Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start by thanking the witnesses for the intelligent and sensitive way in which they approach what is a very difficult, sensitive topic. Particularly, I want to thank the Stephensons for all the work they've done. It's a great tribute to your son, everything you're doing, and it really is remarkable. I thank you for appearing today.
I want to start with a point before I go to my questions, because we really can't address it today. I think one of the things we have to underscore in this, because I very much support the sex offender registry, is I think it's also important to not hold it out as a panacea, that it unto itself is going to solve the problem. Often we talk a lot about enforcement, but I don't think we spend nearly enough time talking about either prevention or rehabilitation. I think it's an area of great failure that we have to be a lot stronger on. When we're talking about enforcement, I think it's important to hold our minds to that topic.
With respect to data, one of the things I'm trying to look at is the Ontario example, where there's an automatic addition, as opposed to judicial discretion. Ms. Bethell, the example you gave strikes me as sexual harassment, not a sexual offence as it's been defined as an example in Ontario. Ontario has a very defined sense of a sexual offence that certainly would preclude the example you gave.
I'm concerned that so many people are being left out of the system, and this registry, because it's not being publicly disseminated, is for the information of police officers. I'm wondering, though, because right now under the federal system we have a number of things here that are a little sticky and it would be hard to know exactly how to pinpoint. For example, right now in the federal registry you can have trespassing at night listed, or breaking and entering. I'm presuming the intent there is that if you're breaking and entering with the intent to commit a sexual offence, that puts you onto the registry. Yet I don't see that in the provincial law.
It seems to me the province has taken a very narrow view of looking at this, and the federal legislation is much broader. Maybe that's why it's not automatic. If we were to do what Ontario did, which is make the list of offences narrower and have it be automatic, would that assuage some of your concerns, or is there a way of dealing with some of these so we can make sure they're caught? I share the concern that a lot of this is not being picked up in the system. Personally, I don't believe it's somebody kissing somebody at a work party.