The case involving an American convicted sex offender who became the centre of a cross-border row will be before the courts again on Nov. 8, when U.S. justice officials will seek to have him serve his sentence in his own country instead of Canada.
Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant said the U.S. District Attorney's office will ask the courts to overturn an unusual punishment that will allow a teacher convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old student in Buffalo serve probation in Canada.
Under a plea bargain approved last week by a New York state court, Malcolm Watson, 35, will spend three years on probation in Fort Erie, Ont., where he lives with his wife and three children, and enter the United States only to report to his probation officer. Mr. Watson is a U.S. citizen.
Mr. Bryant said the D.A.'s office will ask the courts to vary the sentence by either having Mr. Watson serve time in jail or on probation in the United States.
“This is an extremely unusual sentence,” he told reporters Tuesday. The sentence sets a “terrible precedent” and it is “quite disturbing, if not frightening,” for the Canadian public to see an individual convicted of an offence in another country serve his sentence here, he added.
Mr. Bryant said the D.A.'s office will argue in court that enforcing a court order from another country is difficult, if not impossible. Ontario government officials are working with justice officials in the United States to try to overturn a ruling that has raised the ire of provincial and federal politicians in Canada.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said last week that Canada should not be used as a “dumping ground” for a convicted sex offender from the United States. Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has made it clear the government wants Mr. Watson out of the country.
Mr. Watson's legal troubles began in April when a security guard at a Cheektowaga, N.Y. shopping mall noticed him sitting in a parked car for two hours with a 15-year-old girl. Mr. Watson was criminally charged and fired from his job at the elite Buffalo Seminary girls' school. In August, he was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual abuse.
Mr. Watson's plea deal was announced in August, but he was not formally sentenced until last week. Since losing his teaching job, he has been working as a salesman in Fort Erie.
Mr. Bryant said the main concern for the Ontario government is not whether Mr. Watson's punishment consists of jail time or probation.
“What is important to Ontarians is, in fact, when somebody does a crime in the United States you do time in the United States,” he said.
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