Manitoba lets sex offenders change names

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Amanda Westervelt was stalked by a convicted sex offender for years, an experience she describes as like living in a “horror movie.”

So it came as a shock when she received a call from Manitoba Justice a decade ago telling her that the man, Kevin Scott Steppan, had legally changed his name. It was another “nightmare” for the single mom who went to great lengths to keep herself and her young son safe.

And it’s still the case: convicted sex offenders continue to have the right to change their legal names in Manitoba. This little-known fact outrages victims and victims’ advocates who say it gives perpetrators a chance to hide from their past and possibly harm others. And while police who oversee the national sex offender registry say they are informed when someone on the registry changes their name, that information is not always shared with the public.

Other provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, have tightened laws to prevent registered sex offenders from assuming new names. Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador plan to soon pass similar legislation. But these steps don’t stop someone from moving to a new province, including Manitoba, to make the change.

“I would certainly say it’s a loophole,” said Progressive Conservative justice critic Wayne Balcaen, a former Brandon police chief. “Those individuals could then become perpetrators again by using a false identity.”

Balcaen said even though police overseeing the national sex offender registry would have access to the new name, “the general public is kept in the dark.”

He could not comment if this was on the Tories’ radar during their seven years in government, which came to an end in October.

Manitoba’s NDP government won’t say if it supports closing the loophole and following the lead of neighbouring provinces. Neither Lisa Naylor, government services minister — whose portfolio includes the Vital Statistics Branch, which handles name changes — nor Justice Minister Matt Wiebe were made available for an interview.

Hours after this story was posted online, the government issued a statement by Wiebe: “Our government’s priority is always going to be protecting victims and those who are vulnerable. We will carefully consider any new measures that may be needed to keep people safe.”

The province doesn’t track how many sex offenders are changing their names.

A freedom of information request for records showing the number of people on the sex offender registry who have applied for a name change was rejected. The reasoning in the Oct. 10 response letter was that the records “do not exist.”

This lack of data is “both surprising and concerning,” said Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection, noting it would be important to know the scope of the issue in order to address it.

However, the RCMP does keep data.

Since April 2021, a total of four people in Manitoba on the sex offender registry changed their legal names, said RCMP spokesperson Robin Percival.

There are upwards of 3,200 registered sex offenders in Manitoba, an approximately 150 people are added each year. The majority are linked to child sex crimes.

St. Germain said preventing sex offenders from changing their names in Manitoba would send a message of support to victims.

“For victims, this would give them peace of mind — knowing that the person who victimized them is not able to start over as if (the abuse) never happened,” she said.

“For victims, this would give them peace of mind — knowing that the person who victimized them is not able to start over as if (the abuse) never happened.”–Monique St. Germain

Victims of sexual abuse may fear someone hiding their past could use a new identity to similarly harm others, St. Germain said.

“Anything that would make that more difficult would be welcome,” she said.

Greg Gilhooly, who documented in his book I Am Nobody the abuse he endured from former Winnipeg hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James, said there is an element of public accountability that is lost when a sex offender is allowed to change their name. And to victims, it adds insult to injury, especially in cases where they believe the offender’s sentence was too lenient, Gilhooly said.

“It’s an additional hit to the victim if an offender can try to reintegrate into society without that ongoing accountability of wearing the mark of who that offender is and what that offender did,” said Gilhooly, now a lawyer in Ontario.

The offender in Gilhooly’s case, Graham James, now goes by the name Michael James, though it’s not clear if he legally changed his name. Gilhooly is adamant he shouldn’t be able to hide from his past.

“Graham James is a monster. He shouldn’t be able to exist in society as anything but Graham James, ‘the monster,’” he said.

But veteran Winnipeg defence lawyer Mike Cook thinks offenders deserve the opportunity to move on.

“Give them a chance,” said Cook, who said he’s seen clients “devastated” by court processes and unable to get a job after convictions.

He believes certain safeguards still must be in place — a convicted child sex offender should be flagged on criminal record checks if they apply to work with children, for instance, and people must comply with the conditions of their release — but the current system factors that in.

In Manitoba, anyone applying to change their name must provide fingerprints, which are then entered into the RCMP’s national criminal records database, a provincial spokesperson said.

The RCMP say those on the sex offender registry are also required by law to report any name changes within seven days. All former names and nicknames are kept on the sex offender registry database.

As for Westervelt, she no longer lives in fear of her stalker, Kevin Scott Steppan, who changed his name to Timothy Frederick Koltusky. He died by suicide in Stony Mountain prison in 2019.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca