News Analysis
A recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) to raise the threshold for adding an offender’s name to the federal sex offender registry has been welcomed by some lawyers but raises concern for some others.
Legislative amendments introduced by the Harper government in 2011 had mandated that those convicted of two or more sex offences would be automatically placed on Canada’s National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) for life. However, in a five-to-four decision, the SCC ruled on Oct. 28 that keeping offenders on the registry for life unduly curtails the constitutional rights of offenders who are not a risk to reoffend….