Strengthening National Sex Offender Registry 

Ottawa – This news release deals with topics that may cause distress. If you or someone close to you needs support, we encourage you to reach out. Resources are available at canada.ca/mental-health.

Everyone in Canada deserves to be safe and feel safe, including by knowing that the police have the tools they need to prevent and investigate crime and protect their communities. Victims and survivors of crime must have a voice in the criminal justice process and be treated with compassion, respect, and dignity, including by making the system easier to navigate. That is why the Government of Canada introduced Criminal Code amendments to make the criminal justice system more responsive to the needs of victims and strengthen the National Sex Offender Registry.

Today, this important piece of legislation, Bill S-12, received Royal Assent and became law. The Government of Canada is grateful to the many survivors and experts who shared their experiences and advocated for these important changes.

To empower victims and survivors of crime we have made the process to amend or revoke a publication ban clear and easy to follow. The law now requires more direct conversations with victims about whether a publication ban should be imposed in the first place and streamlines the process for removing a publication ban if the victim no longer wants it. This legislation also makes clear that victims who choose to keep a publication ban in place for their protection can share their personal information in certain circumstances, such as private conversations and in support group sessions.

We have also made changes to the Criminal Code to make navigating the justice system simpler and easier for victims. Today’s amendments will ensure that victims are told about their right to receive – or to decline to receive – ongoing information about a case after sentencing. The law now requires judges to ensure that victims have been asked if they would like to receive ongoing information, provides victims with an easy and quick way to indicate whether they wish to receive ongoing information on their Victim Impact Statement ; and requires courts, with the consent of the victim, to share preferences and contact information with the Correctional Service of Canada so that victims receive information to which they are entitled.

Other important Criminal Code amendments will ensure that the National Sex Offender Registry can continue to be an effective tool to prevent and investigate sexual crimes that is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It does this by ensuring that:

• child sexual offenders sentenced to at least two years in prison are registered automatically;
• repeat sexual offenders are registered automatically; and,
• all other sexual offenders must be registered unless they can demonstrate that they pose no risk to the community.

We have also expanded the list of offences that require registration on the National Sex Offender Registry to include serious crimes like “sextortion” and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. The changes ensure that police continue to have access to an important tool to prevent and investigate heinous sexual crimes, which disproportionately affect women and children and can have devastating impacts on victims and survivors.