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A man arrested by Edmonton police and held for 36 hours without a bail hearing early last year is suing the province, claiming the lack of timely access to bail violated his rights.

A class-action lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Ryan Reilly on behalf of himself and anyone in Alberta denied a bail hearing within 24 hours of being arrested since February 2017, was filed May 2 in Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary.

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“Alberta had designed an unlawful bail hearing regime, and it later failed to correct its unlawful regime,” the statement of claim reads. “(Accused persons) have been the victim of Alberta’s systemic failures and the casualties of Alberta’s incompetence.”

“Alberta has failed, and continues to fail, to provide thousands of (accused persons) with bail hearings conducted within 24 hours of arrest and detention.”

Edmonton police arrested Reilly, the accused in a domestic violence case, on April 4, 2017. He was held in a brightly lit 10-foot by five-foot cell at police headquarters. The cell’s walls and floor were covered in “fecal matter, blood or other human substances,” the claim states, and he was housed with another detainee who appeared to be coming down off drugs.