In short, Mr. Chairman, part of the amendment to this bill is to allow the registration of people convicted abroad for equivalent offences. You and the committee may remember that I had some questions to make sure that the offences we're registering in Canada are in fact equivalent offences to offences here, because there are certain offences in other countries, in third world countries, that are criminal there that may not be here. For instance, homosexuality is one.
So what this does is clarify that the equivalent offences are on an objective standard. I think the bill, as it currently reads, speaks in terms of that determination being made in the opinion of the minister. I've changed that to say “that is equivalent to an offence referred to in”. It makes it clear that any offence committed in a foreign jurisdiction has to be objectively related to an offence in Canada and then registration would be automatic.
It takes out the subjective discretion, which I'm hearing on the other side is not something they're generally in favour of. So I think they would support an objective standard in this regard as well.