U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, left, during a news conference on April 28 in Ottawa.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Two federal cabinet ministers pledged to their American counterparts Friday that Ottawa will share information on Canadians convicted of sexual offences against children when they travel to the United States.
American administrations have been urging the federal government for years to share travel information on convicted pedophiles as the U.S. has been doing since 2016.
The issue was brought up at a crossborder-crime summit in Ottawa with Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, Justice Minister David Lametti, U.S. Attorney-General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Mr. Mendicino told reporters that Ottawa is taking the issue very seriously and has proposed legislation to respond to the American request to deny entry to such travellers.
“Our friends in the United States are knocking on an open door,” he said, noting that legislation tabled by the government in the Senate will “take very important and strong steps when it comes to sharing information about those sexual offenders who are placed on the registry here in Canada with the United States.”
Mr. Lametti said the legislation, which he presented to the Senate on Wednesday, will require convicted sexual offenders to give 14 days notice to the RCMP before they travel abroad.
“That information might be able to be shared with American border officials and we are also requiring sexual offenders to given an itinerary of places they are going to go,” Mr. Lametti said.
Canada and the United States also announced at the summit that they would share more information about the smuggling of guns and drugs across their border.
Mr. Mendicino said Ottawa has signed four new or updated agreements with Washington that allow the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency to exchange more data with partners south of the border.
Under the government’s sex-offender legislation, meanwhile, serious sex offenders of children and repeat sex offenders would be placed automatically on a revamped National Sex Offender Registry, but judges would have discretion over lifetime registration.
The legislation is the government’s response to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last October striking down automatic registration of sex offenders and mandatory lifetime registration for those convicted of two sex offences in a single prosecution.
The U.S. and Canada have sex-offender registries, and sexual predators of children are required to report any plans to travel outside the country to law-enforcement authorities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is required by law to notify all countries to which registered sex offenders travel outside the United States.
In Canada, sexual offenders of children must report within seven days before leaving the country the dates of their departure and return, and every address or location at which they expect to stay outside the country.
In the U.S., a child sex-trafficking law requires the State Department to place a “unique identifier” on the passports of convicted sex offenders of children. It also demands that such offenders notify law enforcement at least 21 days before travelling abroad.
Canadian law forbids the RCMP to share information on convicted sex offenders with another country unless the force has evidence an offence is going to be committed. All federal legislation in Canada must conform to the Privacy Act, which says that information about Canadians cannot be routinely shared.
The Americans want the high-risk-of-reoffence threshold lowered so they are informed of the travel of mid-risk convicted sexual offenders of children.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has access to the manifests of U.S. passenger airlines and cruise ships, which it runs through databases to determine if anyone who will be on board has been convicted of sexual abuse against children. The information is shared with Canadian authorities 24 to 48 hours before the trip.
In the first half of 2022, the U.S. shared travel details of 165 U.S. citizens convicted of sexual offences against children, according to U.S. data. Canada denied entry to 112 of those Americans. In the same period, Canada alerted the U.S. to one high-risk sexual offender of children. The U.S. denied entry to the individual.
The RCMP database, which manages the National Sex Offender Registry, has more than 59,069 registered sex offenders and, of those, about 72 per cent have committed sexual crimes against children.
These offenders must provide the RCMP registry with their date of birth, employment information, address, a photograph and physical description. They must notify the RCMP when they plan to travel within Canada or abroad.
With a report from The Canadian Press