario Court of Justice location serving York Region. What happens in that first hearing shapes the entire case: release or detention, and the conditions that will govern home, work and family for months. Call 647-588-3234 now, bail work starts before the hearing, not at it.

Arrest to bail hearing: the first 24 hours

After an arrest, police make the first release decision themselves, many people are released from the station with conditions. If they hold you instead, the Criminal Code requires that you be brought before a justice without unreasonable delay and in any event within 24 hours, where a justice is available. That clock does not pause for weekends: the Ontario Court of Justice runs weekend and statutory-holiday (WASH) bail courts, and under the OCJ’s current bail practice direction, contested bail hearings generally proceed by video unless the court directs otherwise, sureties can usually attend remotely too.

Duty counsel from Legal Aid Ontario are present at bail court and can act for those who financially qualify. But the difference between an adjournment, a bad release order and a clean one is usually preparation, reaching family, lining up a surety, building a plan, and that work has to start the moment you call, not when the case is reached in the list.

One more reality: an adjourned or lost bail hearing means custody, and everything about defending the case gets harder from inside. The first hearing is the one to win.

What actually happens in bail court that day

Newmarket’s bail court runs a docket, not a schedule, your matter is called when it is reached. Under the OCJ’s current bail practice direction, accused persons generally appear by video from the police station or custody, and sureties can usually attend remotely as well; the direction exists precisely because timely bail hearings are a constitutional expectation.

When the matter is called, the Crown states a position. If the plan presented is strong, the Crown may consent to release on negotiated terms, many of the best bail outcomes are consents engineered before court through counsel. If not, a contested hearing runs: the Crown outlines the allegations, proposed sureties testify about their plan and supervision, and counsel argues the three grounds. Bail hearings run on synopses and surety evidence rather than full trial proof, which cuts both ways, and is exactly why preparation and presentation carry so much weight.

Three outcomes are possible: release on terms, detention (which we attack by review), or, the quiet killer, an adjournment because the plan wasn’t ready. Every adjournment is another night in custody. The single most valuable thing family can do is get counsel moving immediately, so the plan is ready the first time the matter is called.

Release is the default, and the ladder is law

For all but a short list of offences, the Criminal Code starts from release: the justice must make a release order without conditions unless the Crown shows cause for something more. From there, the Code sets out an escalating ladder of release forms, and requires that no more onerous form be imposed unless the less onerous ones have been shown inadequate. The Supreme Court in R. v. Antic (2017) said this ladder “must be adhered to strictly.”

Two points people get wrong. First, cash bail is exceptional in Canada, the Code itself favours a promise to pay over a deposit where the money would be recoverable, and Antic confirmed cash should be rare. Second, a surety is not automatic: the Code permits surety release only where it is the least onerous form available on the facts, which is an argument your lawyer makes, not a default the court assumes.

Conditions: the fine print that runs your life

Release orders carry conditions: reporting to police, staying within a territory, notifying changes of address or work, no contact with named people, no-go zones, surrendering a passport, and anything else the justice considers necessary for safety or attendance. For a list of violence and weapons offences, a weapons-prohibition condition is mandatory unless the justice finds it unnecessary. In assault and domestic files these conditions commonly decide where you can live and whether you see your children, which is why they are fought over at the hearing, not accepted by reflex.

The law is on your side here more than people realize. In R. v. Zora (2020), the Supreme Court held that bail conditions must be minimal, necessary, reasonable and linked to the specific risks in s. 515(10), not a standard package stapled to every release. Overbroad conditions are challengeable, and conditions that set someone up to fail (a curfew that conflicts with shift work, a blanket no-contact where children are shared) are exactly what variations are for.

The common conditions, one by one

• Reporting, attending a police station on a set schedule. Manageable, but it must fit work shifts; we negotiate frequency.
• Residence and territorial limits, living at a stated address, staying within a region, sometimes curfews; in serious cases, strict residence terms that function like house rules. Address changes need approval, not apologies after the fact.
• No contact, with complainants and named witnesses, and it means indirect contact too: messages through friends, likes and comments, family relaying words. In partner cases this is the condition that ends up mattering most, see our Markham domestic assault page for how it interacts with home and children.
• No-go locations, the complainant’s home and workplace, sometimes whole plazas or streets. Map them literally; “I was just driving past” is how breaches happen.
• Weapons conditions, mandatory for a list of violence and weapons offences unless the justice finds them unnecessary. Firearms out of the residence, licences surrendered.
• Passport and travel, surrender and no-departure terms in flight-risk cases.

Every one of these is negotiable in scope at the hearing and fixable by variation afterwards. The standard is Zora’s: minimal, necessary, and tied to an actual risk, not boilerplate.

