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Scarborough residents have a right to be concerned about exactly what is going on in our local criminal courts.

The murders last month of Susan John, 43, and Saramma Varughese, 65, in their east Scarborough home raise a number of extremely serious concerns. The man accused in their murders was out on bail and under house arrest in connection with earlier sex assault charges.

Leeds-Grenville MPP Bob Runciman, who acts as the leader of the Progressive Conservative party in the provincial Legislature in the absence of John Tory, wondered last week how it was that the accused was in the community, and not in custody in connection with earlier charges.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Chris Bentley told The Scarborough Mirror last week that the minister "can't talk about a case that's currently before the courts."

We understand the position the attorney general must maintain when it comes to active cases.

However, that should not provide a place for the government to hide on this issue. And it should not stop local Liberal MPPs from commenting on matters that directly affect the safety of Scarborough residents.

It certainly hasn't stopped Runciman from calling for a public inquiry into our bail system.

In an interview with The Mirror, Runciman raised some important points about public safety and our justice system. As usual, the rights of the accused seem to be of more importance to the system than the rights of victims.

In the case of the accused in the murders of John and Varughese, Runciman wondered why the Crown had not applied for a review of the court order that had released the man from custody on his previous charges.

Clearly, Runciman feels public safety did not seem to be a priority of anyone in this situation, and we agree.

In Canada, taking judges, attorneys or parole boards to task for their decisions is extremely difficult. Obviously, we can't have politicians running our courts but someone needs to be able to speak for the people in communities whose safety is threatened by the decisions of the judicial and legal system.

As has happened far too many times in the cases of women who had restraining orders against men who had threatened them in the past, the system has failed yet again.

We think the Liberal government should take the politics out of this issue and heed Runciman's request for an inquiry into the bail system. The priority should be the protection of innocent people and public safety, not the protection of judges and lawyers.