BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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A man convicted of sexual assault in 2024 lost his constitutional challenge against a judge’s order requiring him to register as a sex offender and report his whereabouts to police for life.
A jury found Wayne Michael James Dick guilty, and BC Supreme Court Justice Andrew Majawa sentenced him last July to three and a half years in jail. Majawa also ordered him to comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for life.
Dick, who travels throughout BC for construction work, fishing and hunting, argued the requirements violated his rights under the life, liberty and security of the person section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In a May 1 ruling, Majawa found Dick failed to meet the burden of proving the impact of the mandatory lifetime order outweighed the public interest in registration.
“While the reporting obligations arising from the impugned provisions may be onerous, inconvenient, and even challenging to comply with, the impact of these obligations does not rise to the level of gross disproportionality,” Majawa ruled.
Under the law enacted in 2004, sex offenders must report annually in person to one of 141 RCMP, municipal or tribal police detachments in BC. Offenders must provide addresses for their primary and secondary residences, places of employment, names of employers and types of work.
Any changes to that information must also be reported. Failure to comply can result in a jail sentence of up to two years.
Dick argued his personal circumstances were incompatible with the strict reporting requirements.
The Crown argued mandatory registration is not overbroad because evidence shows “this group of offenders poses a higher risk of committing further sexual offences.”
Majawa wrote that mandatory registration helps police monitor offenders at greater risk of reoffending and may assist in preventing and investigating sex crimes. A lifetime order gives police a “longer period of access to information on offenders who are at a greater risk of reoffending.”
Dick told the court he usually works in construction in Victoria from December to May. From mid-September to December, he uses traditional Indigenous hunting techniques in remote areas between Fort St. John and the Lower Mainland, including stops near Prince George and Williams Lake. As a result, he is sometimes in backcountry areas without cellular phone access.
Majawa said reporting appointments can be arranged in advance and that registration centres are located within reasonable proximity to where Dick lives, fishes and hunts.
“For example, there are RCMP detachments near Nootka Sound, in Tahsis and Gold River, and in Kamloops, Prince George, Williams Lake, Vanderhoof, and Bella Coola,” Majawa wrote. “In cross-examination, Mr. Dick testified that although it could take approximately 1.5 hours in each direction to attend at such a detachment, there is no reason he could not report there.”
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