Supreme Court rules residents should have access to sex offender list

East Gwillimbury Era
May 1, 2014
By Jeremy Grimaldi

The Supreme Court has ruled Ontario residents should have access to information detailing how many of the province’s 7,400 registered sex offenders live near them.

The decision was watched closely in York Region after a number of angry resident asked why they did not have access to the list following a York Regional Police Facebook post about a convicted sex offender being charged with similar offences in Georgina.

Frank Cunningham, 33, of Holland Landing, was charged two weeks ago with a number of child luring offences after police said he met an undercover officer, posing as a single mother, for the purpose of sexually assaulting her youngsters.

In a 7-0 decision last Thursday, the court found releasing information about where people live does not breach confidentiality, rejecting the Ontario government’s case that the move could cause vigilantism or harassment.

The plan is to list how many offenders live within a general geographic area, based on the first three digits of a postal code.