Raging against child pornographers and sex offenders at Queen’s Park on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford vowed that his government would seek to give the public access to parts of the Ontario Sex Offender and Sex Trafficker Registry, adding he would use the notwithstanding clause to assure the move isn’t overturned through a Charter challenge.
Currently, the national database is only accessible to police and authorized law enforcement agencies. Ford wants to change that, although he didn’t provide specific details about how he plans to do so.
“It’s absolutely critical,” Ford stressed. “You have a sex offender and he’s living next door or down the street and you have a bunch of kids, you wanna know about it.”
“So we’re gonna make sure the sex offender registry is out there public and sure we’re probably going to get shut down by the courts again, but I’ll use every single tool to make sure we protect the victims over the sex offenders, it’s a no brainer,” he added. “I’ll use the notwithstanding clause in a heartbeat.”
A fiery Ford directed some of his anger at the Supreme Court over its recent ruling that one-year mandatory minimum jail sentences for accessing or possessing child pornography are unconstitutional.
“It’s like the Supreme Court said (recently) — sex offenders that push child pornography out should not get a mandatory one-year sentence. What is the Supreme Court thinking? Who are you in favour of, a bunch of diddlers that are out there pushing child porn and hanging out in neighbourhoods and trying to track down young children, or you protect the victims?” he explained.
“Unfortunately the Supreme Court has chose to protect these nasty criminals,” Ford said, his voice beginning to rise with anger.
“They make me sick,” he added. “I’d throw these child pornography people in jail and throw away the key, they can rot in there … they’re a bunch of diddlers.”
Ontario’s sex offender registry is known as Christopher’s Law, named for 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson, who was killed in 1988 by a convicted sex offender.
Ontario has previously made changes to strengthen Christopher’s Law, announcing last year that it was banning registered sex offenders from changing their names.
With files from The Canadian Press
