Ottawa will reinstate some sex-offender program funding
OTTAWA — The federal government has partly reversed a spending cut after being told the cut could expose Canadians, especially children, to greater risk from dangerous sexual deviants.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Thursday he asked Correctional Service Canada to reconsider cutting off a program called Circles of Support and Accountability. Circles tries to help integrate sexual offenders into society when they are released from prison.
The announcement followed the second straight day of opposition questioning of the decision to stop funding Circles, which has been copied in the U.S. and Britain.
“Canadian families know they can count on our government to take strong action to protect children from sexual predators,” Blaney said.
A day earlier, Blaney defended the cuts in the House of Commons, saying it wasn’t part of the Correctional Service’s mandate to fund ex-convicts who are no longer on parole.
Thursday’s change of heart doesn’t fully rescue the program. The correctional agency said only $650,000 of the $2.2 million Circles has received annually since 2009 will be restored.
That would force a restructuring from a professional national organization to one largely run by volunteers operating from their homes, according to Andrew McWhinnie, a Vancouver psychologist on contract to advise Ottawa on the program.
The $2.2 million, with the exception of the $650,000 restored Thursday, stops flowing in September.
“After that, we are back to the kitchen table. Half of (Circles) staff will be let go, offices and phones and the infrastructure will close,” McWhinnie said Thursday.
He said the program, which serves 155 high-risk sexual offenders will have to downsize to the 50 or so it handled before the injection of federal funds in 2009.
Circles, founded by a Mennonite pastor in Hamilton in 1994, has been funded since then by the Correctional Service and has branches across Canada.
Studies funded by the federal government in 2005 and 2008 indicated that high-risk sexual offenders who entered the program were less likely to re-offend.