Sask. presses other provinces on sex offender name changes

Saskatchewan is calling for more provinces to follow its lead on blocking certain sex offenders from changing their names, after Alberta announced such a move on Wednesday.

Justice Minister Don Morgan commended Alberta for its decision. But he was worried gaps exist elsewhere. He expressed concern sex offenders who would be covered by Saskatchewan’s measures could simply travel to a province without a ban, change their name and then return.

“The concern is somebody moving from province to province changing their name in another jurisdiction,” Morgan told reporters on Wednesday.

“That was one of the triggering events that happened in Saskatchewan, somebody who had been convicted elsewhere moved to Saskatchewan and was able to change their name here.”

Saskatchewan announced its ban shortly after reporting by the Leader-post showed a man convicted of a sexual assault and child pornography offences in the United States moved to Saskatchewan and changed his name.

Updates to regulations in February prohibited people convicted of 20 different sexual offences, including sexual assault, sexual interference, child pornography, child luring and incest, from changing their names in Saskatchewan.

Morgan called the ban “common sense.”

“It’s a matter of safety for the public that they know that that individual has been convicted of that in the past,” he said.

But Morgan was not able to say how common it is for offenders to seek out jurisdictions with looser laws to more easily change their names.

In defending the ban more broadly, Morgan said the move is appropriate to prevent people from “masking their identity” through a name change.

“It doesn’t mean isn’t entitled to redemption or moving on,” he said.