Did Canada keep sex offender secret?
Man who sexually assaulted son now charged in Ohio with assault of his daughter
Police in Ohio say they were never told that an American man accused of sexually assaulting his daughter had been deported from Canada after being convicted of a similar offence in Alberta 20 years ago.
And border officials in both countries are refusing to say whether criminal records of sex offenders are shared in deportation cases. The American man, who is not named in order to protect the identity of the victims at the centre of the case, was living in Canada as a permanent resident when he was convicted of sexually assaulting his son.
He was sentenced to two-and-ahalf years in an Alberta prison before he was deported to the U.S. in 1998.
He is now charged in Oregon, Ohio, with the sexual assault of his daughter, who court documents say is under 10 years old.
The Oregon police chief said his department had no way of knowing that the convicted sex offender was living in the community — and that he believes they should have been told.
“When he got out of jail he was deported, and there was no notification made, as far as I can tell, to anybody in the U.S.,” said Oregon police Chief Mike Navarre.
Navarre said that after learning of the man’s history from family members, his department reached out to Calgary police, who were “very helpful” in confirming the man’s criminal record.
Neither Canada Border Services Agency nor the U.S. Customs and Border Protection would tell the Star whether American authorities are told when someone convicted of a sex crime in Canada is deported back to the U.S.
“The very nature of our operations prevents us from discussing details related to these types of initiatives, but we can confirm we are fully engaged and working closely with U.S. and other international partners,” said CBSA spokeswoman Wendy Atkin in an email.
People with criminal convictions in Canada are included in the Canadian Police Information Centre database, which U.S. border authorities have access to, the CBSA said.
However, the U.S. border service would not say whether information about sex offenders returning to the U.S. is specifically relayed to local law enforcement.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection “provides the law enforcement community with access to computer-based enforcement files of common interest,” CBP spokesman Jim Burns said in an email.
Citing privacy legislation, Burns refused to say if American authorities are told when sex offenders are deported to the U.S.
“We can’t say anything further then what I sent you,” Burns said in a telephone interview.
Although Canada does maintain a national sex offender registry, it is unlikely that the accused would have been on it, because he was released from prison six years before the Canadian government passed the Sexual Offender Information Registration Act.
According to the RCMP, the registry only contains names of those convicted after 2004, or who were in prison when the registry was created (except in the case of Ontario, which began its own registry in 2001).
Navarre said this case highlights the flaws in the Canadian system.
Unlike Ohio, which makes public the names and addresses of sex offenders who have been released from prison, Canada’s national sex offender registry can only be accessed by law enforcement.
Navarre believes public registries help people make “informed choices” about their safety and could have prevented the accused man’s partner from getting involved with him.
“It may not have had any effect on this person hooking up with this woman in our city,” Navarre said. “But it could have, it could have made a difference.”
That’s not the approach Canada takes, said Anthony Doob, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto who is an expert in sex offender recidivism. Public registries can make it difficult for offenders to find work or a place to live — both factors that can make it more likely for someone to reoffend, he said.
“The presence of a public registry does not guarantee anything. But, in addition, even if there were a benefit in some circumstances, the question one has to ask is whether it would impede peaceful reintegration in even more cases,” Doob said in an email to the Star.
If the accused had been on the national registry, RCMP spokeswoman Annie Delisle said there is no reciprocity between U.S. sex offender registries and Canada’s national database.
Foreign law enforcement agencies do not have direct access to Canada’s registry, although Canadian police will provide information on a caseby-case basis to aid in an investigation. Once an offender is deported from Canada, they no longer have to update the police with their location, although they remain on the registry in case they do return to the country.