Bill 39 explained in plain English
Change of Name Amendment Act, 2021
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This bill makes individuals who are subject to the Sex Offender Registry or have certain criminal convictions ineligible to change their name in Ontario, with some exceptions.
Bill 39, also known as the Change of Name Amendment Act, 2021, amends the Change of Name Act in Ontario. It introduces new restrictions on who can change their name. Specifically, individuals who are required to comply with Christopher's Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000, or those convicted of or found not criminally responsible for certain prescribed criminal offences, are generally ineligible to change their name. However, exceptions may be made through regulations, or if the Attorney General certifies the name change, or for revoking a name change obtained by fraud. The bill also makes related changes to Christopher's Law to allow for the sharing of information with the Registrar General for the purposes of administering the name change process.
- Amends the Change of Name Act to make certain individuals ineligible to change their name.
- Specifies that individuals subject to Christopher's Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000, or who have been convicted of or found not criminally responsible for prescribed criminal offences, are ineligible to change their name, unless an exception applies.
- Allows for exceptions to name change ineligibility through regulations or certification by the Attorney General.
- Amends Christopher's Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000, to permit the sharing of information between the Ministry and the Registrar General for name change administration.
- Allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations for exceptions to the Change of Name Act.
- Individuals seeking to change their name in Ontario.
- Individuals who are subject to Christopher's Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000.
- Individuals with certain criminal convictions or findings of not criminally responsible.
- The Registrar General.
- Employees or persons authorized by the Ministry for the purposes of administering sex offender registry information.
- Individuals who meet certain criteria are now ineligible to change their name.
- The Registrar General must inform ineligible individuals of their ineligibility.
- Employees or authorized persons of the Ministry have access to the sex offender registry for specific purposes related to name changes.
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council has the authority to make regulations providing exceptions.
- The Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- A specific provision regarding transition comes into force six months after the day the main provision comes into force.
- The specific criminal offences that will make a person ineligible to change their name are to be prescribed by regulation by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
- The regulations may provide for exceptions to the ineligibility rules and specify conditions for these exceptions.
- The exact date the Act comes into force is not specified and will be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor.
Introduces new criteria for ineligibility to change a name, related to sex offender registration and criminal convictions. It also adds provisions for exceptions and information sharing for administration.
Source: Section 1, Section 2, Section 3
Allows employees or authorized persons of the Ministry to access the sex offender registry and share information with the Registrar General for the purposes of administering the Change of Name Act.
Source: Section 4
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced