Your DNA can give you away.

• Author: Dickson, Gary

Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. One of those principles is that an accused person cannot be required to testify. This is usually described as a right against self-incrimination. The accused person is entitled to let the Crown attempt to prove its case against that accused beyond a reasonable doubt. The fact that an accused does not take the stand to offer an explanation cannot be used as evidence of guilt.

The federal law that permits the police to take fingerprint samples from a person accused of certain kinds of offences is a qualification of that general right against self-incrimination.

That right against self-incrimination is about to be further diluted in a very significant way by a proposed law known as Bill C-3, the DNA Identification Act, (Bill). This Bill was passed by the House of Commons and the Senate during the recent spring session. The Bill will create a national DNA data bank under the control of the RCMP to be used to assist law enforcement agencies in solving crimes. The data bank consists of two different parts. One part is made up of DNA profiles made from blood, hair, skin samples, or semen found at a crime scene in unsolved cases. The samples can also come from the body of any person associated with an offence. This means that police can require a blood sample from any person that they feel may be involved in the crime. The second part of the data bank is called a convicted offenders index and contains DNA profiles obtained from persons previously convicted of certain kinds of crime.

This Bill would allow the court to authorize the collection of bodily substances, which can then be used to develop DNA profiles on individuals that will then become part of the national DNA databank. In addition the Bill would allow the collection of bodily substances from offenders who are serving or have served a sentence.

DNA databanks have some history in other jurisdictions. Since 1995 the United Kingdom has developed the most ambitious DNA system in the world for crime-related purposes. It is estimated that the databank there has been used in more than 100 criminal cases. Many USA states have passed DNA databank laws but have not provided adequate funding to take full advantage of DNA databanking. The costs are substantial. In fact...