Plans for a national sex registry isn't registering with the Opposition. The Canadian Alliance says the legislation which would force sex offenders to disclose addresses and physical descriptions is too soft because it doesn't cover those already in jail for sex crimes.

Solicitor General Wayne Easter introduced the registry legislation Wednesday, saying "every police force in Canada will have access to this data for the purpose, and only for the purpose for investigating unsolved crimes."

"The registry will become another tool in our tool box in protecting Canadians, particularly our children, from sexual predators," Easter said.

The registry would require anyone convicted of a sexual offence to register their address with police within 15 days of being released from prison. They would have to re-register annually and any time they change addresses. As well, they would have to inform their local registration centre if they are away from home for more than 15 consecutive days.

While some provinces already have their own sex offender registries, this would be the first national database, something that parents and citizens groups have long been pushing for. Jim Stephenson, who pioneered Ontario's sex offender registry after his son Christopher was killed by a repeat sex offender, told Canada AM that a national database is long overdue.

"Had a registry been in place at the time Christopher was abducted, I think the results of that weekend in June of 1988 would have been very different," Stephenson said.

"I think if they would have had access to a database of information, of names and addresses of offenders resident in the area, they would have been able to intervene in Christopher's case a lot quicker than they were able to."

But the bill is not retroactive, meaning notorious sex offenders, such as Karla Homolka who is due to be released in 2005, would not be listed.

Easter says the government chose not to make the registry apply to those already convicted because they are worried about that challenges could be made under the Charter of Rights. The Alliance calls that nonsense.

Alliance MP Kevin Sorensen and Alliance justice critic Vic Toews point out that among sex offenders who are released from jail, 40 per cent re-offend.

"We will wait until every sex offender is released and re-offends before he comes onto this registry," Toews told reporters Wednesday.

Sorenson pointed out that the registry will have no names on it at all when it begins. He said he would like to see the names of notorious sex offenders such as Karl Toft and Peter Whitmore on the registry immediately.

Easter responded that making the registry retroactive might be considered "double jeopardy," in which a person is prosecuted for the same offence twice.

Toews, a former lawyer, called the government's "double jeopardy" concerns "nonsense." "There is no constitutional or other bar to bringing in a full and effective registry. . . We'll be looking for substantial amendments to this bill," Toews said.

Carrie Kohan, whose daughter was targeted by a convicted pedophile in Alberta, told Canada AM Thursday she's angry with Easter's perspective.

"The solicitor general says he's concerned about violating the rights and freedoms of the convicted sex offenders here. Well, my question is what about the rights of the children who have been sexually violated?" Kohan wondered. "Their lives have been turned upside down.

It's affected every member of their family, their friends and yet we still keep putting the rights of the pedophile first."

The Canadian Police Association, which represents 28,000 front-line officers, is also planning to urge the government to make the registry retroactive, according to Vice-President Mike Niebeduk.

Easter said it may be possible to include the 5,000 names already on Ontario's sex offender registry, which is something Ontario Public Safety Minister Bob Runciman and Attorney General David Young had hoped for.

The registry will begin collecting the names of people convicted of sex crimes after the bill passes Parliament, which could take some time. If the plan eventually becomes law, data would be entered on Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) computer database.

CPIC is only accessible by accredited law enforcement agencies. It would be up to local police forces to decide whether to make the details of the registry public when offenders are released.

How long offenders have to register for depends on how long they spend in jail:

• For two-to-five year maximum jail terms they would face registration restraints for 10 years;
• For offences carrying 10-to-14 year terms offenders would have to register for 20 years; and
• Offenders would have to register for life if convicted of a sex offence carrying a life sentence or if previously convicted of a sex offence.

Those who fail to comply with the law would face up to six months in jail or a maximum $10,000 fine for a first offence. Subsequent offences would carry a jail sentence of up to two years or $10,000 fine.

With a report from The Canadian Press