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A rchive Date
[ 08-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
      [http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/rodriguez.html

      Dance of the absurd
      By JOSE RODRIGUEZ - Calgary Sun
      November 8, 2002
        One step forward. Two steps back,
        justice ministers on attack.
        Keep the perverts in your sights,
        just don't trample on their rights.

      It's a sickening do-si-do when it comes to dealing with this country's biggest scumbags.

      This week, provincial justice ministers met with their federal overlords in Calgary and the feds bowed to a decade of pressure by moving forward on a national sex offender registry.

      All good.

      Except every single pervert and pedophile already doing time for some of this country's most heinous crimes won't be on it. Only convictions that occur after the new legislation is enacted will be included.

      Why not the creeps already in jail? Something about protecting their privacy, Charter rights, yadda, yadda, yadda.

      Misplaced importance on the rights of people who place no importance the rights of others. Now, as in most cases, expect Alberta to inject a bit of common sense into the mind-boggling federal two-step.

      Alberta Solicitor General Heather Forsyth, who has a long record of putting children's rights above those who choose to hurt them, was pushing to make the legislation retroactive.

      Works for me. Not for the lawmakers. Here's their plan.

      Convicted sex offenders will have to provide police with up-to-date addresses and identifying marks such as tattoos within 15 days of conviction or release from jail. Information would be available to cops - and only cops - on the Canadian Police Information Centre computer database. It will allow officers to identify possible suspects known to live in the area of an attack.

      Calgary police Detective Harv Davies of the high-risk offender program has the unpleasant but rewarding task of keeping tabs on Calgary's worst sex offenders once they get out of jail. He welcomes any new tools to help keep city streets safe but agrees that a retroactive registry would be much more useful.

      When asked what he thinks of the new plan, he says: "It's better than nothing."

      Better than nothing, but far from ideal. Sex offenders and pedophiles are the most dangerous of deviants. They cross a certain line that even career criminals find disgusting and they are often a high risk to reoffend.

      While killers and dope dealers tend to prey on people in their own circles, sexual deviants are generally indiscriminate. That's what makes them so dangerous. So instead of taking baby steps to a sex offender registry, we should take one giant leap to help each of us protect ourselves and our children.

      Create a retroactive national registry that's open to the public - not just police. Make it available on the web and to the media, so every time an offender moves into a different province or neighbourhood, those who have to live next door will at least know. Alberta is already doing this, so why can't we create a national databank.

      I can hear the civil libertarians screaming already about how we'd drive them underground, etc., etc. That's a risk I think most parents are willing to take in providing security for their families.

      It's time to get tough on scum and stop dancing around in circles.

      Jose Rodriguez can be reached by e-mail at jose.rodriguez@calgarysun.com
      Letters to the editor should be sent to       callet@sunpub.com



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