The only three grounds for detention

A justice can only detain you on one of three grounds set out in s. 515(10):

• Primary, attendance. Will you show up to court? Ties to the community, employment, family and a stable address answer this.
• Secondary, protection of the public. A substantial likelihood of reoffending or interfering with witnesses. Supervision plans and conditions answer this.
• Tertiary, confidence in the administration of justice. Reserved for cases where the apparent strength of the Crown’s case, the gravity of the offence and its circumstances (a firearm, for instance) would make release shock the public. The Supreme Court in R. v. St-Cloud (2015) confirmed this ground is not rare or exceptional, but it is measured through the eyes of a reasonable, properly informed member of the public, not a panicked one.

Every bail plan we build is aimed at these grounds specifically, because they are the only things the Crown is allowed to argue.

When the onus flips to you

Normally the Crown must justify detention. In defined situations the burden reverses, you must show why release is justified. The main ones: being charged with an indictable offence while already on release for another; a list of firearms offences; alleged intimate-partner violence where you have a prior IPV conviction or discharge; repeat violence with weapons (a new weapon-violence charge within five years of a prior one, where both carry 10-year-plus maximums); breaches of release conditions; and the most serious drug offences (trafficking-type CDSA charges punishable by life).

Several of these, including the repeat-weapons category and the expansion of the firearms list, came in with Parliament’s 2023 bail reform (Bill C-48), in force since January 2024. A reverse-onus hearing is winnable, but it is a different exercise: the release plan has to be airtight, the sureties strong, and the risk answers concrete. If your situation touches any of these categories, say so in the first phone call, it changes how we prepare.

Sureties: what they sign up for

A surety is a person, usually family or a close friend, who acts as the accused’s supervisor in the community: making sure they attend court and obey every condition. The surety signs the release order and pledges a dollar amount. In Ontario the pledge is normally exactly that, a promise, not cash up front; money is actually deposited only in some cases.

If the accused breaches, the surety can be called on to pay what they pledged, there is a forfeiture hearing first (with at least 10 days’ notice), and a judge decides whether they pay all, part or none of it. Courts assess sureties for financial means, character, background and real ability to supervise; and it is against the law to accept a fee for acting as one.

What makes a surety persuasive is specificity: they know the allegations, they have a concrete supervision plan (who lives where, who drives to court, what happens about work), they understand the conditions, and they know their duty is to call the police if it goes wrong. We prepare sureties to testify before the hearing, because an unprepared surety is how strong plans lose.

How bail hearings are actually won

A bail hearing is a mini-trial with the case’s momentum at stake, and it is won with a release plan that answers the three grounds head-on:

• Address and structure, where the accused will live, with whom, and what the daily routine looks like.
• Supervision, the right surety (or sureties), prepared and credible, with pledge amounts that are meaningful for the household.
• Risk answers, no-contact logistics, weapons out of the house, counselling or treatment started where it helps, employment continuity.
• Realistic conditions proposed by the defence, offering a sensible package is often what moves a Crown from opposing release to consenting.

The wrong move is walking into bail court unprepared to “see what happens.” Detention orders and unworkable conditions both take months to unwind, preparation on day one is cheaper than a bail review on day forty.

Murder and the other s. 469 offences

For a short list of offences, most importantly murder, an Ontario Court justice cannot grant bail at all. Release can only come from a Superior Court judge, the onus is on the accused to show cause, and the application is a substantial, evidence-driven proceeding. The Superior Court sits in the same Newmarket courthouse. If your family is facing this, the preparation standard is a different order of magnitude, start immediately.

Breaches: how bail collapses

Failing to comply with a release condition is its own hybrid offence (s. 145), punishable by up to two years, and it detonates the existing bail. On a breach allegation the Crown can apply to cancel the release order; once cancelled, the accused must show cause all over again, this time as a reverse-onus, with a fresh charge on the record. Future bail on anything gets harder.

One protection worth knowing: the Supreme Court in Zora held that breach is not an absolute-liability trap, the Crown must prove you knowingly or recklessly breached, not merely that a condition was technically broken. Forgotten-wallet breaches and impossible-condition breaches have defences. But the practical rule stands: treat every condition as strict, and fix unworkable ones through a variation before they break, never after.

Living on bail without blowing it

Release is the beginning, not the end, most bail disasters happen in the months after the hearing, not at it. The discipline that keeps a case healthy:

• Treat conditions as literal. Read them again a week later; people breach conditions they misremembered, not conditions they defied.
• Keep proof of compliance, reporting visits, address notifications, program attendance. If an allegation of breach ever comes, your records answer it.
• If the complainant reaches out, do not respond, screenshot it, save it, tell your lawyer. Their contact is not your permission.
• If a condition stops working, vary it, first. New job with a conflicting curfew, a move, shared childcare: these are variation applications, not judgment calls to make alone.
• Calendar every court date and confirm with counsel the day before. A missed date is a new offence and a warrant.
• Stay in touch with your surety, they are accountable for you; make their job easy.

