I do appreciate Mr. Davies' explanation of his amendment, but the government does not support the proposed amendment as Bill C-34 establishes parameters so the police may access the national sex offender registry for prevention or investigation of crimes of a sexual nature.
Going back, I appreciate what his comments were with respect to the witnesses who appeared before us, but we did hear beyond that. It was a bit expanded. Parts of what I think he is talking about we did hear, certainly, from some witnesses. But I think we heard from Superintendent Lines from Ontario, who is in charge of the sex offender registry in Ontario and is a criminal profiler. I think she told us quite clearly about instances where they've used this in a crime prevention manner with people who have somehow gotten through the system and ended up either working with children or working in seniors homes and are somewhat of a danger to the people in those environments. For that reason alone, I believe the prevention part is crucial.
The other part is that I hope Mr. Davies would understand that the police community are not going to use the registry to go out holus bolus and tell everybody all of these nasty things, if that's what's perceived. There are other rules that do apply, and the responsibility would be on them, certainly in civil actions, in actions dealing with privacy.
Although I understand it, I believe what he is attempting to do here is not really in the vein of where the act is and the intention of the act. So for that reason, the government does not support that amendment.