(LifeSiteNews) — The laws that govern the sex offender registry in Ontario have been ruled unconstitutional by the province’s own court.
The ruling was handed down in late January by Justice Davin Garg of the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton.
Garg wrote in his ruling that the province’s mandatory and lifetime reporting requirements for offenders were “overboard” and were in violation of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
According to Garg, the requirements for sex offenders violated Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees to each Canadian the right to life, liberty, and security of the person.
The ruling comes after a 2022 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that prompted changes to Canada’s National Sex Offender Registry.
The changes place limits on the automatic registration of repeat offenders and those considered serious offenders.
Garg’s ruling concerns the case of applicant Michael Roberts. He is a convicted sex offender who refused to report to Ontario’s sex offender registry, leading to the constitutional challenge.
Regarding Roberts, he had been reporting to the registry for 13 years after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2010. He had touched four victims over their clothes.
He was sentenced to four months’ custody on each of the eight counts to which he pleaded guilty. He was then placed in the sex offender registry.
However, after Roberts failed to register in 2024, he was later charged under Ontario’s sex offender registry for failing to report.
Ontario’s registry tracks the whereabouts of all who are in it as well as where they work and where they are located.
Roberts had deliberately wanted to challenge the mandatory yearly registration, which is for life for all those who are convicted of sex crimes. He claimed that in his case the law was “grossly disproportionate” even though he had pleaded guilty.
The Attorney General of Ontario had argued that the province’s registry was different from Canada’s national registry, noting the registry’s goal is to help stop future sex crimes by knowing details of known offenders.
According to Garg, “The provincial regime is not sufficiently different from the national regime to rationalize a different result.”
Thus, he ruled that Canada’s Supreme Court had ruled that a mandatory registration was too broad, as it did not have a category for those with lesser offenses.
In 2023, the Canadian federal Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed a law amending Canada’s Criminal Code around the National Sex Offender Registry due to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
The new law meant it was now up to a judge to determine what restrictions should be placed on sex offenders and that mandatory registration was reserved for serious offenders or those who repeatedly offended.
As a result, Garg stayed Roberts’ charge for failing to report and noted that Ontario needs to now follow the federal rules.
“The provincial law may require a similar legislative response to ensure that its objectives are pursued within constitutional limits,” Garg wrote.
He added that “Constitutional compliance is not an obstacle to public safety; it is the condition on which public power is exercised.”
Under the Liberal federal government, Canada’s rules relating to sex offenses seem to have been relaxed.
Indeed, as reported by LifeSiteNews, on October 31, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a mandatory one-year sentence for possessing or accessing child pornography is “unconstitutional” and said that it is now up to judges’ discretion to give out sentences.
