An Alberta judge, in a high-profile case that has heightened debate about Canada’s bail system, released a man accused of sexually abusing three girls without providing any reasons for his decision, new court documents show.
The case came to national attention when the Lethbridge Police Service announced in January that they had rearrested 50-year-old Skye Atoa a half-hour after his release on bail. The police alleged at the time that they had found Mr. Atoa near a young female in a store’s perfume section. His bail conditions required that he have no contact with anyone under 18.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith described the case as a “nightmare” and pointed to Mr. Atoa’s rearrest as she repeated her long-standing calls for tougher bail laws.
Skye Atoa was rearrested half an hour after he was released on bail.Lethbridge Police
A 24-page transcript shows Justice F.C. Fisher of the Alberta Court of Justice granted Mr. Atoa bail without providing reasons or addressing concerns raised by a Crown prosecutor. Nowhere in the transcript does the judge explain why he had decided to release Mr. Atoa or respond to the Crown’s arguments that releasing him would pose a risk to public safety and confidence in the justice system.
The Globe and Mail obtained the transcript through an online request form from the Alberta Court of Justice.
Judges are required by long-standing legal precedent to give some level of reasoning for their decisions, in order to ensure openness and accountability. Under federal law, Mr. Atoa bore the legal burden of showing why he should be released, because he was on a community service order for a previous conviction when he was charged.
The court transcript of Mr. Atoa’s 46-minute hearing offers a rare glimpse into the workings of the bail process, whose perceived public-safety failures have become a central issue for the Canadian justice system.
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Calls for tighter conditions on granting bail have been growing louder in recent years. Last year, Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized “bleeding hearts” on the bench who grant bail. On Monday he said his government is exploring the possibility of livestreaming bail hearings to increase public scrutiny of them, a practice experts said would violate the law.
The federal Liberal government tabled legislation in October to make bail laws tougher, after passing a bail law in 2023 that critics said fell short of addressing concerns from the premiers and police chiefs about alleged violent offenders being released.
What goes on in bail hearings usually receives little public scrutiny because most of what happens, including a judge’s reasons for release, is automatically subject to a publication ban, if the accused asks for one. Senior court officials confirmed that the only publication ban imposed in Mr. Atoa’s case was on the identities of witnesses and complainants.
During the bail hearing on Jan. 12, the Crown prosecutor alleged that police found all three girls in Mr. Atoa’s apartment after the group homes where they lived reported them missing. A sexual-assault charge involving a fourth complainant, an adult woman, was also considered during the same bail hearing.
After prosecutor Darren Maloney urged the judge to detain Mr. Atoa, Mr. Atoa’s lawyer, Richard Muenz, questioned the credibility of the complainants. For instance, he said a 14-year-old appeared to have made her allegations when she was on drugs, and the adult complainant, a sex worker, may have had a financial motivation. He said Mr. Atoa had only a minor record for a 2022 theft, for which he received the community service order.
Justice Fisher announced his intention to release Mr. Atoa during Mr. Muenz’s submissions.
The judge did not discuss the “reverse onus” on Mr. Atoa, which required him to show why he should be released, rather than putting the burden on the prosecution to prove the case for detention. In reverse-onus cases, detention is the starting point, according to the federal justice department’s website. Expanding the reverse onus to more offences was at the heart of the federal government’s attempt to rewrite bail laws in 2023, and is one of the features of a new proposed bail law now before Parliament.
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While the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to reasonable bail, federal law provides three grounds for detention: to ensure an accused shows up in court; to protect public safety; and to safeguard the justice system’s reputation.
Mr. Maloney cited public safety and the system’s reputation in urging detention. Of Mr. Atoa, he said, “It appears he’s targeting vulnerable, drug-addicted females.”
The transcript contains allegations that haven’t been tested in a trial. In an e-mail to The Globe on Monday, Mr. Muenz said his client’s position is that he met the girls while he was in hospital, and tried to find help for them.
He “contacted his recovery coach in an effort to locate support or accommodation for them. There was no attempt to conceal their presence from authorities or to evade police.”
Mr. Muenz added that his client “presented a viable release plan and does not have a record for offences of this nature,” and that a bail hearing is not a determination of guilt or innocence.
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Police patrol officers had been looking for the 14-year-old after she was reported missing from a group home on Dec. 16. On Dec. 19, a social worker and a police officer knocked at the door of a high-rise apartment. Mr. Atoa came to the door and falsely told them he was the girl’s father and would return her to the group home, Mr. Maloney told Justice Fisher.
Instead, Mr. Maloney told the court, police and the worker went inside and found the girl naked, covered only by a coat, on a mattress with injuries on her arms and appearing to be in medical distress. On the way to hospital, she told a social worker she had been forced to use drugs, and had nearly overdosed. She also said multiple males had sexually assaulted her, Mr. Maloney said.
The 14-year-old, Mr. Maloney said, “expressed feelings of sadness, pain, and neglect.”
When multiple officers went later that evening to make an arrest, no one answered their knocks at the door. At 4 a.m., they obtained a judicial warrant to enter the apartment, where in the course of arresting Mr. Atoa they found two other girls, a 15-year-old and 16-year-old, Mr. Maloney said. The 15-year-old said she witnessed Mr. Atoa giving the 14-year-old fentanyl through laced pipes. She said she’d tried to let the police in but Mr. Atoa stopped her, the prosecutor said.
The 16-year-old said the 14-year-old was struggling with substance use and indicated Mr. Atoa was giving that 14-year-old drugs in return for sexual favours, according to the Crown.
Mr. Muenz replied that the allegations from the 14-year-old were untrustworthy and said that she was under the influence of drugs at the time.
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Under the release plan he presented to Justice Fisher, Mr. Atoa was to reside for about 10 days in the “stabilization unit” of a local shelter, the Lethbridge Wellness and Resource Centre, and then be transferred to a longer-term treatment bed when one was available.
Justice Fisher set down several release conditions, such as living at the wellness centre, not using drugs, and staying away from the complainants and any sex workers.
After redacting witness and complainant names, The Globe shared the transcript with two legal academics and a criminal-defence lawyer.
Kathleen Mahoney, a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law, said the hearing raises questions of gender bias, and whether the complainants were deemed worthy of protection.
She said Mr. Atoa’s alleged conduct was predatory toward vulnerable females, and he should have been detained to protect the public and prevent confidence in the justice system from being undermined.
“Child sexual abuse is considered one of the most serious offences under the Criminal Code. In addition, this case involves multiple victims, corroborated sexual exploitation, and abuse of addiction and economic vulnerability. This makes the alleged behaviour the most blameworthy of sexual offences.”
She also said there was no discussion of how the release conditions could be enforced.
Daphne Gilbert, a professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, said what stood out to her is that there was almost no discussion of public safety. “The Crown describes predatory behaviour – for example that [Mr. Atoa] approached a young alleged victim at the library. The allegation that he provided drugs to minors and encouraged them to use is especially concerning given the victims lived in group homes and are therefore very vulnerable.”
Boris Bytensky, a Toronto-based lawyer and former president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, said while some judges would have detained Mr. Atoa, the decision to release him was “clearly understandable.”
“While the allegations were certainly serious, there was no obvious reason for the court to conclude that Mr. Atoa presented as an ongoing risk to young women, if the treatment and residence plan contemplated was carried through.”