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First Legislation
It allowed discretion for the courts to impose either a determinate or an indeterminate sentence. The prerequisite for such a designation was that the offender had to have been convicted of three or more indictable offences and could be shown to be "persistently leading a criminal life" -
Intermediate Sentences
Allowed indeterminate sentences to be imposed on ‘criminal sexual psychopaths' This legislation was imposed on individuals who were convicted of attemped or actual assault, rape, carnal knowledge, buggery, beastiality, or gross indecency. -
Legislation Rewritten
The wording involed with the first change proved problematic and was changed to ‘dangerous sexual offenders' -
Ouimet Report
A report by the Canadian Committee on Corrections found that the habitual offenders legislation was not effetive. -
Creation of Bill C-51 in the Legislation
This enacted a new part of the Criminal Code, section XXIV, which contained the Dangerous Offender Provisions. Under these provisions, an individual could be deemed a dangerous offender for “serious personal injury offences”, either sexual or non-sexual in nature. -
Paul Carlson
Carlson raped to knife point and molested children and he was then declared a dangerous offender, but his sentence was not changed. He was charged after writing threatening letters to Crown prosecutors in which he described future acts of violence. He was again declared a dangerous offender in 1992 and given an indefinite prison term. This man helped change the legislature due to his threats to the prosecutors. -
Bill C-55 Another Amendments
The amendments included changing the parole period from 3 years to 7 years. Introduced the “long term offender” definition, which pertains to offenders who do not fall under the dangerous offender category but still present a considerable risk of re-offending, “long-term supervision. -
Statistic On Dangerous Offenders
There are 351 active offenders with the Dangerous Offender designation. Of these offenders, 18 have received parole and 333 are currently incarcerated. -
Royal Assention of Bill C-2
Aims to better protect the public by declaring more offenders as ‘dangerous’, and keeping them behind bars longer. Bill C-2 shifted the onus onto the offender; it is no longer the Crown attorney’s job to prove that an offender is dangerous, but rather the offender’s job to prove that he is not -
Updated Dangerous Offenders
There are 331 individuals labelled as dangerous offenders in Canada.
