The Sudbury Star
Friday, August 17, 2001

Ontario blazes trail with sex offender registry


By Jen Ross
"We now have a suspect pool available to us." -- Ontario Provincial Police Detective Staff Sgt. Charles Young, who manages the new Ontario database.
Young is pleasantly surprised that of the 2,727 sex offenders now out in Ontario communities, so far 80 per cent have added their names to the registry.
Most states have their registry of released offenders posted on a Web site.

OTTAWA -- This past April, Ontario became the first Canadian province to create a central sex offender registry, which requires released sex offenders to register their whereabouts with police.

It was created under a bill dubbed "Christopher's Law," named after 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson, who was murdered by a convicted pedophile on parole.

At the recent premiers conference, all provinces agreed to create similar registries in the absence of a national system opposed by the federal government.

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Staff Sgt. Charles Young manages the new Ontario database, which provides police with an up-to-date photograph, address and offence record for all released sex criminals.

"We now have a suspect pool available to us," he said. "In excess of 75 per cent of the time, an offender lives within a two-kilometre radius of where the incident occurs."

He explained that if a sex crime is now committed, police can open the database and do a geographic profile to look for any released offender residing near the crime, and knock on their door first.

"A rapid response is essential because we know that 44 per cent of kids are murdered within one hour after an abduction," said Young.

"Ninety-one per cent are killed within 24 hours."

He said the database is being used everyday, but he does not know of a case yet where it has been directly responsible for solving a crime.

Young is pleasantly surprised that of the 2,727 sex offenders now out in Ontario communities, so far 80 per cent have added their names to the registry. Three have been charged for not doing so -- one for giving a false address, the other two for refusing to register when told to. They could face up to one year in jail for not complying.

Young said it will take time to find the remaining 540 offenders, some of whom are in federal institutions. The federal government is not onside with the registry, so Ontario police have to personally go to federal institutions to serve offenders with an affidavit.

Dave Whellams, counsel with the criminal law policy section for the Department of Justice, says the federal government opposes the creation of a national registry for sex offenders because the existing Canadian Police Information Centre is like a registry, and it covers all offences.

But Young said CPIC is outdated on addresses.

In documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the suggested federal response to B.C.'s calls for a national registry was that CPIC is good enough, a separate sex offender registry would be "costly and redundant," it would give the public a false sense of security rather than enhance public safety, and "there is high potential for misidentification and/or vigilantism" as a result.

The Ontario database is only accessible to police, out of concern for such vigilantism.

Across the border, U.S. states have been adopting versions of "Megan's Law" -- the model for the milder "Christopher's Law" -- since 1996. The American laws have both a registry and public notification component. They make it mandatory for police to publicize the name and photograph of a convicted sex offender whenever they settle in a new community. Most states have their registry of released offenders posted on a Web site.

All 50 states had signed their own versions of Megan's Law by 1999, but only half remain today, as they are being systematically struck down as unconstitutional in state courts.