Allan Manson 

(Allan S. Manson) 

Is a professor of law at Queen’s university, Kingston, Ontario.  He is one of the lawyers for the Citizens for Community Renewal at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

? :  Called to the Bar

Law School: ?

Professor of Law, Queen's University

Allan Manson is Professor of Law at Queen’s University, specializing in the areas of sentencing and prison law. Prior to joining the faculty at Queen’s, he practised criminal law. He has also served as Deputy Judge on the Yukon Territorial Court. He is an Associate Editor of the Criminal Reports and has been a long-standing member of the Canadian Bar Association’s Committee on Release and Imprisonment. He is the author of numerous articles dealing with criminal law issues, co-author of the text Release from Imprisonment: The Law of Parole, Sentencing and Judicial Review (1990)and co-author of the casebook Sentencing and Penal Policy (2000). Professor Manson was Project Director of the Ontario Law Reform Commission study of the coroner system.

Hansard, Debates of the Senate

01 April 1 2004

Re Bill C-16 Sex Information Registration Act (the bill was passed and came into force 15 December 2004)

Hon. Consiglio Di Nino: Honourable senators, I rise to address Bill C-16 at third reading. Bill C-16 will create a national sex offender registry in Canada, and we on this side support this bill.

.......

In committee, one witness, Professor Allan Manson, said that a sex offender registry was a waste of money. He said there was not much "bang for the buck." His views, I think, articulate the real views of some in government and society. The registry, he said, would cost too much money and make us feel like we are doing something when it is really a distraction from other initiatives. His reason for this seemed to be that there were no bulk numbers of sex crimes occurring.

I ask you, honourable senators, what is one life worth? Professor Manson cited a study that focused on a sex offender registry in Massachusetts. He said that researchers had looked at past homicides and concluded that had a sex offender registry been in place only four of 136 homicides would have been aided by the registry. He seemed to take this as an indictment. I saw it as a victory. The registry could have solved four of these heinous crimes, and that statistic does not include abductions and sexual assaults that do not end in homicide.

When we pressed him about other victims, he had no statistics with him, but he pointed out that 79 per cent of sexual assaults against children happen in their homes, by family members. Again, where he saw an indictment I saw 20 per cent of cases where the offender registry could be valuable. Even if it was just a quarter of that number, 5 per cent, it would be well worth the cost.

None of those statistics include sex offenders who stay on the straight and narrow because they know they are being scrutinized. None of those statistics include the improved efficiency with which police will now be able to disqualify past sex offenders so that they can focus on other aspects of the investigation. None of their statistics addressed the situation of a woman, having been sexually assaulted by a stranger, who remembers certain characteristics, like a tattoo or a scar. The database would be very useful in more effectively addressing those and many other situations.

November 28, 2001      

Right Honourable Jean Chrétien

Prime Minister of Canada

80 Wellington StreetOttawa, Ontario

K1A 0A2   Dear Prime Minister:  

We in Canada are privileged to live in a free and democratic society built on respect for the fundamental rights of citizens.  While it is necessary to implement measures to ensure the safety of Canadians in these uncertain times, we are concerned that Bill C-36 -- the Anti-terrorism Act -- is itself a threat to the legal and civil rights that Canadians now enjoy.  Enacting Bill C-36 will result in a legacy that all Canadians will regret.   

Bill C-36 starts off on the wrong foot by using imprecise and overly broad definitions that will catch innocent people in the net meant for terrorists.  Furthermore, the Bill’s extraordinarily broad powers can be used in secret, resulting in the potential for a wholesale violation of civil rights.  Many rights that we now take for granted -- due process, full answer and defence, and fundamental justice -- are all threatened by Bill C-36.  In short, the Bill ignores fundamental protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the criminal justice system, and abandons basic fairness and the rule of law.  Minor amendments and cosmetic changes do not address the fact that Bill C-36 was drafted in haste, fast-tracked and that it is intrinsically flawed. 

