Bartolucci promises to fix sex offender registry

BY GIANNI UBRIACO

Following Auditor General Jim McCarter’s report tabled Tuesday, which cited hundreds of convicted sex offenders in Ontario are not listed on the police’s registry, Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci is asking that many of its recommendations be put into practice.

He has table legislation to amend Christopher’s Law, named for 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson murdered in 1992 by a convicted pedophile on federal statutory release. The changes would ensure all sex offenders are known to police and properly tracked.

Although the amendments still have to go through various readings and some committee work before they become law, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Ian Davidson said he believes the changes are necessary.

“I think it speaks loudly to the commitment we have as a society to ensure we protect vulnerable people to (every) extent possible, and this will help us do that,” he said.

“I think it sends a message the government and police services across Ontario take sexual offences to be among the most serious of offences in our society. This registry is something that is just another effective tool for us. These recent amendments will make this tool even better.”

The auditor’s report outlined various areas of concern regarding the registry, which was started in 2001 and contains about 7,400 names. He found the names of about 365 offenders were not on the list.

As it stands now, a convicted person who is not incarcerated for a concurrent amount of time doesn’t have to register until the completion of his or her sentence. This means police would not be aware that an offender who is in the community on a day or weekend pass.

In addition, sex offenders who are convicted for sexual offences but are released pending an appeal still have to register on the list.

The changes would also solve the problem regarding sex offenders who are not found criminally responsible due to psychological circumstance. Since they can’t form intent, they sometimes are incarcerated in psychiatric facilities, but are occasionally released on day passes.

“Really, the purpose is if there is a sexual assault in the community, we look very quickly at the sex offender registry to determine, on the basis of the sexual assault, if we have somebody on the registry that would fit that dynamic. The registry then becomes a very good investigative tool to start looking at potential suspects,” Davidson said.

“But if you have somebody from another community who has a propensity to commit a sexual assault and you don’t know that the person is in the community, it places the investigators at a bit of a disadvantage and this really plugs potential holes and we’re really pleased to see it.”

There are about 150 sex offenders on the registry living in Greater Sudbury and there is an officer assigned to monitor the list on a full-time basis. Only two people deemed to be at risk were non-compliant to register.

 “We have taken steps to address that issue and those individuals are facing criminal charges with respect to failing to register,” Davidson said.

The Auditor General’s report indicated there’s little evidence to show the registry reduces sexual crimes or helps investigators solve them, and that the province failed to obtain a list of more than 1,000 sex offenders in federal custody in Ontario when it created the registry.

Additionally, there is no process for registering young sex offenders who receive adult sentences, and that the registry has no photographs on file for 140 sex offenders.

Also according to the report, more than 1,200 offender records had no detailed case information and the police never verified the residential addresses of nearly 650 offenders.