Ford calls for more time in jail for violence against police and threats to public safety
Posted Oct 1, 2026 10:59:20 AM.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal government to increase time spent in jail when it comes to violence against frontline police officers and public safety.
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, Ford says he wants to see parole eligibility increased for anyone convicted of killing a police officer and stronger penalties for offences committed by youth against police officers that involve violence.
Under current Canadian law, anyone who kills a police officer is automatically charged with first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
Ford would like to see that limit increased to 30 years.
As well he would like to see a change in the legislation so that anyone who commits murder or discharges a firearm in a congregate setting faces an automatic first-degree murder charge while also increasing parole eligibility to two-thirds of the sentence.
“These are common-sense measures that would give police officers the tools they need when they walk into dangerous situations and when violent criminals threaten the safety of our community,” he writes, citing the recent violence in Belleville, Ont., in which Const. Jeff Smith was critically injured in an attack against a synagogue.
“We owe it to the officers who have been killed or injured. We owe it to their families. And we owe it to every police officer who puts on their uniform knowing they may not make it home at the end of their shift.”
The premier also wants a new standalone offence when it comes to violent home invasions, calling for a maximum sentence of life in prison. As well, anyone convicted for a home invasion and other related offences from the same incident should serve those sentences consecutively rather than concurrently.
Ford also wants to expand drone restrictions to cover provincial adult correctional institutions and police facilities and he wants the federal law changed to allow access to “encrypted communications.”
Earlier this year, the federal Liberals did pass a bill that implemented harsher sentences for repeat offenders, and make it harder to receive bail.
