Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I am Assistant Commissioner Derek Santosuosso with technical operations within the RCMP, which includes responsibility for the administration of the national sex offender registry.
It is my pleasure to be with you today to provide the RCMP's perspective on Bill C‑12 with an emphasis on the proposed amendments to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, or SOIRA.
The RCMP welcomes the amendments proposed in Bill C‑12 as they would meaningfully assist the RCMP's ability to protect public safety in two ways: support the RCMP's intelligence and investigative efforts to detect, investigate and disrupt the illegal drug market, including fentanyl; and enhance the RCMP's ability to disclose information that it collects under SOIRA with domestic and international police and law enforcement partners.
First, Bill C‑12's proposed amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act will ensure that RCMP members are exempt from the application of any provision of the Criminal Code that creates drug-related, inchoate offences—that is to say, relating to a criminal act that has not yet been committed—when they are undertaking lawful investigations. This will effectively prevent our members from engaging in criminal liability while conducting otherwise illicit activities in the context of a lawful drug-related investigation.
Second, and of particular importance to me, Bill C‑12's proposed SOIRA amendments will enhance the ability of the RCMP to share information on registered sex offenders with domestic and international partners to better protect public safety.
The RCMP-managed national sex offender registry, or NSOR, is a national registration system for sex offenders convicted of designated sex offences under the Criminal Code and court ordered to report annually to police. As of November 13, there were a little under 71,000 individuals in NSOR.
The legal framework that guides the RCMP's administration of NSOR is set out in the Criminal Code and the Sex Offender Information Registration Act. The Criminal Code requires individuals to comply with SOIRA. The SOIRA sets out the specific obligations with which registered sex offenders must comply, such as providing up-to-date information about their place of residence or planned travel within and outside Canada.
The information on NSOR helps police prevent and investigate crimes of a sexual nature by providing up-to-date information on convicted sex offenders and an instant list of sex offenders who are registered and living within a particular geographic area.
The SOIRA also governs the circumstances in which information from NSOR may be accessed, used or disclosed. It is important to emphasize that the information on NSOR is not public and is only accessible to the police.
Currently, the SOIRA permits the RCMP to disclose information to a foreign police service on the planned international travel of a registered sex offender only if it is necessary to assist in the prevention or investigation of a crime of a sexual nature. This information includes the name, date of birth, dates of departure and return, as well as every address or location while travelling, passport number and photo, criminal history, sexual offence convictions, and victim information, sex and age. The threshold is high.
Bill C‑12's proposed SOIRA amendments would also improve the RCMP's ability to share information on registered sex offenders internationally and domestically with federal, provincial, territorial and municipal law enforcement partners when there are reasonable grounds to believe the disclosure will assist in verifying compliance with the SOIRA, obtaining or executing a warrant, or preventing or investigating a crime of a sexual nature.
For example, this would permit the RCMP to share information with Passport Canada when there are reasonable grounds to believe the disclosure will assist in preventing a crime of a sexual nature, and this information could be used in passport issuance, renewal or revocation determinations.
Many of the other proposed SOIRA amendments come as a result of years of operationalizing SOIRA and identifying unintended gaps that need to be closed. For example, amendments would require sex offenders to report changes to their motor vehicle information throughout the year, clarify what physical characteristics of a sex offender can be recorded, such as tattoos, and enable NSOR to show legally obtained mugshots to victims or witnesses of sex crimes to advance investigations. As of today, a legal defence could argue that the tattoos were not visible and should not have been recorded. To a child victim, a tattoo can be more memorable than any other physical characteristic.
The RCMP's priority is to safeguard public safety, and these proposed amendments would support us in doing just that.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be with you this afternoon. I welcome your questions.