What Duties Are Prohibited For Employees Who Are Registered Sex Offenders

Examiner file photo

If a sexual practice offender lives in your neighbourhood

Canada's acme courtroom has ruled that Ontario residents should be able to know how many registered sexual practice offenders are living in their neighbourhood.

A legal battle began later on a Freedom of Information request was fabricated to the Ministry of Customs Condom and Correctional Services. The bidder wanted to know how many sex activity offenders were living within each postal code surface area.

Information on Ontario'due south sexual activity offender registry is merely available to police enforcement. The province believed that keeping that information individual would encourage offenders to comply with the registry and preclude vigilantism.

The province refused the FOI request, citing privacy concerns.

On Thursday the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the request violates no privacy laws, and that Canadians do have the correct to know how many offenders are living in their neighbourhood.

City police Staff Sgt. Lynne Buehler said releasing fifty-fifty a small amount of information almost registered sex offenders in the community tin can cause concerns for police.

Knowing how many registered offenders are in one neighbourhood, without knowing anything else, could pb to groundless fears and panic, she said.

The Ontario Sexual activity Offender registry, she said, is a good arrangement that gives police the tools and guidelines to monitor the metropolis's registered sexual practice offenders and information technology'due south something they practise on a regular basis.

Buehler said that having the registry, or knowing where a sexual activity offender is, is not a guaranteed manner to protect you or your family unit from crime.

The registry simply tracks offenders who have been committed of a sexual activity crime. Sexual assault is an nether-reported offense, and Buehler pointed out that at that place are offenders in the customs that police force don't know about.

Knowing what type of sex activity crime someone was bedevilled of is an of import piece of information the public won't accept, she said.

Someone convicted of sexually assaulting a young fellow member of their family is unlikely to sexually attack a stranger, Buehler explained.

On rare occasions police accept released the details about a registered sex offender who moves into the community, and Buehler said information technology's a conclusion the service doesn't make lightly.

The privacy of an individual is always crucial, she said, but there are circumstances where constabulary have to balance that with the customs's prophylactic.

The public still can't access the names and addresses of those on the list.

That, even so, could change.

In that location is a beak in the Firm of Commons, Nib C-26, that seeks to meliorate the Criminal Code and create a national, public database of "high risk offenders" that would include names and pictures of sex offenders and details of their crimes.