Ontario’s sex offender registry will now be harmonized with recent changes to the federal registry – in the hope it helps further to protect children and communities.
Christopher’s Law (the sex offender registry) 2000 was amended by the legislature last week. It aligns the Ontario registry with the national registry in the following areas:
– Reporting obligations, to enable the province to make a regulation that could require offenders to report within seven days instead of the current 15; and
– the addition of offenders convicted outside of Canada, if they are obligated to report to the national registry.
The changes should make it easier to share information between registries and provide more data to support crime investigations and help police better protect communities.
Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Jim Bradley said, “The Ontario sex offender registry gives a powerful tool to our police officers to help protect our children. These changes ensure that it continues to work well with the national registry and make it an even more efficient tool for investigators.”
