At a town hall rally Saturday, Okotokians called for the release of the names of two pedophiles who have recently moved into the community.
Okotoks RCMP Staff Sgt. Glen Haner and town councillors faced an onslaught of questions from residents concerned about the safety of area children.
“Where is our national sex registry?” shouted local parent Cheryl Taylor to loud applause from the crowd.
Currently, Alberta registers sex crime offenders deemed high risk. Ontario has a blanket registration of convicted sex crime offenders.
Proposed federal sex registry legislation is now before the human rights and justice committee, who will present a report to parliament before third reading.
Taylor, who is married to a former police officer, also criticized comments from Inspector Paul Young, a Calgary RCMP officer living in Okotoks, who said he is confident all is being done to maintain safety in the town.
“His job protects him,” she explained.
“Who’s got the rights?” asked another mother. “The kids or the offenders?”
When Okotoks RCMP announced last week that three convicted pedophiles would be moving into the town residents began demanding more information be disclosed.
Since the announcement one of the offenders decided to remain in Calgary.
However, Haner said local RCMP are unable to release the identity of the other two men until they begin reporting to local probation officials.
“Until they start reporting we won’t know if they are a danger, but at this time there is no reason to believe that is the case,” Haner said.
The men have not been deemed high-risk offenders, as they have been abiding by the conditions of their sentences while in the community, he explained.
One of the men, who is expected to arrive this week from B.C., does raise red flags for local RCMP and is currently under assessment. Haner said the man had three convictions for sex crimes against children during the ’90s.
In order for the man’s identity to be revealed the assistant commissioner of Alberta K-Division, Bill Sweeney, will have to deem him a high-risk offender based on information submitted by local RCMP.
According to K-Division spokesman Al Fraser, interviews of the convict and family members as well as reports from physicians and psychiatrists are admissible.
“Most often risk assessments are done by Corrections Canada prior to release,” Fraser explained.
In some instances an application is made when the offender is serving their sentence in the community. In that case RCMP can apply for additional conditions of release as well as public disclosure.
Once RCMP have prepared the information it is sent to the provincial crime linkage system who prepare a package and sends it to the federal privacy commissioner.
If approved federally the application makes its way back to Alberta for approval from Sweeney.
Town councillors met with Sweeney Friday to emphasize the opposition of residents.
“We made it very clear that we were standing firm because our citizens are concerned,” said deputy mayor Laurie Hodson. “We told him that we are very concerned and we don’t want these individuals to move to our town. I believe he will take that into consideration.”
Concerned residents at the rally said privacy for pedophiles is a ridiculous concept.
Currently three pedophiles on probation are living in the Okotoks area — two young offenders and one adult. The convicted pedophile from B.C. will bring the number to four.
The high-risk offender assessment is to be completed within three weeks.
In the meantime, Haner said the rally can be seen as a positive step to channel people’s emotions.
“I understand the passion people have,” he said. “I hope people are finding a channel because there is only so much I can do.”
Taylor hopes residents will continue to build on the momentum of the rally at a meeting scheduled Oct. 9.
The meeting was arranged by organizers of the rally to continue discussions on how to improve public awareness of pedophiles living in the community. It will be held at the Good Shepherd School library at 7:30 pm.