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It’s putting a lot of burden in the hands of the RCMP

“Resorting to the private sector might not be a good thing, this is very privileged information. I could foresee problems,” she said.

“But I am not surprised the RCMP is considering it. They are already short on resources. It’s putting a lot of burden in the hands of the RCMP.”

Stephen Hebscher, a criminal lawyer in Toronto, has concerns about data ending up in the wrong hands.

“There are many public and private entities that have had serious thefts of customer information,” said the lawyer, who has been critical of the Conservative’s proposed Bill C-26. This calls for, among other things, the establishment of a publicly accessible list of high-risk child sex offenders.

“[The new legislation] serves no useful purpose other than to pander to [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper’s right wing constituency, and may create an environment in which communities display “most-wanted posters … What purpose can there be to this legislation other than to further vilify child sex offenders, encourage vigilante justice and further drive them underground?”

If the bill become law, the RCMP will only have one year to develop and implement the new public database.

A spokesman said this is one of the reasons it is looking at its options. He stressed the RCMP is simply seeking information at this stage.

What exactly a public database would mean is not yet clear.

The Conservative bill mandates the setting up of a publicly accessible database of high-risk child sex offenders “who have been the subject of a public notification in a provincial/territorial jurisdiction.”