BC: Premiers Pledge to Coordinate National Sex Offender Registry.

August 3, 2001

The Star

VICTORIA (CP) - Provincial premiers say they will go it alone in creating a national sex-offender registry.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who hosted the conference that wrapped up Friday, said the ideal situation would be if the federal government did it.

But until that happens, "we're not going to wait."

"We will work together as provinces in co-ordinating that approach in the hopes that we can bring the federal government on-stream so that we have a federal program that works for any province that wishes to take advantage to it,'' Campbell said.

Ontario already has such a registry. Alberta and British Columbia are working on one.

The issue was Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's top concern going into this week's premiers meeting.

Ottawa has already agreed to start a national registry based on the existing police database known as CPIC (the Canadian Police Information Computer) by next year. Creating a new system would be costly and unnecessary, federal officials said.

But critics say the CPIC system is out of date.

Chuck Cadman, who formed the victims rights group Crime, Responsibility and Youth after his son was beaten to death in the Vancouver area, said even police don't have complete confidence in it.

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Source: The Star