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This enactment amends the Criminal Code and the Young Offenders
Act to allow a judge to issue a warrant authorizing a peace officer, or
another person acting under the direction of a peace officer, to obtain
samples of bodily substances by means of special investigative
procedures for forensic DNA analysis from a person who is reasonably
believed to have been a party to certain designated Criminal Code
offences.
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The offences defined as designated offences for the purposes of this
enactment include sexual offences and crimes of violence.
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The enactment authorizes three investigative procedures for the
collection of bodily substances, namely,
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(a) the plucking of individual hairs from the person;
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(b) the taking of a buccal swab; and
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(c) the taking of blood by pricking the skin surface with a sterile
lancet.
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The enactment contains provisions requiring the peace officer
executing the warrant to ensure that the privacy of the person is
respected, in a manner that is reasonable in the circumstances and
permits the judge to include terms and conditions in the warrant that the
judge considers advisable to ensure that the seizure of the bodily
substances is carried out in a reasonable fashion.
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The enactment also contains provisions regulating the use that can
be made of the bodily substances and the results of the DNA analysis.
Where, after forensic DNA analysis, the involvement of the suspect in
the commission of the offence has been disproved, any bodily
substances seized under the authority of a warrant that remain and the
results of the analysis shall be destroyed unless a judge orders
otherwise. Similarly, if the information is withdrawn, or the prosecution
is stayed and not recommenced, or the accused is finally acquitted, any
bodily substances seized under the authority of a warrant that remain
and any associated information resulting from the analysis shall be
destroyed.
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Young persons are to be treated for the most part as adults. The police
would have access to warrants with respect to the same types of offences
and all persons to be subject to such procedures would benefit from
procedural safeguards at the time the warrant would be executed. There
would, nevertheless, be some special protection afforded young
persons such as the right to have the samples taken in the presence of
counsel or other appropriate adult and the existing rules in the Young
Offenders Act with regard to prohibitions on publication and access to
records would be extended.
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