Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro says the Supreme Court of Canada decision to forego adding repeat sex offenders to a national registry will make the country more dangerous.."The decision to end automatic registration on the sex offender registry will make it harder to ensure that these crimes are not repeated," Shandro said in a statement..On October 28, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a 2011 change to the Criminal Code calling it unconstitutional to require the automatic addition of sex offenders' names to a registry..READ MORE: Supreme Court overturns law requiring sex offenders to be added to registry.The change in Canada's Criminal Code came during former prime minister Stephen Harper's leadership and took the decision away from judges making it mandatory that all offenders have their names added to the National Sex Offender Registry. Those with two or more offences would remain on the registry for life..Friday's five-to-four ruling now permits anyone who has been added to the registry since 2011 to apply to have their status changed..“As the dissenting argument rightly points out, this decision was made using an exceptional case and ignores the ‘rampant misuse of judicial discretion prior to the amendment.’ Prior to automatic registration, the registry’s low inclusion rate undermined its effectiveness," Shandro said.."The risk of reoffending is not clear at sentencing and therefore parliament was right in casting a wide net.".Shandro said he believes an automatic listing on the sex offender registry helped build a comprehensive database for law enforcement and acted as an important tool in helping monitor sexual offenders in our communities.."Every Albertan deserves to feel safe from those who would cause them harm," Shandro said..“This decision will have an outsized impact on women, who are overwhelmingly the victims of sex crimes. We are calling on the House of Commons to reconvene immediately and invoke the notwithstanding clause to restore automatic registration to the sex offender registry.”
