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| Tim Hudak |
Earlier Story
09/09/2011
By Glen McGregor
An organization that helps rehabilitate convicted criminals is warning that PC leader Tim Hudak’s (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) plan to publish the names and addresses of sex offenders could lead to vigilantism (articles, videos).
The PC “Changebook” policy platform says a Hudak government would make Ontario’s sex offender registry publicly available over the Internet.
Hudak on Friday promoted the policy in media interviews, saying it would keep kids safe from “child predators.”
- No it won't, but it does make Mr. Hudak look "tough" on crime, using exploitation, fear and the same lies as American politicians have used for years. They will do and say anything to get elected or re-elected, and the sheeple should know that by now.
But the John Howard Society says it has serious reservations about publishing offenders names online.
‘We don’t think it would be particularly effective in safeguarding the public and might well, as we’ve seen in the U.S., jeopardize the safety of some of the individuals on the registry,” said Catherine Latimer, the organization’s national executive director.
“If people know who sex offenders are and where they are, it provokes citizens to not just protect themselves but, on occasion, take reprisals or do nasty things.”
Latimer says it is important that police and parole officials have access to this information, but making the names and addresses public would be a way of “asserting greater punishment on offences we don’t like.”
A spokesman for the Hudak campaign said protecting children is more important than the risk of vigilantism.
- I think you mean helping Mr. Hudak get elected, or re-elected, don't you?
“We think the rights of families and kids trump those concerns,” said Jason Lietaer in an e-mail.
Many U.S. states and counties publish online registries of convicted sex offenders who have been paroled or served their sentences. Most have names, photographs, addresses, descriptions of the crimes, and some even list license plate numbers and descriptions of the sex offenders’ vehicles.
- So just because the U.S. does it, doesn't mean it's the best thing to do, history has proven that.
The registries have compelled some municipal governments to restrict where sex offenders can live. The listings have also triggered harassment and, in some cases, violence.
- Yes it does, and you can see more for yourself, here and here.
A Nova Scotia who killed two sex offenders in Maine before shooting himself in 2006 was believed to have used the state’s online registry to track down his victims. The registry was temporarily shut down because of the incident.
In Washington State in 2005, a 36-year-old man turned himself into police and admitted he had shot and killed two child rapists. Police believed he had selected at least one of the victims from the county sheriff’s sex offender web site.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police maintains a national sex offender registry, and the Ontario government has its own database of people convicted of sex crimes. Neither is published online and both are out of reach of open-records laws.
- And this is how it should be, and how it was in the U.S. before the sex offender hysteria took a hold.
The PC platform also calls for sex offenders to wear GPS ankle bracelets so police can track them at all times.
To push its message, the Hudak campaign put out a press release this week flagging a case in Leamington, Ont, where convicted sex offender Sarah Dahle drew protests from her neighbours because she was living near a public school. Dahle later moved to London, Ont., though police there have not published her address.
“Ontario families face a clear choice between Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Party who will post the names and addresses of registered sex-offenders like Sarah Dahle, or Dalton McGuinty who opposes informing local parents if a registered sex-offender is living in their community,” the Hudak campaign said in a press release.
- Yep, it's all about politics and elections, as usual!
