Public Safety committee  Under the Ontario registry, the registration order simply issues as a matter of administration. No one asks for it. Upon conviction for a specified offence, it simply happens. That's usually the process that automatic inclusion refers to.

Public Safety committee  Of course, in departments, we're always in contact with the minister on important issues.

Public Safety committee  Could I ask for a clarification on your question about a link with the DNA data bank? I'm not entirely sure what kind of link you're thinking about. Some of our offenders, of course, are subject to both a DNA order and a sex offender registration order.

Public Safety committee  Thank you.

Public Safety committee  Yes. Without having the two lists of offences before me, I can't swear that they're identical lists. There may be some things that relate to DNA collection that aren't necessarily sexual offences, but it is not uncommon, I would suggest, to have an offender who's subject to both of those orders at the same time.

Public Safety committee  The first offence is a summary conviction matter. In a moment, someone will turn to the reference of what the potential monetary and incarceral penalty is. On a second or subsequent offence, it's a hybrid. It could be prosecuted either summarily or on indictment and the maximum penalties are higher for those subsequent offences.

Public Safety committee  As a public servant, I'm not able to reveal advice that I provide to any minister on an ongoing basis, but it's fair comment to say that this is a very serious matter, and, of course, ministers take it very seriously and advice is provided. If you look at the sequence of amendments to the bill, you will see that Bill S-3 was an endeavour to get the military incorporated and to make a number of other what we might call “technical amendments”, but also some of the amendments along the lines of what we've been talking about today.

Public Safety committee  This has been an evolutionary process. I think all witnesses have indicated that it's something so highly operational that it's only through the passage of time and experience that some issues come forward. As a public servant, I can tell you that our job is to look at the implementation, monitor the implementation, and provide advice as issues come up.

Public Safety committee  I would just say that we do monitor the U.S. research very, very closely. They do extremely good research on their criminal justice programs. It's something we pay very close attention to in order to learn from it.

Public Safety committee  One of the reasons that some of the American registries have not been very effective is, of course, this issue of reliability of the data. I think that's why you hear a big emphasis on ensuring that we have comprehensive and reliable data. So many of the states report that they have lost tens of thousands of sex offenders simply because they have not been able to follow up on addresses or other personal information.

Public Safety committee  In Canada, the model that was chosen by Parliament is one that restricts access to police, so it is different from the United States, where every state has a publicly available registry. As part of the research we do, of course, you look into why those decisions were made. I think it's important to look at the various reasons why the registries are public.

Public Safety committee  I would reiterate that no one disagrees with the overall objective--that's very clear--of safety and security for everyone. As with any issue, sometimes there are different paths to achieving that objective. At the officials level, it's fair to say that we look at many different models.

Public Safety committee  Yes. He did that under contract for us.

Public Safety committee  I would just add that obviously this is the type of crime that tends to be private, as opposed to being a public event. It's hard to ignore a bank robbery, which is, by definition, a public event. Dr. Hanson is engaged in some research on trying to devise a reliable way to estimate the hidden amount of sex crime.

Public Safety committee  That issue has come up a number of times. It's an important issue. When a Canadian has been convicted abroad and, under the International Transfer of Offenders Act, is transferred back to Canada under sentence, then of course we know about the offence. It would be fairly straightforward, I think, to consider a model that could include those people.