History of SOIRA Orders

From Criminal Law Notebook
This page was last substantively updated or reviewed January 2021. (Rev. # 92623)

Prior to April 15, 2011 Amendments

See also: SOIRA Orders

On April 15, 2011, the phrasing of s. 490.012 was amended to make SOIRA mandatory for all sections (a), (c), (c.1), (d) or (e) designated offences. Prior to this amendment these designated offences presumptively required a SOIRA order unless outweighed by other interests. As such, there is no longer the weighing of proportional interests.

The previous scheme allowed the following:

The court may exempt an offender from registration under the SOIRA if the court is satisfied that the impact of the obligations would be "grossly disproportionate to the public interest in protecting society through the effective investigation of crimes of a sexual nature."[1]The court must give reasons for the decision to grant or deny the order under the SOIRA.[2]

The requirements can be summarized as follows:[3]

  1. What is the impact on the individual offender,
  2. What is the public interest served by registration, and
  3. Is the impact upon the defendant grossly disproportionate to the public interest having regard to:
    1. the nature of the offence,
    2. the nature of the intrusion, and
    3. the circumstances of the individual offender.

From "a public interest point of view it is desirable that the registry not be so inclusive as to include so many low risk or no risk offenders as to dilute the resources and attention of the police from those that pose a genuine risk."[4]

  1. s. 490.012(4)
    The court is not required to make an order under this section if it is satisfied that the person has established that, if the order were made, the impact on them, including on their privacy or liberty, would be grossly disproportionate to the public interest in protecting society through the effective investigation of crimes of a sexual nature, to be achieved by the registration of information relating to sex offenders under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act.
  2. s. 490.012(5) The court shall give reasons for its decision."
  3. R v Epp, 2005 SKPC 71 (CanLII), 66 WCB (2d) 727, per Whelan J, at para 26 referring to R.E.M. [2005] BCJ No 1191 (B.C.S.C.)
  4. R v Have, 2005 ONCJ 27 (CanLII), [2005] OJ No 388, per Duncan J, at para 17

SOIRA Notice Convictions Pre-December 15, 2004