Law would prevent dangerous and long-term offenders from changing their names

Legislation introduced Monday would prevent more violent criminals from legally changing their names in Alberta.

If passed, the bill would prevent dangerous offenders and long-term offenders from changing their identities in the province for the rest of their lives.

"Under my watch, I'm unwilling to allow even one of these violent criminals to be able to change their names, hide from their past, get a fresh start, because I know that they pose a significant public safety risk," Nate Glubish, minister for Service Alberta, said at a Monday press conference.

Glubish said "monsters" deserve no anonymity and should have to live with the consequences of their choices.

Glubish's bill would also stop offenders recently released from prison and declared "high risk" by police from seeking a new name.

Unlike criminals declared a long-term threat by the court, high-risk offenders would only be banned from name changes while they carry that temporary designation.

Other provinces urged to adopt law

Glubish said he's also determined to push all other Canadian jurisdictions to adopt similar laws. He said it would be too easy for a criminal to move to another province or territory and apply for a legal name change there.

Alberta will be the first province to adopt such a law, should the legislature pass it.

On Monday, Glubish sent letters to his counterparts across the country, asking them to follow suit and offering Alberta's assistance.

Bill 61, the Vital Statistics Amendment Act 2021, comes on the heels of a similar legal change last year that stops sex offenders from changing their names. 

But last fall, a dangerous offender who had no convictions for sexual offences sought to change his name and conceal that information from the public.

A judge declared Leo Teskey a dangerous offender in 2010 after a long string of convictions. He beat Edmonton landlord Dougald Miller into a vegetative state in 2000. He shot a police officer in the back of the head in 1988 and assaulted a toddler in 1994.

The case caught Glubish's attention, and he pushed to extend the name-change ban.

Survivors have right to data, advocate says

Karen Kuntz, who experienced a violent sexual assault, said survivors and victims of crime have a right to information about their attackers long after they go to prison.

Kuntz, who is also the executive director of the Airdrie and District Victims Assistance Society, said knowing the identity of her attacker allowed her to take precautions.

After the traumatic event, her assailant said if she told anyone what he'd done to her, he'd kill her. She said she spent years looking over her shoulder. She feared he would target her daughters and show up at their school.

"Those who make the conscious choice to intentionally hurt another human being, someone who drastically changed the course of that person's life, they, the offender, should never be allowed to hide," Kuntz said.

She said victims live with the repercussions of their attacker's choices for the rest of their lives.

A fraction of the people convicted of crimes carry the designation of dangerous or long-term offender.

65 dangerous offenders in Alberta

A judge may declare a person a dangerous offender when they have a history of inflicting serious injuries and show a pattern of behaviour that's unlikely to change. Dangerous offenders must spend at least seven years in prison without a chance to apply for parole, and their situation is reviewed every two years thereafter.

There were 65 people designated dangerous offenders in Alberta as of early 2019, according to Public Safety Canada.

A long-term offender is a repeat offender who is also likely commit further crimes. A judge may assign the less restrictive designation to a person who should spend at least two years in prison but could eventually be controllable in the community.

At last count, there were 79 long-term offenders in Alberta.

High-risk offenders are people who are released on parole or complete a prison sentence who police decide still pose some risk. Should Bill 61 pass, high-risk offenders would be ineligible to change their names until police remove the designation.

The bill also makes other, unrelated changes to the Vital Statistics Act, including an expanded definition of the word "place" to allow life events such as marriages or births to be recorded in national parks or First Nations reserves, rather than the closest municipality.

People would also have 10 days, up from seven, to register the birth of an abandoned newborn, and allow more people to apply to make changes to a child's birth certificate.