Debates of March 16, 2004 (day 1)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Ontario was the first province in Canada to create and implement legislation that established and maintained a sex offender registry. The act, named Christopher's Law, was proclaimed on April 23, 2001; named after an 11-year-old boy, Christopher Stevens, who was killed by a previously-convicted pedophile. Since there was no sign of a federal strategy to implement such a program, Ontario proactively and independently, to protect their citizens, developed their own registry.

Headlining in the territorial News/North paper, there was a story of a girl who was attacked in Yellowknife by a convicted sex offender. The attacker was on probation for only 11 days before his next assault. Six days later, he was picked up by the RCMP for being drunk in public, and released. Three days later, the offender sexually assaulted someone else. He only was later identified to police by someone who knew him.

Mr. Speaker, this leads me to my question for the Honourable Minister of Justice, Charles Dent. Does the Minister agree that a sex offender registry could have helped and played a role in this particular case to aid the RCMP to flag this person as a previous sex offender, to help solve sex crimes in Yellowknife and all of the communities in the NWT?

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Mr. Speaker, that's a hypothetical question that I'm having trouble answering. I'm not sure if it would have helped. It's clearly a regrettable situation that happened, but I’m not sure whether or not a sex offender registry in the Northwest Territories would have helped to identify this person. In this situation, the question as to whether or not to identify this person would have been made, I think, by the parole system as to whether or not he was qualified to be released. The situation was that under the terms and conditions of his release order, there was no specific order about how he should be supervised. The parole staff were, in fact, going above and beyond what had been ordered to supervise the person, but there wasn't really anything that had been set out by the parole board or the courts in terms of what should have been done to supervise him. So I'm not sure how that necessarily would have worked. I can certainly take a look at what the options are for setting up such a registry. I'm not certain how the NWT would be able to operate such a service, but I would be prepared to look into it. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for answering that question. Then in this case, Mr. Speaker, I would like to further draw attention that on September 6, 2001, the Ontario Conservative Government offered their $2 million software at no cost to any other government in Canada that wished to use it. Noting that this software is free from Ontario, would the Minister be willing to investigate the potential of accessing this free software database program for the Northwest Territories?

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would certainly take a look at it.

Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Minister, for offering that. Mr. Minister, would you also be further willing to supply information to all Members of the Legislative Assembly, noting reoffender rates of sex crimes for the last 10 years in the NWT, and if this could be linked to offence locations in correlation to their home location, and further out-of-province offenders who commit crimes in the Northwest Territories, and would you bring that forward to all Members of the Legislative Assembly?

The question is sort of bordering on another question. It sounds like you're beyond the original question that you raised, but I will ask the Minister if he would like to respond. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that I really understand what the Member is looking for and maybe I could ask him to restate it, if that would be acceptable.

Final supplementary.

Supplementary To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a point, due to shortness, I tried to summarize my preamble into my next question. Essentially, I'm asking if the Minister would supply us with information, a database that we could work with to see offences committed in the Northwest Territories, so we could recognize the potential usefulness of a database that would note sex offenders. Therefore, we would note reoccurrence of sex offenders in the Northwest Territories, as well as potential offenders who have offended in the Northwest Territories who are not Northwest Territories citizens. Therefore, I'm looking for 10 years of data of offenders who reoffend. Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

Further Return To Question 3-15(3): Registry Of Sex Offenders

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't know how you identify potential offenders in a document. I would certainly be prepared to examine what information is available on charges that have been laid and on convictions that have been laid, and provide that sort of numerical data. But in terms of privacy concerns, until somebody is convicted I can't see how we can provide much information.

Again, I am prepared to work with Members here to provide them what we can, but there will be some limitations on what is publicly available.