TORONTO — Critics are calling on authorities to do more to protect children from convicted pedophiles like Peter Whitmore, who delivered a dire warning to authorities 13 years ago that his strong sexual desire for young boys could lead to "more serious harm" if he wasn't stopped.

The convicted pedophile was the focus of a frantic Canada-wide search involving two missing boys that ended late Tuesday night with his surrender after the safe discoveries of the two boys.

While communities in Saskatchewan were relieved, the case also raised fresh questions about Canada's ability to protect children from repeat sexual predators.

"When he was released in 2005... the experts at Correctional Services said (Whitmore) had a 100 per cent chance of re-offending," Steve Sullivan of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime told the Canadian Press.

Sullivan said people should be calling their MPs and demanding to know what the new government is going to do about protecting children from people like Whitmore.

"What are we going to do with (him) and what are we going to do with people like him?'"

The trail of young victims Whitmore has left in southern Ontario compelled residents of a Toronto neighbourhood to literally run him out of town six years ago -- after which he made a startling appeal on national television on Oct. 20, 2000.

"I want to take treatment," Whitmore told CTV's Canada AM in an interview with then-host Valerie Pringle.

"It's going to be very hard to take treatment if I'm moving from town to town."

When Pringle asked Whitmore, who already had some half-dozen convictions to his name, whether he's concerned that he would reoffend, he said: "No."

"I have control over what I do. And I'm not concerned I'm going to reoffend. I am looking for treatment at the time, though, to help alleviate any problems that may arise."

Whitmore said he felt "bad" for the rape and confinement of an eight-year-old girl, for which he went to prison. But he added: "I can't change the past. But I can change the future -- and not do it again."

But in ensuing years, the now 35-year-old man would only add more sexual offences against minors to his record.

The resource centre has long sought revisions to the Criminal Code that would allow the courts to deem chronic pedophiles dangerous offenders -- and jail them indefinitely -- when their prison terms expire.

As it stands, a dangerous offender application can only be made during sentencing and only for crimes that command prison terms of 10 years or more.

None of Whitmore's crimes have merited such a sentence.

"Whatever the mechanism is, we just have to admit to ourselves that at some point we can't treat everybody," said Sullivan.

Court orders prohibiting pedophiles from contacting children and public warnings from police that such offenders have moved into the community only go so far, said Sullivan.

"If that's the best we can do, then we have to do a lot more."

Whitmore's history of sexual assaults date back almost 14 years.

His convictions involved fondling, forced fellatio and attempted anal intercourse.

At the age of 22, he lured a boy into an apartment building rooftop boiler room and sexually assaulted him over several hours.

"Upon his arrest, (Whitmore) admitted a strong desire for sexual contact with young boys and expressed fear that if he did not stop, more serious harm was likely to occur,'' court documents read.

The incident in 1993 led to three other boys coming forward, and Whitmore was sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Upon release, Whitmore promptly established a babysitting service and forced one of his young charges -- an eight-year-old girl -- to perform oral sex on him.

The ensuing charges and publicity helped to uncover yet another sexual assault Whitmore committed in 1992, when he paid a young boy for oral sex.

Diagnosed as a homosexual pedophile with an anti-social personality, Whitmore was held in prison for his entire 56-month sentence.

In November 2000, Whitmore was arrested in a Toronto hotel in the company of a 13-year-old boy.

A one-year jail term was followed in 1992 by a three-year sentence for probation for fleeing to British Columbia after being found with a five-year-old boy.

Whitmore was released on June 16, 2005, after serving his entire three-year sentence, and took up residence in Chilliwack, B.C.

In a 2003 interview with the Chilliwack Times newspaper, Whitmore's aunt, Lynn Hopkins, said his father left him and his developmentally disabled mother when Whitmore was born. She said he had a Grade 7 education when he went to prison.