Tag: Canada

Canada: Sajjan defends military amid uproar over general’s handling of sex misconduct file

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Source: nationalobserver.com 8/6/21 Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s office is standing by the military’s decision to reassign a senior officer who wrote a reference for a convicted sex offender to a new job that involves reviewing ways to eliminate sexual misconduct from the Canadian Armed Forces. Yet survivors and experts of military sexual misconduct are expressing outrage over Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe’s new role, saying it raises even more questions about the Armed Forces’ ability and commitment to addressing the problem. “This decision clearly illustrates an inability to think rationally about the…

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Canada: Naked in river, but not guilty

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Source: castanet.net 9/4/21 Naked man in river at Pioneer Park beach not indecent, judge rules naked in river, but not guilty A naked sex offender in the river at a busy downtown Kamloops beach this summer was not indecent, a judge has ruled, finding the Crown case against him too thin to convict. Kenneth Wickstrom stood trial on one count of committing an indecent act in a public place. The charge stemmed from an alleged incident at Pioneer Park in June in which the 66-year-old was accused of stripping naked…

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Canada: What a new report reveals about Manitoba sex offenders and victims

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[winnipeg.ctvnews.ca – 4/16/21] WINNIPEG — A Manitoba committee tasked with determining if the public needs to be notified about a sex offender has released a report giving the province a look at the offenders and the victims involved. The Community Notification Advisory Committee (CNAC) is a group of representatives from Manitoba Justice, corrections and Manitoba police agencies, along with medical or therapeutic practitioners and civilian members. The committee was created in 1995 to review sex offender cases referred to it by police agencies, and recommend if the public should be…

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Canada: Psychiatric patients awarded nearly $10M in lawsuit over experimental treatments

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[orilliamatters.com – 2/12/21] ‘Those who were youths were harmed in a severe and lifelong manner that deserves particular attention,’ judge finds Patients who were subjected to “degrading and inhumane” experimental treatments at the former Oak Ridge maximum-security psychiatric facility in Penetanguishene have been awarded a total of just under $10 million. The awards for the 28 patients range from $1,000 up to $2.7 million for a vulnerable teenager in “mental agony” who was shackled naked to other patients, including a sex offender. … In 1975, after running away, stealing and…

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Canada: Baranyai: How should Ontario’s sex offender registry work?

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[lfpress.com – 11/29/20] Ontario’s sex offender registry has some soul searching to do. Does it exist to punish offenders, or protect communities? And how can the framework for who goes on the list, which the Supreme Court has ruled discriminatory, support this core objective? The government has one year to amend Christopher’s Law, named for 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson, who in 1988 was tragically abducted, assaulted and murdered by a known pedophile. A coroner’s jury recommended creating an electronic registry of sex offenders to help police target their neighbourhood searches during…

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Canada: Sex-offender provision unconstitutional in not criminally responsible cases: court

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[ca.news.yahoo.com – 11/20/20] OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that Ontario’s sex-offender registry regime violates the constitutional rights of people found not criminally responsible for their actions by reason of mental disorder. The decision came Friday in the case of an Ontario man who was found not criminally responsible in June 2002 for sexually assaulting his then-wife, and other charges, due to a manic episode. Read the full article  

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Canada: SCC to rule if sex offender registry unfair to mentally ill

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[advocatedaily.com] Sex offenders who have been found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder (NCRMD), and received an absolute discharge from the Ontario Review Board (ORB), may soon be permitted to have themselves removed from sex offender registries, says Toronto criminal lawyer John Fennel. Fennel, an associate with Hicks Adams LLP, says the issue is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in the spring. In a decision released in April, the Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) called for the federal and Ontario sex-offender…

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Canada: Top court to rule if mentally ill must be on sex-offender registry

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[thespec.com – 9/26/19] The federal government is challenging an appeal court decision that found that the registry reinforces a stereotype that those who commit criminal acts while mentally ill never change and pose a permanent risk. News Sep 26, 2019 by Colin Perkel The Canadian Press TORONTO — The Supreme Court of Canada will have final say on the validity of laws requiring sex offenders to register when an accused is granted an absolute discharge after being found not criminally responsible. In a decision on Thursday, the high court said…

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Canada: Sex-offender registry laws discriminate against mentally ill, court rules

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[theprovince.com – 4/4/19]   Parts of federal and Ontario laws requiring sex-offender registration where an accused is granted an absolute discharge after being found not criminally responsible discriminate against the mentally ill and are therefore unconstitutional, Ontario’s top court ruled Thursday. While the court ordered information belonging to the man who brought the case to be deleted immediately from sex-offender registries, the justices also gave governments 12 months to fix the offending legislation, widely known in Ontario as Christopher’s Law. “Persons found (not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder)…

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Canada: Support group helps sex offenders in Saskatoon

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[globalnews.ca 4/28/18] Much like there are support groups for alcoholics or drug abusers, one in Saskatoon is helping sex offenders. Meaghan Craig looks at its importance. As first reported by Global News, convicted sex offender ______ now has a new alias. In the last two months, the soon-to-be 30-year-old has taken the steps to legally change his name to ______ and mask his true identity to members of the public. This on the heels of long-term offender ______ arrest in late April, who was going by the name ______ ,…

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Canada: Calgary man suing police, feds for demanding fingerprints because of his birth date is same as a sex offender

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[calgaryherald.com] A Calgary man says he was forced to provide his fingerprints or give up a 12-year career of coaching youth hockey, all because he shares the same date of birth as a pardoned sex offender. And after a fruitless five-year odyssey for an explanation for what he feels is a violation of his constitutionally protected Charter rights, retired oil engineer Jim Besse is now suing the RCMP, Calgary police, the Calgary police commission and Chief Roger Chaffin. “I have always been upfront, saying, ‘Take five minutes and tell me…

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Canada: Edmonton judge rules national sex offender registry is unconstitutional

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An Edmonton judge has ruled that the national sex offender registry is unconstitutional as it is “over broad and grossly disproportionate” and violates people of their charter rights. In a recently released decision involving the case of an Edmonton man convicted of two sexual assaults, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Andrea Moen found the Sex Offender Information Registration Act removed judicial discretion to refuse to place offenders who present no risk of reoffending on the registry. Full Article Related http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/an-edmonton-judge-ruled-the-sex-offender-registry-list-is-unconstitutional

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