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Canada’s Public Safety Minister is offering reassurances to a community pushing back against the release of a sex offender convicted of crimes against young children.

Ralph Goodale says the conditions imposed against 36-year-old Madilyn Harks, formerly known under the name Matthew Harks, are the toughest available to prevent people from reoffending.

Mr. Goodale says Ms. Harks’s sentence expired in 2010 and that she is currently subject to strict conditions imposed by the courts, the parole board and a halfway house in Brampton, Ont., including a long-term supervision order.

Ms. Harks’s presence prompted Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown to write a letter to Mr. Goodale in protest.

Mr. Brown calls Ms. Harks’s residency in the city “unacceptable,” citing a police advisory that outlined her three prior convictions for sexual offences against children under the age of eight and described her as an “elevated” risk to reoffend.

Mr. Goodale did not address Mr. Brown’s letter directly, but said in a statement today that more than 99 per cent of sex offenders under a long-term supervision order do not reoffend within six months.

The Canadian Press

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