Response to Petition by Government
of Canada
This Petition proposes the following reforms in regard to Dangerous
and High Risk child sex offenders:
- Toughen penalties for child sexual offences;
- Require electronic or other forms of monitoring for child
sexual offenders;
- Require public notification for child sexual offenders;
- Require that repeat child sexual offenders are designated
as Dangerous Offenders.
The Government of Canada is fully committed to protecting
children from sexual offenders. In the last Parliament, Bill
C-2 introduced mandatory minimum penalties for many sexual offences
committed against children. These offences are therefore not
eligible for a conditional sentence of imprisonment.
Also, a number of criminal law reform initiatives have recently
been introduced in this regard, including:
- Bill C-9, to restrict the availability of conditional sentences;
- Bill C-22, to increase the age of protection;
- Bill C-27, regarding Dangerous and High Risk Offenders; and
- Bill S-3, regarding improvements to the National Sex Offender
Registry.
As introduced, Bill C-9 toughens penalties for a number of
sex offences, including offences against children by making
it clear that the conditional sentence is no longer available.
Bill C-22 will better protect youth against adult sexual predators
by raising the age of consent from 14 to 16 years.
Bill C-27 directly responds to issues addressed in the Petition.
First, it addresses potential inconsistencies in the use of
the Dangerous Offender provisions by requiring Crown prosecutors
to openly address whether an application should be brought wherever
there are three serious violent or sexual offence convictions,
which certainly includes many sexual offences against children.
Secondly, the Bill proposes to reverse the current onus on
the Crown where an offender has been convicted for the third
time of a number of serious sexual and violent offences. Third,
the Bill also clarifies that there is no onus on the Crown in
regard to the ‘fitness’ of a Dangerous Offender
designation. The proposed changes to the Dangerous Offender
provisions of the Criminal Code will make it easier for Crown
prosecutors to achieve Dangerous Offender designation against
repeat child sex offenders. About 80% of all Dangerous Offender
applications are against sexual offenders, and about half of
these target child sexual offenders.
Fourth, Bill C-27 also clarifies that section 810.1 Peace
Bonds include the ability to require defendants to submit to
Electronic Monitoring. This Peace Bond is a powerful tool for
police and Crown prosecutors which enables the imposition of
severe restrictions on any individual likely to commit a sexual
offence against a child, even though they have not been charged
with or convicted of any specific offence.
Finally, while the authority to provide a Public Notification
that a high-risk offender has been released into a community
is ordinarily within the authority of the Provincial or Territorial
Justice and/or Public Safety Ministers, steps have recently
been announced that will assist Provinces and Territories in
this regard. Specifically, the Government has announced that
it will be increasing the level of federal support for the National
Flagging System (“NFS”).
The NFS consists of a network of senior Provincial and Territorial
justice police and Crown attorneys who identify individuals
deemed at high risk to re-offend sexually and/or violently.
Once an individual is identified in this category, a ‘flag’
is placed on their criminal record. Once this flag is in place,
the offender is subject to intense scrutiny upon release, including
applications under section 810.1 and 810.2 Peace Bonds, Public
Notifications and more consistent sentencing practices if the
individual re-offends.
Finally, the Government has introduced Bill S-3 in the Senate,
which implements a number of specific enhancements to the National
Sex Offender Registry to improve the ability of police to identify
suspects where a sexual offence has been committed.
The Government has therefore already responded to many of
the issues raised by the Petition through a number of initiatives
over the past 9 months to protect children from sex offenders.
Click on the link below to view the Government’s
official response to the petition.
Response
to Petition 
(530 kb)
