Email Accessibility. The Ministry of the Solicitor General is proposing amendments to Christopher's Law Sex Offender Registry , to equip police services with additional information that can help them better monitor sex offenders and prevent, investigate, and solve crimes of a sexual nature.
The proposed amendments to Christopher's Law would establish new reporting requirements for registered sex offenders in Ontario. Section 3 of the act requires offenders to report information to a police service within a prescribed period seven days after certain events e. Reporting requirements are also proposed in relation to travel by an offender to provide police services in Ontario with investigative information on the whereabouts of sex offenders. This would include requiring offenders to provide 14 days advance notice if they intend on traveling for seven days or more, and requiring that child sex offenders provide advance notice if they will be out of Canada for any length of time.
The proposal would allow for a "reasonable excuse" to be provided for not complying with the time limits. These reporting requirements would mirror those found in section 6 of the federal Sex Offender Information Registration Act, The proposed amendments would help make sure the information on the registry is current and useful for investigative purposes by requiring that offender information be removed from the registry 50 years after an offender's death or upon proof that an offender's conviction or finding of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder in respect of a sex offence is overturned.
These amendments would also allow the Minister of the Solicitor General to authorize a person to use information contained in the sex offender registry for research or statistical purposes. Additional amendments would update the definition of sex offence to align with federal Criminal Code amendments which re-categorized sex offences as primary and secondary offences and update legislative wording to ensure consistency with current drafting practices.
The proposed amendments to Christopher's Law will have no direct compliance costs to any regulated stakeholders. There are administrative costs for municipal police services associated with increased offender reporting requirements i. Explore Regulatory Registry. Other Resources.
