B.C.’s attorney general hopes new law would prevent further partner violence

British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma says she is hopeful that new bail legislation introduced by the federal government will prevent a repeat of the events that led to death of a Kelowna woman.

Bailey McCourt’s ex-husband James Plover was charged with second-degree murder shortly after being freed on bail following his conviction for choking someone and uttering threats.

Sharma has previously identified the case in the need for stronger legal safeguards against intimate-partner violence, and the new law would move the burden of proof to the accused to justify why they should be freed while charged with such serious assaults.

The legislation would also expand the reverse onus for bail to anyone charged with offences where violence was used, threatened or attempted, with weapons,