NDP bill that would forbid sex offenders from changing name unwise, unhelpful: advocates
They say National Sex Offender Registry guidelines are more than sufficient
A proposed bill that would bar convicted sex offenders from legally changing their name in Manitoba will not improve public safety and might even drive them away from the programs they need, restorative justice advocates say.
"This would mean then that we want to label and stigmatize people, and we want to keep them in that place for the rest of their lives. We want people to identify them by the name that they had whenever a particular thing was done so that they're identified as a sex offender," said Chris Cowie, executive director of Community Justice Initiatives.
Cowie says many believe such treatment acts as some sort of deterrent — "that it's a punishment that helps them to always know what they've done, and it'll stop them from doing it again," he said. "That's not true."
"Anything we do that further stigmatizes people like that increases the very types of offences that ostensibly we want to stamp out. That's just pure and simple. We increase the potential for those things to happen. This only exacerbates the problem."
On Thursday, Government Services Minister Lisa Naylor introduced The Change of Name Amendment Act at the legislature.
Bill 23 would require anyone who applies to change their name to include a certified criminal record check on top of the existing requirement for fingerprints.
If someone is flagged as having committed one of the yet-to-be-determined offences, their application won't be processed, Naylor said.
"When someone has survived sexual violence, they want to know that the perpetrator can't simply hide behind a new identity," Naylor told reporters Thursday. "This legislation makes Manitoba a more hostile environment for serious violent offenders."
Cowie and his team have worked with dozens of convicted sex offenders over the years. He says some have been in their programs for more than a decade, have created safety and accountability plans and are taking meaningful steps in their lives to ensure they never reoffend.
"When people have accepted accountability in that kind of way then I don't understand why we feel the need to continue to stigmatize them as though they did something yesterday and are going to do it again tomorrow," he said. "I think that that's problematic and doesn't contribute to a healthy and peaceful kind of society that we're in."
Cowie and other advocates question why the potential change is even necessary given the current guidelines that must be followed under the National Sex Offender Registry.
They say there are already checks and balances in place to ensure the safety of Canadians.
System to track offenders already in place
Canada already has a system in place for tracking sex offenders across the country.
The National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) is a national registration system for sex offenders convicted of designated sex offences and ordered by the courts to report annually to police.
The registry helps police prevent and investigate crimes of a sexual nature by providing up to date information related to sex offenders, and an instant list of those registered and living within a particular area.
As of Nov. 22, 2023, there were 3,266 registered sex offenders in Manitoba. Of that total, 2,303 are registered as child sex offenders, according to the RCMP.
The sex offender registry is not public and can only be accessed by Canadian police agencies.
"At the end of the day, for individuals who are convicted of these types of crimes, many of them are going to be placed on orders that they're going to have to abide by for, you know, possibly their whole lives," said Chris Gamby, director of communications for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba.
According to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, sex offenders in Canada must register, in most cases within seven days, after being ordered to do so in a court proceeding.
The information provided by each offender includes their full name, date of birth, gender, contact details, physical description, address of educational institution, vehicle details, driver's licence number and passport number.
Any change in information must be reported to police within seven days.
"They're already being held accountable in a way that we often don't for other types of crimes," he said. "Part of that is the protection and safety of the public, too. But the point of not allowing somebody to change their name? those court orders survive that name change."
Since April 2021, 69 offenders have changed their name, and only four of those are in Manitoba, according to the RCMP.
The move by the NDP appears more politically driven than safety motivated, Gamby says.
"Once they've paid their debt to society, once they've effectively done everything they need to do to be reintegrated, we allow them to do that. That's part of the point, so I don't really know what this achieves," he said.
"What is the end goal? Is it to keep society safer, or is it to stigmatize people who have already paid their debt to society or prevent them from escaping that stigma? I don't know what this is helping."
Focus on re-integration: advocate
For decades, Cliff Yumansky has not only worked directly with convicted sex offenders but, in his previous job, he worked on policy on high-risk offenders at Public Safety Canada.
"It's virtually impossible for these guys to try and escape the system," said Yumansky, the executive director of Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA).
CoSA focuses on the safe reintegration of people returning home from incarceration — usually high-risk, high-needs people convicted of a sexual offence.
While it is important to recognize the impact offenders have on communities, Yumansky says, it needs to be balanced.
"There's obviously an outrage on the part of the public with these certain individuals coming back into the community, so we have to weigh the balance between protecting communities and making sure the authorities are aware of these individuals and not disappearing," he said.
He says the focus should be on ensuring there are wrap-around supports for sex offenders when they get out of jail.
"We have upwards of 88 per cent success rate in terms of reduction of recidivism with their involvement in that program, service and support and accountability," he said.
Yumansky says the best way to stop them from re-offending and keeping society safe is to keep them connected with organizations and offer support during their reintegration into society.
"I believe very strongly one of the most important criteria for successful integration is to allow these individuals to get re-involved with their families, get employment," Yumansky said.
He said it can be difficult and "virtually impossible" for people with a criminal record — especially sex offenders who are not eligible for a pardon — to gain employment, and this proposed legislation could make it even harder.
Legislation such as the one proposed by the NDP could cause sex offenders to disengage with the programs that are meant to help them and that is where the bigger danger lies, he says.
"I would rather know that the individual is out there being worked with, being supervised in a program like ours, rather than going underground and basically just disappearing," Yumansky said.
"That's the worst thing that could happen with this particular offender population."