Bail compliance is also quiet evidence: months of clean living under conditions is one of the most persuasive facts available at sentencing or resolution, and it is entirely within your control.

Bail denied, or conditions unliveable? Reviews and variations

A detention order is not the end. The accused can apply to a judge for a bail review at any time before trial, typically with a stronger record: new sureties, a better plan, changed circumstances. (The Crown has a mirror-image right to review a release.) Reviews are argued in the Superior Court on a proper application record, which is why the groundwork matters.

Short of a full review, variations fix conditions that aren’t working, residence changes, contact carve-outs for children or a shared workplace, curfew adjustments for employment. Where the Crown consents, variations can be efficient; where it doesn’t, we litigate them. Living for a year under conditions that don’t fit your life is not a neutral event, it is often what breaks cases and people. Fix the conditions.

If it’s your family member in custody: do these things now

• Call counsel immediately, before the first bail appearance, not after an adjournment.
• Identify potential sureties, people with stable lives who know the accused well, and roughly what they could responsibly pledge.
• Nail down the address, where the accused will live if released, and who else lives there.
• Gather the practical proof, employment details, school enrolment, treatment or counselling contacts if relevant.
• Think through the risk answers, if the allegation involves a partner, where does the accused stay instead? If weapons are in the house, how do they come out today?
• Be reachable, sureties may need to attend (usually by video) the same day.

Why Kazandji Law for a Markham bail matter

Bail is the most time-sensitive work in criminal law, and it rewards lawyers who treat it that way: sureties reached and prepared the same day, a release plan drafted before court, realistic conditions proposed to the Crown, and the hearing run, when it must be run, like the mini-trial it is. Our criminal defence lawyers, licensed by the Law Society of Ontario, handle bail hearings, reviews and variations at the Newmarket courthouse for clients across Markham and York Region, and we coordinate bail strategy with the defence of the underlying charge, see our Markham criminal defence hub for how the whole case runs.

If someone you love has been arrested, call 647-588-3234 now. The consultation is free, and in bail the hours genuinely matter.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly does a bail hearing happen?

If police hold you after arrest, you must be brought before a justice without unreasonable delay and in any event within 24 hours where a justice is available, including weekends, through the OCJ’s weekend and statutory-holiday bail courts.

Is release really the default?

Yes. For most offences the justice must release without conditions unless the Crown shows cause, and any stricter form of release must be justified step by step up the ladder (R. v. Antic, 2017 SCC 27).

Do we need cash for bail?

Usually no. Ontario bail normally runs on promises to pay and surety pledges, actual deposits are the exception, and the Supreme Court has said cash bail should be rare.

What is a surety?

A person who supervises the accused in the community, signs the release order and pledges an amount they may have to pay if the accused breaches. Courts assess their means, character and ability to supervise, and charging a fee to act as a surety is illegal.

Can only certain things justify keeping someone in jail?

Yes, three grounds: risk of not attending court, substantial likelihood of reoffending or interfering with justice, and public confidence in the justice system (s. 515(10)).

What is a reverse onus?

Situations where the accused, not the Crown, must justify release, including offending while on bail, listed firearms offences, repeat intimate-partner violence, repeat weapons violence within five years, and the most serious drug charges.

What happens on a murder charge?

Bail for murder and the other s. 469 offences can only be granted by a Superior Court judge, and the onus is on the accused. The Superior Court sits in the same Newmarket courthouse.

What if bail is denied?

You can apply to a judge for a bail review at any time before trial, usually with a strengthened plan, new sureties or changed circumstances.

What happens if conditions are breached?

Breach is a separate offence (up to 2 years), the release order can be cancelled, and the accused must show cause for release all over again. The Crown must prove the breach was knowing or reckless (R. v. Zora, 2020 SCC 14).

Can bail conditions be changed later?

Yes, variations fix residence, contact and curfew terms that aren’t working, by consent where possible or before a judge where not. Never “informally”, that is a breach.

Does the 24-hour rule include weekends and holidays?

Yes, the Ontario Court of Justice runs weekend and statutory-holiday (WASH) bail courts, so an arrest on a Friday night does not mean waiting until Monday.

Will the accused appear in person?

Usually not at the bail stage, under the OCJ’s bail practice direction, accused persons generally appear by video, and sureties can typically attend remotely as well.

This page provides general legal information about bail in Ontario and is not legal advice. The law changes and every case is different; for advice about your specific situation, contact a lawyer. Contacting Kazandji Law does not create a solicitor-client relationship.