Letter of the Week

As printed in the Whitehorse Star and other newspapers

Letter to the Editor

Re: Sex Offender Registry

I have read that the new, about-to-be-implemented sex offender registry is flawed in such a way that it will strictly limit the effectiveness of the registry as a whole.

I completely agree. Any sex offender, past or present must be required under penalty of incarceration to be on this list.

Further, everyone on this list should lose the right to require a search warrant if the police want to check out their premises. If police want to search their home, with or without a warrant, they must be required under threat of imprisonment to assist the police in opening locked doors, cabinets, closets or safes.

They should be required to submit a photograph that is guaranteed to be a true picture by someone
who has known them for more than 2 years, such as a parole officer. If they move, they need to be required to report to the registry their new premises within 10 days or face a 10 year prison term.

Here's the capper: they need to be made to pay a fee every five years and update their file, again, under threat of incarceration, for the priviledge of being on this list.

Think this sounds like an unreasonably harsh list of requirements? I don't -- you see, it's LESS extreme than what a gun owner who has NEVER broken the law is required to submit to simply because he or she is a firearms owner. I, for one, am tired of being treated as a lower class of citizen than a sexual predator because I like to shoot at targets in my spare time.

Steve Stubley
Mission, BC