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New technologies and apps pose such a new risk to children that retrospectively increasing the punishment for sexual predators was warranted, the Supreme Court of Canada says.

In a seven-judge majority decision Thursday, the high court upheld the tough-on-crime amendment by the former Conservative government even though it violated the long-held principle that criminals should be sentenced only according to the laws in force at the time.

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Sexual crimes against children may be among the most heinous offences, but changing the punishment for a crime after it is committed strikes at the very heart of the rule of law and fairness.

The majority emphasized that point in rejecting the retrospective application of a companion amendment that allowed judges to prohibit any contact — including communicating by any means — with someone under 16.

“My conclusion … is chiefly due to the fact that Parliament enacted the (Internet ban) provision within a rapidly evolving social and technological context, which changed both the degree and nature of the risk of sexual violence facing young persons,” Justice Andromache Karakatsanis wrote for the majority.