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Sex offender registry needed for NWT: Hawkins

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 19/04) - A pair of vicious sexual assaults on two young girls has prompted one MLA to demand that the territorial government set up a sex offender registry.

At Tuesday's meeting of the legislative assembly, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins asked Justice Minister Charles Dent to investigate implementing a registry in the NWT.

Hawkins' question came after a story in Monday's News/North chronicled how a teen-aged sex offender was able to attack two girls, aged 12 and 11, within days of being released from an intensive therapy program.

Despite warnings he might re-offend, the teen was on unsupervised probation after serving his sentence for three earlier sex crimes against young girls.

"Sadly, it might not have prevented the first assault, but (that incident) certainly would've drawn closer scrutiny by the authorities if they knew there was a predator in the area," Hawkins said. The teenaged rapist was only identified as a suspect after a relative of another assault victim saw him walking on the street and contacted police.

The teen pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault and another of sexual assault with a weapon in June 2003. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment last January. It was recommended that he be enrolled in a sex offender treatment program in Saskatoon.

Hawkins suggested the government look into an offer from the Ontario government to supply any province or territory with a free copy of the software developed for Ontario's sex offender registry.

"They've done the research, they've done the investment, they've come up with a system that works," Hawkins said.

"We have this opportunity, so why aren't we reaching for this?"

Hawkins wasn't the only MLA to question the government over its handling of sex offenders in the territory.

Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee questioned the government's resolve on making sure sex offenders are not given a free pass to re-offend.

"Young girls are being sexually assaulted in our backyards at knifepoint," said Lee.

"What can (Dent) do in his power to make sure this doesn't happen again."

During their questions, Hawkins and Lee referred repeatedly to the News/North story.

Dent said he isn't sure if it would be possible to create an NWT-based registry but he promised to look into it.

"I'd have to take a look at how it works," said Dent.

"What we're talking about are federal offenders. We don't have any control over where they're released or how they're released. I'm not even sure if the federal parole board notifies the RCMP."

The father of one of the victims told Yellowknifer, however, that the government must press ahead with a registry no matter how hard it is to implement.

"I just hope this doesn't get buried in the hands of a legislative committee or in the hands of some bureaucrat," he said.

"Just because something is hard to do doesn't mean it's wrong to do. Anything that protects people and helps police is worth the effort."