The same day that Premier David Eby and federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser talked about bail reform, three B.C. Supreme Court verdicts were posted publicly.

Coincidentally, the cases involved some of the same issues that come up in the legislation itself: extortion, repeat offenders and intimate partner violence.

The carefully considered verdicts provide some context in the form of random glimpses into what is happening in B.C. courts today.

One was about a Cranbrook man who was up for sentencing after pleading guilty to trying to execute a sextortion scheme. He threatened to post surreptitiously recorded nude videos of a housesitter if his ex-wife did not pay him $20,000.

He sent four e-mails to an intermediary to that effect, threatening to post the videos or kill himself. (He later said he was lying about the videos.)

He had earlier pleaded guilty to criminal offences, including assaulting his ex-wife with a knife, related to a no-contact order imposed after they separated.

He was arrested twice for contacting her and was “volatile, aggressive and........

© Times Colonist