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Can You Travel Outside of Canada After a Conviction for a Sex Crime?
If you have been charged with any type of sexual offence in or near the greater Toronto area, you will need to be advised and defended by a Toronto sex crimes lawyer, and you’ll also need to reach out to that lawyer at your first possible opportunity.
A conviction for a sex crime in Ontario may be penalized quite harshly. If you are charged with a sex crime, your defence lawyer will work to have the charges withdrawn or get the case dropped or dismissed, but if that’s not possible, your lawyer will certainly advise that you should take your case to trial.
At trial, your Ontario sex crimes lawyer will cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence against you, explain to the jurors what actually occurred, and ask those jurors to find you not guilty.
What Happens if You Are Convicted of a Sex Crime?
However, if you are convicted of a sex crime in Ontario, you may be penalized with a lengthy prison sentence. Additionally, convictions for twenty-seven specific sex offences require convicted offenders to register with the National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR).
If you are a registered sex offender in Ontario, restrictions may be placed on where you can work and where you can travel. Registered sex offenders who intend to travel must provide notice of their travel plans in advance and report each address where they will be staying while traveling.
What is the NSOR?
The National Sex Offender Registry or NSOR is a national database that monitors convicted sex offenders in Canada. It provides law enforcement agencies with up-to-date information about convicted sex offenders, and it is also used as a tool in the investigations of sex crimes.
NSOR access is restricted to police agencies and is not available to the public at large. Police agencies must use the information for police purposes only. Misuse of the data by persons who are authorized to access it or by third parties who obtain it illegally may entail criminal penalties.
Canada’s Criminal Code lists twenty-seven distinct sex crimes that require mandatory registration with the NSOR upon conviction, including any sex crime that involves a child, all sexual assaults, and crimes such as sexual exploitation, incest, and bestiality.
What is Required of Registered Sex Offenders?
If you receive a sex crime conviction that requires you to register with the National Sex Offender Registry, you must comply with the following requirements:
- You must re-register every year at the registration site nearest to your primary residence. There are over seven hundred registration centres across the nation.
- You must advise that registration site, within seven days, of any name change, change of address, or change of employment.
- You must advise that registration site, within seven days, of any plans to travel away from your primary residence for seven or more consecutive days.
What Should Registered Sex Offenders Know About Travel?
When they are planning to travel, along with advising the registration site that the travel will last for seven or more consecutive days, registered sex offenders must also provide the following information to the registration site:
- the date of departure
- the planned date of return
- the addresses where they will stay while traveling
- the actual date of return within seven days of returning
Registered sex offenders are typically allowed to travel internationally, but in order to monitor registered sex offenders who plan to travel outside of Canada, the National Sex Offender Registry may share with the Canada Border Services Agency a registered sex offender’s:
- given name, surname, and any known aliases that the offender may use
- gender and date of birth
- driver’s licence number and passport number
How is a Registered Sex Offender’s Information Used?
Law enforcement analysts will compare the information gathered by the Canada Border Services Agency against the details provided by the registered sex offender in order to verify the offender’s compliance with the travel regulations.
If a registered sex offender doesn’t comply with the travel regulations or provides false information to his or her registration site, that offender may be fined as much as $10,000 and/or sentenced to as much as two years in prison.
Are You Charged With a Sex Crime?
No guarantee can be made by any defence lawyer regarding any criminal case, but if you have been charged with a sex crime in the Toronto area, your best hope for avoiding a criminal conviction is to have the advice and services of an experienced Ontario sex crimes lawyer.
Of course, if your defence lawyer can have the charge against you dropped or dismissed, or if a jury finds you not guilty, you won’t have to worry about sex offender registration or obtaining permission to travel.
But if you are charged with a sex crime in or near Toronto, currently or in the future, it is imperative to be advised and represented by a Toronto sex crimes lawyer who will review the particulars of the charge against you and prepare an aggressive, effective defence strategy.
How Can You Find the Right Defence Lawyer?
If you’re charged with a sex offence in the Toronto area, Toronto lawyer William Jaksa will handle your case, protect your legal rights, investigate what actually happened, and provide you with aggressive and diligent defence representation.
If you are seeking to be removed from the National Sex Offender Registry, defence lawyer William Jaksa will determine if you are eligible for removal. If you are, he will petition the court for your removal and guide you through each step of the removal process.
William Jaksa brings almost two decades of defence experience, along with considerable legal knowledge and skills, to every client and every case. The William Jaksa Criminal Litigation legal team has built a reputation for superlative client service and courtroom excellence.
If you are charged with any type of sex crime in or near the greater Toronto area, contact William Jaksa Criminal Litigation immediately by calling 647-951-8078. Our legal team will fight tirelessly to put the law on your side and to win justice on your behalf.
