Thank you.
Of course, the mandatory registration feature is paramount in any revisions being considered to the NSORIA. But in addition to that, there are other features in the Ontario model that are well worth looking at.
I believe that in testimony earlier this week you heard mention of the recommendation that the Ontario registry be adopted as a model for the national registry. I think this came out of a proposal by the commissioner for the OPP, Commissioner Julian Fantino.
To answer your question, in addition to that mandatory order to register, I think there should be much more ability on the part of the national police force--in this case it's the RCMP--to enforce and follow up on the registration requirements.
There was a very tragic case in Toronto, the Holly Jones abduction and murder, in which this ten-year-old girl was abducted, murdered, and her body was taken apart and hidden in various places. One of the things that came out of that tragic case was that the police force involved in the investigation at that time had a whole range of potential offenders to look at, and resource deployment is critical in an investigation such as that.
We talk about whether there are enough police officers. Probably there aren't. Some of us would like to see a police officer for every law-abiding citizen, and that would eliminate anybody from ever offending, but of course that's something that isn't going to happen.
In the case of the Holly Jones investigation, let me get to that point specifically. Within a very short period of time they were able to look at a range of about 60 offenders, 60 potential offenders, who had registered addresses in the immediate area surrounding the area where Holly Jones was found. They were able to eliminate those suspects within hours of the discovery of Holly Jones' body and immediately deploy those resources into more productive aspects of the investigation, and the investigation did end successfully with an arrest being made, charges laid, and a conviction won for her abductor and murderer.
That is the type of information that has to be available and accessible to all police forces. The national registry, if it were beefed up, if we gave it some steroids, and gave it the ability to expand the database of convicted sex offenders, those who we know have committed serious offences, if we have addresses on them and we know for a certainty that those people are at those addresses.... Follow-up on registration is an important feature of the enforcement component. Police services are required to do this in Ontario. Once an offender has registered, there's a follow-up procedure. A door knock is done to ensure that yes, that is the correct address, this individual is here. Once that information is verified and currently maintained, it is extremely important in the investigation of any crime of a sexual nature.
Accurate information that is up to date and current and has been verified is a component that I think should be transferred from the provincial registry to a national revision. I would like to think, too, that there would be more transparency between the two. There should be an ability with the Ontario registry to have information flow back and forth between its database and the federal database. This has encountered some serious problems in the past.
I'm not certain that I am the party to talk in detail about the changes that should be transferred from a very successful Ontario model to the federal model. I would comment, though, if I could--