I am so grateful to the Dr. Phil show and to you sir for your courage! I live in Canada ,and here in Canada our children are not valued it seems as much as American children. Our government refuses to make the child sex offender registry public. Our government protects the privacy of pedophiles. I have written several letters to Canadian newspapers trying to inform the public and let them know that we need to SPEAK out on this issue and demand that our government give Canadian parents the tools to protect their children.
If there are any Canadians reading this message board I urge you to write our Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper, and demand he make the child sex offender registry public...we have the right to be given the tools to protect our children...the following letters are letters I have written to Canadian Newspapers...please copy and paste them into an email and forward them to all your friends, family and contacts...
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An open letter to Stephen Harper
Dear Mr. Harper,
The most important of the 7 Conservative Party’s Stand Up For Canada Policy’s key issues is “Security”...security for our children.
You say that the Conservative Party will stand up for…
· “Protecting women and children from sex offenders through a mandatory DNA data bank, raising the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 years old, and ending all defense loopholes for child pornography.”
Children indeed need protection from child sex offenders, but Mr. Harper, you don’t plan to make the sex offender registry available to the Canadian public so parents can pro-actively protect their children from known child sex predators.
You, and people who don’t believe the sex offender registry should be open to the public are concerned about vigilantism.
You say, “Let the police deal with pedophiles.” I say, “Let the police deal with vigilantes.”
In the
United States
the public has access to the names, photos and addresses of known child sex predators. In the
United States
parents are given the tools to protect their children.
The Canadian Sex Offender Registry is available to law enforcement only so that they may easily locate sex offenders after they have re-offended.
Pedophiles in our communities, is a fact of life. Pedophiles don’t believe that having sex with children is wrong. Pedophiles are master manipulators who lure, groom and seduce innocent children into the dark, violent world of child pornography and adults having sex with children.
Mr. Harper, if a convicted child sex predator were to move in next door to you and your children and this information was kept from you to protect the pedophile from your potential vigilantism, would that be ok with you?
I’ve read that a large percentage of convicted pedophiles report being victims of child sexual abuse themselves. People with the courage to speak break chains.
Don’t facilitate the secret Mr. Harper…facilitate bringing the monster out of the dark into the light. Knowledge is power.
You need to add another key issue to your list…
· “Stand up for protecting pedophiles from vigilantes secondary to standing up for protecting children from pedophiles because the Conservative Party of Canada does plan to make the child sex offender registry available to the Canadian public so that parents can protect their children…because we believe children are Canada’s most precious resource.”
Who do we protect, Mr. Harper?
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SAVE THE CHILDREN
Conservative Gerry Martiniuk who is fighting to have the
Ontario
sex offender registry made public said, "We are presently surrendering our children's right to safety by protecting the identity of sexual predators."
However, Steve Gehl, a lawyer in
Waterloo
, Ont., in a recent Globe and Mail article said, “Opening up the databases for public scrutiny would be a big mistake, and not just because it is an invasion of privacy.”
What about the rights of the children? When an adult rapes an innocent child they forfeit all rights to privacy, in terms of protecting other children from meeting the same fate. Mr. Gehl also stated that he believed making the sex offender registry would drive pedophiles underground. The internet is underground to pedophiles, Mr. Gehl. And they are thriving there now.
When I think about not making the sex offender registry available to parents for fear of vigilantism or stepping on the “rights” of child predators, all I have to do is consider the alternative and it’s a no brainer for me.
Pedophiles don’t operate from a place of fear. They count on ours. They have their own organization. Their proud mantra is “Sex after eight and its too late.” We must approach this from a place of empowerment not fear.
· Parents in
Cambridge, Ontario
were outraged to learn a convicted sex offender lived in their community until he was arrested for re-offending.
· The Canadian Sex Offender Registry is available to the police only so that they may easily locate a sex offender after they have re-offended!
· The planned expansion of the Canadian DNA database will help police easily identify a sex offender after they have re-offended!
Children own the right to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, as stated under the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It doesn’t state that they have the right to have the offender caught and identified after they have been brutally violated.
To Prime Minister Stephen Harper who said, "I think it's up to police to protect us from offenders. I'm not sure that that's a function we want to have dealt with on the street."… That is the problem…the police are not protecting children from sex offenders. They are locating and identifying sex offenders after they re-offend.
Mr. Harper, in your speech to the Canadian Professional Police Association's board on April 3, 2006, you said "Finally, we'll get tough on sex offenders and those that prey on our children." Respectfully Mr. Harper, I say put your money where your mouth is… parents are in the best position to protect their own children. If you want to talk about accountability, let’s make convicted child sex predators accountable by taking away their right to privacy. If you are worried about vigilantes …educate the public!!!! Teach society how to manage this disease if there is no cure.
Maybe this comes down to money like everything else. I challenge the Conservative government to compare the cost to society for victims of child sex abuse …children becoming adults suffering the long term, (life long) effects of being sexually abused, to the cost of opening the sex offender registry to the pubic and dealing with the occasional vigilante.
For the record I think the words “molestation” and “abuse” dilute the ugly truth of this issue. They just don’t accurately describe the hideousness of this crime. The way this issue is described in the media is not adequate to wake people up! CTV’s W5 attempted to reveal the true nature of this crime against children recently in a show called Save the Children. I still can’t get the image of the little shackled foot of a child in diapers out of my head. The entire show can be viewed at www.ctv.ca/wfive. Click on the 6th link under “More Stories”.
Don’t locate and identify pedophiles after they have destroyed a life….give parents the power to prevent it! We have a responsibility to the children.
