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A campaign assault on the bail system by Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory has accomplished the rare feat of uniting both the prosecution and defence bar against his claims.

Even hard-line police advocates are having trouble defending Mr. Tory's claims as well as the targets he has identified in a series of recent commercials and speeches.

Mr. Tory has accused Ontario prosecutors of practising a "catch-and-release" policy when it comes to bail. He has also implied that soft provincial government policies are at fault for seven of 10 murder suspects in Toronto in 2006 having been out on bail, on probation or "subject to another court order."

While the seven of 10 figure is mostly agreed upon, Mr. Tory's use of the phrase "catch and release" is what has drawn the most fire.

"Unfortunately, these things are out of the control of the province," said Bruce Miller, chief administrative officer of the Police Association of Ontario. "From our perspective, there is a catch-and-release policy - but it is at the federal end. These issues need to be addressed federally."

Lawyers for both the Crown and defence accuse Mr. Tory of clouding the fact that bail decisions are made by judges or justices of the peace - not government prosecutors - and that obtaining bail is far from being a pushover.

James Chaffe, president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association, alleged that Mr. Tory has misled the public and is "badly misinformed."

"What he [Mr. Tory] is saying is completely unfair," agreed Gary Clewley, a lawyer who has represented the Toronto Police Association. "Bail is hard and complicated. The only risk-free situation is to detain everybody. To say the Crowns practise catch-and-release is unfair."

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Tory acknowledged that JPs, judges and federal parole officials make the release decisions, but he insisted that the origin of the problem lies in provincial Crown attorneys who negotiate soft plea bargains in the first place, and who fail to take bail violations seriously.

"I'm not blaming the Crown attorneys," he said. "I think they are doing what they think is best. I won't call into question how they exercise their discretion because, frankly, I don't know. But I think the Attorney-General should give them, in some of these instances, less discretion. I think we're being too lax in these deals and, in many cases, because of pressure that's on Crown attorneys to just get rid of these cases."

Statistics compiled by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services suggest that the system is anything but soft on bail. The number of inmates in jail awaiting trial has seen "a dramatic increase" in the past 10 years, said Stuart McGetrick, a ministry spokesman.

Two-thirds of the 8,588 inmates in provincial jails at any given time last year were on pretrial remand - a stark contrast to the situation a decade ago, when only one-third of the 7,789 inmates in provincial jails were on remand.

And a Canadian Association of Police Boards paper in 2004 found that the average remand count had risen 85 per cent since 1990/1991, causing immense stress on police lock-ups and detention centres. Over the same period, the sentenced population had decreased by 22 per cent.

Reid Rusonik, a Toronto criminal lawyer, said it's important to know what offence a person on bail or parole was charged with before suggesting that a murder might have been prevented if they were behind bars.

"On bail and probation for what?" he said. "Shoplifting? Marijuana possession? Writing a bad cheque? Not to worry, though: We can deny everyone bail to be safe - and keep them in indefinitely if they are found guilty."

Defence lawyers say bail is increasingly more difficult to obtain because prosecutors have become very hard-line. "Crowns consent to far, far fewer releases now than 10, 15 or 25 years ago," Mr. Rusonik said.

Defence lawyers add that justices of the peace - who lack the legal qualifications and courtroom savvy of judges - tend to opt for the safe route of simply denying bail.

"I think most criminal lawyers would say that there is more of a culture of detention with JPs than with judges," Toronto defence lawyer Peter Zaduk said.