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Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich speaks at a news conference Friday in Mississauga.

A move by the provincial government to strengthen Ontario’s sex offender registry will help police better monitor the 750 offenders — 185 of them considered “high risk” — in Mississauga and Brampton, say Peel police officials.

“Our numbers represent the second highest per capita figure in Ontario. That’s why the proposed changes and current legislation are so important to our ability to protect our community,” Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said at a news conference in Mississauga on Friday.

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner headlined the media event, held to announce that his government would soon introduce changes to Christopher’s Law in an effort to give police “more tools to better monitor and supervise” the more than 14,000 registered sex offenders across the province.

Christopher’s Law, under which Ontario’s Sex Offender Registry was established in 2001, is named after Christopher Stephenson, an 11-year-old Brampton boy abducted and killed in June 1988 by a known sex offender. Ontario remains the only province in Canada with such a criminal registry.

Ontario government officials said the proposed changes to the law also include a call for prevent sex offenders from legally changing their names in Ontario so they cannot hide their identity.

“Decades ago, Ontario led the way in creating Canada’s first sex offender registry, and today we are strengthening it,” Kerzner said at the news conference. “By introducing changes to make Christopher’s Law more effective, we are giving police new tools to prevent, investigate and solve egregious sex crimes to protect the most vulnerable people, especially our children. »

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner speaks at a news conference Friday in Mississauga.

According to the province, the proposed changes would help “maintain Ontario’s high compliance rate” for registered sex offenders and high-risk sex offenders by:

• require sex offenders to report to a police department within a prescribed time frame after being ordered to serve a suspended sentence
• requiring sex offenders to report to a police department within a prescribed time frame after receiving a passport or driver’s license
• require offenders to report when they begin using or changing email addresses, social media usernames and other digital identifiers
• add strict new travel notification requirements, including requiring registered sex offenders to provide 14 days’ notice if they intend to travel for seven days or more and requiring registered child sex offenders to provide notice if they must leave Canada for any length of time

Milinovich said the proposed additional reporting requirements would help police better monitor the activities of sex offenders and establish more accountability for those offenders.

The bottom line, he added, is that the requested changes “will make it more difficult to reoffend and avoid detection.”

Christopher Project created in 2021

The deputy chief further noted that the proposed changes targeting offenders’ online activities “are critical because we know that sexual predators are increasingly using online platforms to target our communities.”

Milinovich also highlighted a Peel Police initiative launched in 2021, known as Project Christopher, through which police proactively monitor registered sex offenders to ensure compliance.

So far in 2024, he said, Peel police have conducted 500 compliance investigations that have led to 36 arrests and 82 criminal charges.

Peel Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah also offered his full support for the Ontario government’s proposed changes to the law.

“In 1988, the Stephenson family suffered a devastating and unimaginable loss when their child was fatally abducted by a known sex offender,” the chief said in a press release. “The proposed changes to Christopher’s Law aim to strengthen the protection of children and families by implementing stricter conditions for sex offenders in our community and improving police enforcement capabilities. Peel Regional Police commend the Stephenson family for their tireless efforts to ensure other families are protected.

Milinovich described the man who kidnapped and killed Christopher Stephenson as “a 45-year-old man with an extensive criminal record who had previously sexually assaulted eight children and had been released from prison two months earlier.”

Known sex offender Joseph Fredericks later confessed to killing Christopher.

A coroner’s inquest following Christopher’s murder revealed how inadequately sex offenders were managed in Ontario. A number of recommendations emerged from the investigation.

As a result of the tireless efforts of the Stephenson family, Christopher’s Law was enacted in 2001, creating Canada’s first sex offender registry.

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