TORONTO, February 15, 2001 -- The arrest in Toronto last November of 29-year-old pedophile Peter Whitmore, who was released from prison in October and discovered the next month in a hotel room with a young teenage boy, sparked fear and outrage in the debate over how to deal with repeat sexual offenders.

Whitmore's release from Toronto's Don Jail into the community raised several questions including the extent to which the identity and whereabouts of a released sexual offender should be publicized. Other cases involving accused sexual offenders have raised the issue of whether an accused offender should have access to a complainant's therapeutic records.

These are delicate, difficult and important controversies that will be discussed at a Public Forum on Sexual Offences and Personal Privacy at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University on Thursday, February 22, 2001 from 9 a.m. to noon in the Moot Court Room (101).

Co-sponsored by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Osgoode's Centre for Public Law and Public Policy, with the generous support of The Donner Canadian Foundation, the forum will start with an introduction by A. Alan Borovoy, general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

The first session - Privacy of the Sexual Complainant - will deal with access to a complainant's therapeutic records for the trials of accused offenders. Speakers will be Carissima Mathen, director of litigation for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, and Patricia Jackson, former counsel to the Arbour inquiry into the Kingston Prison for Women. The moderator will be Marilyn Pilkington, professor and former Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School.

The second session - Privacy of the Sexual Offender - will address the issue of publicizing the identities and whereabouts of released convicts. Scott Newark, counsel for the Office for Victims of Crime, and defence lawyer Leslie Pringle of Skurka Pringle will be the speakers. Osgoode professor and former Dean John McCamus will be the moderator.

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For further information, please contact:

Joanne Rappaport Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (416) 736-5515 joanner@yorku.ca

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