CFN – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak was joined by Gary Ellis, Ontario PC candidate for Scarborough-Guildwood to announce his plan to keep Ontario families and children safe by requiring registered sex offenders to wear GPS tracking devices.
While 14,000 registered sex offenders are currently living in Ontario communities, police have no way of tracking the movements of these predators. Hudak said he will protect families by putting GPS tracking on these dangerous offenders, giving police the tools they need to track them and, if needed, react immediately to protect the community.
QUOTES:
“If a convicted sex offender or child predator steps foot on a playground or near a school, I want the police to know.”
–Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader
“With 14,000 registered sex offenders living in our neighborhoods, families have a right to be kept safe. Using GPS technology to help police track these predators then react immediately if they pose a threat is the right thing to do. Unlike Dalton McGuinty we will not let a sexual predator’s right to privacy trump the rights of families who work hard and play by the rules.”
–Gary Ellis, Ontario PC Candidate, Scarborough – Guildwood
“I am very proud of this initiative as I believe that the first duty of any government is the protection of its most vulnerable citizens; our children. This will go a long way to provide the police with the tools they need to proactively monitor the management of high risk offenders and sexual predators in our communities.”
–Joe Wamback, Co-founder, Canadian Crime Victim Foundation
QUICK FACTS:
● Currently, there are over 14,000 names on Ontario’s sex offender registry. At any one time, the police have no idea where they are, or what they are doing.
● GPS technology would allow law enforcement officials to track what street a sexual predator is on and the speed they are going. Police would be able to monitor sex offenders and, if needed, stop them from entering an area where there could be children, like a school or playground.
● Three provinces, the federal government, and more than 40 U.S. States use GPS technology to monitor certain types of offenders.
OMG, what next, maybe we should make them wear sandwichboards too. Now that’ll teach them!
What is the cost of this versus keeping them in jail where they should be?
We are supposed to get more detail leading up to the election. The amount of money in total is about how much our cureent provincial government is racking up a day right now.
Her is some current news on the topic.
“Canada’s crime rate at lowest level in almost 40 years: Statscan”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-crime-rate-at-lowest-level-in-almost-40-years-statscan/article2104745/
The rumour is that the Federal Conservatives are going to have to import criminals to fill the new super prisons they are going to build. Will Hudac have to import sex offenders to put ankle bracelets on?
Harper and Hudak are envious of the American incarceration rate, which is the highest in the world.
Yes Reg, but as the article states “Statscan’s last victimization survey found that Canadians reported just 31 per cent of criminal incidents to police”.
Police / Lawyers are not pushing as hard as they did because Judges are too soft.
Think of the number of joints smoked in Canada in a year. I think many millions would be a good guess. Each time a bat is fired up, a crime is committed. What percentage of these criminal offenses is reported to the police?
We’re gonna have to build prisons to hold a few million Canadians if all these law-breakers are to be appropriately punished. What’s the definition of insanity?
What is it with Conservatives and their obsession with crime? You’d think they were scared of their own shadows.
Their obsession with crime got them their majority in Parliament.
What’s the definition of insanity? Thats simple: smoking pot!
The fact is that millions of Canadians continue to smoke pot, regardless of the law. If a law is ineffective and unenforceable, why continue wasting money and resources trying to do the impossible?
Furtz, insert forced bilingulism and you could say the same thing……..
I don’t recall ever being forced to speak two languages.
You can’t get your degree from Ottawa U without passing a french test. Increasingly provincially and certainly federally, you need both to get a job, but anyway, the point was an audit on the bilingulism policy is needed.
I agree Eric. People should be able to be served in the language of their choice, but that shouldn’t mean that only people with access to good government positions must be bilingual.
Interesting that our MPs and MPPs can receive very good pay and collect obscenely huge pensions with no requirement to be bilingual.
I do not find 107 Ontario MPP’s and 308 federal MP’s ( out of 35 million) requirements interesting as they are voted in by the public. What is interesting is why a fluently bilingual federal government employee sues Air Canada for half a million because he was served a sprite instead of a 7up. He was able to get 12,000 dollars this time. It must have been a bad vacation if this was so tramatic for him.
