Here are the links to the Court of Appeal’s Judgment in G. v Ontario striking down the application of Sex Offender Registries to absolutely discharged NCR accused. The declaration of invalidity is suspended for twelve months to allow the governments to respond. My profound thanks to Andrew Menchynski and Jill Presser as well as Law Professor Dr. Ruby Dhand who worked on this file as counsel to the Intervener Empowerment Council with me. Jennifer Chambers, the Executive Director of the Empowerment Council gave us sage strong instructions to push on forward. Not an easy path. This has been a pet project of mine together with Mercedes Perez since circa 2007. Finally, the sensible just result. Such a wonderful feeling!! A long journey’s end.
There is SO much amazing stuff in this Judgment, hard to even settle on highlights but there is one at para 134.
[134] The automatic imposition of long-term sex offender registry orders based on the prior commission of a designated offence by a person found NCRMD not only ignores the fact that the NCRMD person was not culpable in the commission of the crime, it has the real potential to undermine the very progress that led to the absolute discharge by the ORB. It is not far-fetched to suggest that, in some cases, the sex offender registry legislation will erect new barriers to the NCRMD person’s continued recovery and reintegration into society – one of the goals of Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code – at the very moment that the individual is declared by the ORB to be no longer subject to the criminal law power. Persons found NCRMD go from being treated in an individualized manner that recognizes their mental disability, to being treated in the same generalized fashion as morally culpable offenders, without any regard for their mental disability or their unique status in the eyes of the criminal law. This perpetuates rather than alleviates their systemic disadvantage.
anitaszigeti 