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VICTORIA — Allan Schoenborn killed his three children in 2008 and more than a decade later was permitted to legally change his name under British Columbia’s Name Act, but his new identity as Ken John Johnson did not become public until Monday.
The British Columbia government has now introduced legislation to ensure those convicted of serious Criminal Code offences will no longer be permitted to legally change their names.
The New Democrat government’s proposed amendments to the Name Act come following reports last month that Schoenborn had applied to a review board to keep his new name from being made public.
“What this legislation does is it says that people who have been found guilty of very serious offences, violence against other people, acts against children, will not be permitted to change their name,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix following introduction of the bill in the legislature.
“The focus here is the offence and not the verdict,” he said. “What it ensures really is more safety and reflects the views of families who are facing these circumstances.”
Last month, Opposition BC United Leader Kevin Falcon tabled a proposed private member’s bill to amend the Name Act after learning Schoenborn changed his name.
“This bill will prevent convicted criminals and individuals who have committed offences causing serious harm to others from evading accountability and avoiding the negative consequences of their actions by legally changing their name,” Dix said in the legislature when introducing the amended act.
He said outside the legislature he expected quick passage of the bill with the spring legislative session scheduled to conclude Thursday.
Dix said relatives of Schoenborn’s victims learned his new name Monday.
Family spokesman Dave Teixeira said he received confirmation of a B.C. Vital Statistics Certificate of Name Change document showing Allan Dwayne Schoenborn legally changed his name to Ken John Johnson in May 2021.
Teixeira posted the name change document on social media.
“I wanted to share it because I don’t think someone who murdered three children should be able to hide under a new name,” he said in an interview. “It doesn’t mean they can divorce themselves from what they did.”
Schoenborn was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his children, aged five, eight and 10, whose bodies were found in the family’s Merritt, B.C., home in 2008.
A judge ruled Schoenborn was not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder after the verdict.
Schoenborn has been a patient at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam since 2010.
Darcie Clarke, the mother of the children, died in 2019.
“While this will not help Darcie Clarke and her family necessarily, Darcie’s legacy is going to be that her children, Kaitlynne, Corden and Max, don’t go forgotten and she’s going to assist families in the future,” said Teixeira.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2024.
Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press