To make matters worse, the current social climate, coupled with religious and racial profiling, will result in religious and racial minorities suffering a disproportionate share of the Bill's significant impact.  While those wrongfully charged, arrested and imprisoned may be vindicated in the fullness of time, the stigma, shame and humiliation that come with wrongful accusations will have devastating effects on families, reputations, friendships, businesses and jobs.  Stern judicial admonitions of the State’s violation of rights make great case law, and may even serve to assuage societal guilt for wrongs done to innocent individuals and communities.  However, vindication after the fact will not put together ruined families, regain lost livelihoods, or rebuild friendships and trust, all fractured by the suspicion and stigmatization sown by overly zealous acts of a State motivated by fear.  These real consequences for real people can be avoided only by crafting any new legislation with careful deliberation, and with a genuine respect for the values we share as Canadians; values that were enshrined by your Government in the Charter. 

Because Bill C-36 will profoundly and adversely affect the civil rights of Canadians, it should not become law.   

Sincerely, 

Organizations

African Canadian Legal Clinic

Canadian Arab Federation

Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)

Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association

Canadian Peace Alliance

Coalition of Muslim Organizations (representing more than 140 groups)

Council of Canadians

Council on American Islamic Relations Canada

Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee

Jesuits of Upper Canada

Law Union of Ontario

Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic

Muslim Law Students Association of Ontario

Muslim Lawyers Association

National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada

Parkdale Community Legal Services

Social Activist Law Student Association, Dalhousie Law School

Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ - Doukhobors

United Church of Canada

Urban Alliance on Race Relations

World Sikh Organization   

Individuals

Ed Broadbent, Visiting Fellow, Kroeger College, Carleton University

Emily F. Carasco, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor

Arthur Cockfield, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University

Steve Coughlan, Associate Professor, Dalhousie Law School

Gail Davidson, Lawyer

David Duff, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

David Dyzenhaus, Professor of Law and Philosophy, FRSC, University of Toronto

Richard L. Evans, Associate Professor, Dalhousie Law School

Reverend Daniel J. Heap

David Heap, Associate Professor of French & Linguistics, University of Western Ontario

H. Archibald Kaiser, Professor of Law and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University

Jennifer Llewellyn, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie Law School

Audrey Macklin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

Michael Mandel, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Allan Manson, Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University

Patricia Peppin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University

Lisa Philipps, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Dianne Pothier, Professor, Dalhousie Law School

René Provost, Associate Professor, Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, McGill University

Peter Rosenthal, Professor, University of Toronto

Martha Shaffer, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

Don Stuart, Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen's University

Jeff Tenant, Associate Dean (Academic), Faculty of Arts, University of Western Ontario

Toni Williams, Associate Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Shelley Wright, Senior Lecturer, International Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, Australia

Margot Young, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Walter Owen Visiting Chair, Faculty of Law, University British Columbia 

 cc.  All Members of Parliament      All Senators 

In 2003 with David Mullan co-edited Commissions of Inquiry: Praise or reappraise? 

27-29 June 2002:  Sentencing & Society: Second International Conference (Glasgow, Scotland, UK) 

Biography on conference site:

Allan Manson is a Professor in the Faculty of Law, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Prior to joining the Faculty in 1977, he was a practising criminal lawyer in Toronto, Canada and he has continued on occasion to represent prisoners and argue cases in court. He has been an Associate Editor of the Criminal Reports since 1982. From 1990 to 1994, he served as the Project Director for the Ontario Law Reform Commission study of the coroners' system. In 1994-1995, he was a Deputy Judge of the Yukon Territorial Court. His research and publications include numerous articles on criminal law and evidence, but focus principally on sentencing and imprisonment issues. He was a co-author (with D. Cole) of "Release from Imprisonment: The Law of Sentencing , Parole, and Judicial Review (Toronto: Carswell, 1990) and also (with P.Healy and G. Trotter) of "Sentencing and Penal Policy in Canada" (Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2000). Most recently, he wrote "The Law of Sentencing" (Toronto: Irwin, 2001) and the Canadian chapter in van Zyl Smit and F. Dunkel (eds.), "Imprisonment Today and Tomorrow: International Perspectives on Prisoners' Rights and Prison Conditions" (The Hague: Kluwer, 2001).