Air Canada is way above the numbers we see in daily life for bilingual employees.
This is the sick society we live in today!
When it comes to ignoring empirical research, the Ontario Conservatives are no different than their federal counterparts. Is this really the type of Premier we want in Ontario?
Here are some of the things that Mr. Hudak is NOT telling you:
1. Mr. Hudak says the legislation is necessary to protect society from ‘those predators’. Mr. Hudak likely already knows, or SHOULD know, that former sex offenders have a lower recidivism rate that any other group of offender. Most will never reoffend.
http://ontarioregistryandgps.webs.com/supplementalresources.htm
2.The Canadians sex offender registries, utilizing funds and police resources now for over a decade, have never assisted in solving even one crime. Politicians have ignored requests to have the registry assessed for effectiveness.
http://www.priv.gc.ca/parl/2010/parl_20100415_e.cfm
3. Mr. Hudak estimated the cost to be c. $50 million. Solicitor General Jim Bradley said in order to use effective technology the price tag would actually be “quadruple” that. So, we’re now looking at approximately $200 million dollars per year.
4. Minnesota Department of Corrections stated of gps usage “It does not prevent offenders from committing crimes.”
5. Preventing former offenders from reintegrating into society INCREASES RECIDIVISM
.http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/historia/sivut/english/nam/material/SexlawsEconomist060809.pdf
HERE ARE MORE *FACTS*:
http://ontarioregistryandgps.webs.com
Head of the Toronto Police Sex Offender Registry Enforcement Unit, Sgt. Sue Crone:
“If you disclose where these individuals are living in the community, it is not unusual that they become harassed and that may cause them to move underground, so we would not be able to have any control of these guys,”
She also said “the noncompliance rate is “minimal.” and Hudak’s strategy is “not appropriate” for the sex offender registry. “Some of these people may have committed one act and they will never re-offend again,’ she said.
There is a growing body of solid knowledge about sex offender recidivism. What is known about the rate of recidivism for sex offenders appears to be frequently misunderstood when it comes to developing policies for successful sex offender management. Many of the preconceived notions surrounding sexual abuse appear to be based on myths and misconceptions rather then empirical evidence (CSOM, 2000).
In fact, the majority of sex offenders do not re-offend sexually over time (Harris & Hanson, 2004). Additionally, research studies over the past two decades have
consistently indicated that recidivism rates for sex offenders are, in reality, lower than the re-offense rates for most other types of offenders.
California Sex Management Board,
http://www.casomb.org/docs/SOMBReport1.pdf
“The Ontario sex offender registry has been operational for over ten years. In 2007, the Ontario Auditor General observed, there is little evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of registries in reducing sexual crimes or helping investigators to solve them and the Ministry has yet to establish performance measures for its Registry”
http://www.priv.gc.ca/parl/2010/parl_20100415_e.cfm
“… if we are to believe even half of the research that has been conducted across this nation in this field, then we can only conclude that, in general, sex offender registration… have little or no discernible effect on recidivism or public safety. The most prevalent threat to the public comes from those who have not yet offended or have not yet been identified and caught.”
Report of Iowa Sex Offender Research Council to the Iowa General Assembly, Appendix 2, January, 2009
http://www.humanrights.iowa.gov/cjjp/images/pdf/SOTF%201-15-09%20Final%20Report.pdf
Page 15
@ Michael. The Cons have no interest in proper scientific studies or research. They are appealing to the large segment of voters who have an irrational fear of crime, and it works.
I certainly understand that. Too bad that sad fact is going to make the entire situation so much worse. of course the politicians won’t care as long as they get their votes.
Here’s a column published by the Toronto Sun, about me:
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/27/the-sex-offender-who-isnt-a-monster
Here’s my website. If you really want to know how effective the GPS and online registry will be, and how it will affect you, take a look:
http://ontarioregistryandgps.webs.com
Un-freakin’-believable! I kiss my four rear old granddaughter every time I see her.