Top court agrees Christopher’s Law discriminates
Sex offender registry deemed unfair to those with mental disability
After a seven-year legal battle, a man found not criminally responsible in a sexual assault case will no longer be required to report to police under an Ontario law the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed is discriminatory toward people with a mental disability.
In a decision released Friday, the top court upheld an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that found Ontario’s Christopher’s Law is discriminatory and violates the charter rights of people found not criminally responsible in sexual assault cases.
The law “draws discriminatory distinctions between people found guilty” and people found not criminally responsible of sexual offences “on the basis of mental disability,” the court found.
“These discriminatory distinctions cannot be justified in a free and democratic society.
The remedy granted by the Court of Appeal was appropriate, and its orders should be upheld.”
The Ontario man, referred to as Mr. G in court filings to protect the privacy of his family, was granted an absolute discharge in 2003 after being found not criminally responsible for a 2001 sexual assault on his then wife.
Yet, unlike someone actually found guilty of a sexual offence,
Mr. G couldn’t seek a pardon and had no pathway to be removed from a sexual assault registry, which would relieve him of the requirement to routinely report to police.
Mr. G was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and was added to both the Ontario and federal sex offender registries. Both required rigid reporting requirements. Last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal found both registries discriminated against people with a mental disability.
While Ottawa chose not to appeal, Ontario forged ahead, arguing the appeal court got it wrong when it came to Christopher’s Law.
Marshall Swadron, Mr. G’s lawyer, said the Supreme Court decision “cuts away at the stereotype that equates mental illness with violence and recognizes that people found not criminally responsible are just as capable of rehabilitation as anyone else.”
Mr. G is a middle-aged executive living in a Toronto-area neighbourhood with his second wife. In 2001, he was not doing well after the sudden death of his father and recovering from an exhausting business trip. The Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., he said, drove him “over the top and into a manic state.”
His wife obtained a restraining order, which Mr. G broke and police also charged him with sexual assault after his wife told police about a nonconsensual sex during his manic state.
Shortly before Mr. G was found not criminally responsible, Ontario passed its sex-offender registry, known as Christopher’s Law for 11-yearold Christopher Stephenson, who in 1988 was kidnapped from a Brampton mall by a repeat child molester, then abused and killed.
Though granted an absolute discharge in 2003, Mr. G was “devastated” to learn he would be “marked for life,” Mr. G said in a written response to Star questions at the time of the court of appeal decision.
He had to regularly report to the parole and bail office, provide physical details of his body parts and report travel plans.
Mr. G’s challenge of the law began seven years ago. After 17 years of reporting to authorities, he will no longer be required to, which left him “thrilled and quite relieved,” Swadron said.
The Ontario appeal court decision was lauded as a major victory by advocates for people living with mental illness. Ontario must now fix an “unjust law” that “trapped” people in a “perpetual cycle of monitoring and reporting long after they recovered and actually impeded recovery,” Swadron said.