Registered sex offender hired by Manitoba fire commissioner worked with children

The Office of the Fire Commissioner is pledging to doing better background checks after it hired a registered sex offender to work with children.

The office hired the man as a summer student last year to help with public education.

The position involved working with schools and the fire and life safety education trailer.

The man was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2010 and sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years probation.

He's on the child abuse registry.

In 2011, he pleaded guilty to breaching his probation by accessing the internet to contact a teenage girl.

There's nothing to indicate the man did anything wrong while employed by the office of the fire commissioner.

The province said it would not comment on personnel matters.

“The province’s policy around the requirement for background/security checks (depending on the role or responsibility of the employee) has been in place for some time. However, the Office of the Fire Commissioner has now committed to ensuring those checks will be followed for any new STEP Student hiring where the position puts the employee in contact with vulnerable persons such as youth or other students.”