Proposed legislation to be introduced by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews will make it more difficult for sex offenders to get pardons.

Toews and conservative Senator Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu, recently announced legislative amendments to strengthen the National Sex Offender Registry and the National DNA Data Bank, as well as the need for changes to the pardon system.

“Our government is taking action to ensure that sex offenders are properly identified so that police have the tools to do their jobs, and so Canadians can feel safe in their communities,” said Minister Toews.

Some of the proposed amendments would ensure that: convicted sex offenders are automatically included in the registry, that police could use the registry proactively to prevent sexual offences, and that police can notify foreign or other Canadian police when high-risk offenders are traveling in their areas.

“We are committed to advancing this legislation to ensure that the National Sex Offender Registry is an effective tool to prevent and investigate crimes,” said Senator Boisvenu.

“Our government will continue to work with the provinces and territories, our partners in the administration and enforcement of the Registry.”

The government is also planning to introduce new legislation to toughen the pardon system, in reaction to revelations earlier his month that sex offender Graham James, the disgraced former hockey coach, received a pardon three years ago.
The conservative government, under then Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, reviewed the system for sex-offender pardons in 2006 and settled for only minor changes.

The most significant change to come from that review was that two members of the National Parole Board, rather than one, screen applications for sex offenders.

“The basics of the system are put in place so a person can have a second chance in life," says Day.

“Ninety-eight per cent of all people who get pardoned, in fact, stay on the straight and narrow and appreciate the chance they have received.”

“For the few that could possibly continue to be a threat, we want to find a way to prevent that.”

Under the current legislation, the government will be powerless to stop Karla Homolka from applying for a pardon when her eligibility comes up this summer.

Homolka’s case shocked Canadians when she was tried and convicted for the rape, torture and murder of two schoolgirls in the 1990s.

Homolka was freed in July 2005, after only 12 years in prison, and if her pardon is accepted she would be free to travel without the information surfacing in background checks.

About 99 per cent of all pardon applications are granted, according to Toews.

Toews expects to table a new bill to make pardons harder or even impossible for the worst of Canada’s criminals to obtain.