{"id":21535,"date":"2025-06-28T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T10:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21535\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T10:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T10:17:08","slug":"ontario-privacy-commissioner-urges-guardrails-on-police-gravitating-toward-unbridled-genetic-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21535\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario privacy commissioner urges guardrails on police gravitating toward \u2018unbridled genetic surveillance\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Patricia Kosseim, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, is calling for clearer rules and more transparency in the wake of crime investigations in Canada where police have cast wide nets.Cole Burston\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Burnaby, B.C., police investigating the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl staged an undercover operation at a Kurdish New Year\u2019s celebration in hopes of capturing the perpetrator whose identity was at that point completely unknown. <\/p>\n

After DNA analysis from the crime scene suggested the suspect was likely Kurdish, the RCMP posed as market researchers for a fake beverage company at the ethnic cultural festival. Undercover officers served tea to festivalgoers at random in more than 140 disposable cups, which were then discarded, swabbed and analyzed. The DNA found on the cups included the brother of the suspect \u2013 a key step that allowed authorities to later arrest and convict the killer. <\/p>\n

This 2018 operation is among the police investigations highlighted in a new report by Ontario\u2019s privacy watchdog, who is warning about a lack of guardrails in a new era of DNA-based criminal investigations. <\/p>\n

As police increasingly rely on powerful DNA techniques to solve cold cases and identify suspects of serious crimes, Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim is urging checks-and-balances to prevent \u201cunbridled genetic surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Kosseim is issuing this call for clearer rules and more transparency following dozens of crime investigations in Canada where police have cast wide nets.<\/p>\n

Police charge man in 1998 killing of pregnant woman after identifying him using DNA<\/a><\/p>\n

Body found in river channel near Windsor, Ont., identified more than 21 years later<\/a><\/p>\n

One such DNA-based technique \u2013 known as investigative genetic genealogy \u2013 involves cross-referencing DNA from crime scenes with information members of the public have uploaded onto genetic genealogy websites that are searchable by police. This allows authorities to zero in on an unknown suspect through close genetic matches presumed to be relatives. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe law on this topic, or on this new technology, is very murky,\u201d Ms. Kosseim said in an interview. \u201cThis is a technology that has evolved very rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The privacy commissioner\u2019s report, released this week, includes 12 proposed guardrails for law enforcement agencies \u2013 the first of its kind in Canada, Ms. Kosseim said. <\/p>\n

They include calling on police to release statistics on their use of new DNA investigative techniques and informing members of the public within 90 days if their genetic material has been analyzed. <\/p>\n

Such disclosure processes would mirror what has already been done for decades in other police campaigns, Ms. Kosseim said. \u201cMuch like wiretapping or other invasive forms of surveillance, this after-the-fact notice is a way of protecting privacy and human rights.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The privacy commissioner does not have the power to make binding recommendations but said she hopes to spur discussions about whether parameters should be placed on police probes.<\/p>\n

In response to the report, Ontario Provincial Police spokesman Joe Brisebois said, \u201cWe recognize the public\u2019s concern for privacy and emphasize that the investigative tools used by the OPP, including IGG, are subject to and used in compliance with appropriate laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique described IGG as \u201can absolutely essential investigative tool.\u201d The force would not say often it had used it to solve cases.<\/p>\n

In Toronto, police say they have used IGG to solve 59 cases, including identifying human remains as well as <\/b>alleged perpetrators of historic homicides and sexual assaults. The force is developing its own policies governing the use of the technology, said spokeswoman Stephanie Sayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are still reviewing the report in full, we appreciate the Information and Privacy Commissioner\u2019s interest in the use of investigative genetic genealogy and the call for clear oversight and transparency,\u201d she said. <\/b><\/p>\n

B.C. RCMP Sergeant Freda Fong defended the 2018 Burnaby probe, saying police in high-profile homicides gather whatever evidence they are allowed to get.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the DNA analysis had resulted in a suspect profile of a different ethnicity, investigators would\u2019ve assessed the options available to them,\u201d she said in an e-mail. \u201cPolice will use all tools available to them within the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto police are using new investigative genetic genealogy techniques to help crack cold cases, including historical homicides. In November 2022, detectives said they used these methods to identify a suspect in a Northern Ontario community in connection with two 1983 killings in Toronto.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Sgt. Fong said she knows the case well because she worked for years as a liaison officer with the family of the slain girl. \u201cI know firsthand that the family, their ethnic community and many citizens of Burnaby were relieved that the accused was held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The national police force developed preliminary guidelines in 2023 for the use of DNA techniques, according to an internal document obtained by The Globe and Mail. <\/p>\n

The policy <\/b>states that the techniques can be used to investigate homicide and sexual assault investigations, as well as kidnappings, national security probes and cases \u201cin which all other viable avenues of investigation have been reasonably exhausted.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cConsult with Crown counsel with prosecuting authority over the investigation to ensure identified legal or privacy concerns have been appropriately considered,\u201d the RCMP document advises. <\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, federal MPs passed laws and warrant requirements around a new National DNA Databank \u2013 a statute-enabled state repository of genetic profiles drawn from Canadian convicts and crime scenes.<\/p>\n

Parliament has not fundamentally revisited DNA laws since, and no warrant requirements are currently in place for police to tap into newer pools of data controlled by the private sector that are the engine of genetic genealogy investigations. <\/p>\n

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice published an interim guidance document on police probes involving investigative genetic genealogy, however, no such guidance exists at the federal level in Canada.<\/p>\n

In a statement this week, Ian MacLeod, spokesman for the federal Justice Department, said, \u201cThe federal government is working with its provincial\/territorial partners to examine transformative developments in DNA technology,\u201d adding that this work is intended to \u201cinform future discussion.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Ontario government is reviewing the commissioner\u2019s report, said Brent Ross, spokesman for the Ministry of the Solicitor General.<\/p>\n

Ms. Kosseim acknowledged that it could \u201ctake some time for decision makers, and certainly the courts, to determinatively decide on the legality of this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said privacy officials need to take stock. \u201cIn other cases, it could be Black communities, Indigenous communities, who again come under the spectre of police surveillance or police suspicion for no other reason than shared DNA,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Companies such as GEDmatch have assembled searchable repositories of genetic data \u2013 which are essentially forests of genetic family trees \u2013 as police friendly tools in today\u2019s burgeoning direct-to-consumer DNA industry. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Police say they have used investigative genetic genealogy to solve 59 cases in Toronto.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

These databases include hundreds of thousands of profiles. GEDmatch and others build them by encouraging people to hand over the profiles they bought about themselves and consent to having them aggregated and then searched by police.<\/p>\n

These resources carry a cost to collective privacy, Ms. Kosseim\u2019s report says, because they can facilitate the identification of \u201cmillions of Canadians\u201d through their close biological relatives \u201cwithout their knowledge or consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police who have obtained DNA from a crime scene use these genetic leads to home in on possible suspects by identifying close relatives. Next they can they confirm their suspicion through the practice known as \u201ccast-off collection,\u201d which involves extracting DNA from an item they watched being discarded, such as a coffee cup, a pizza crust or a piece of gum. <\/p>\n

While such searches aim to identify particular suspects, they occur without judicially supervised warrant processes and may also capture the DNA of relatives. In 2021, Toronto Police used genetic genealogy to figure out the identity of a Moosonee man who killed two Toronto women in the 1980s. That investigation involved police searching garbage bags and other cast-off items from four of his brothers, before eliminating them as suspects.<\/p>\n

Ms. Kosseim said that while courts have so far broadly upheld such searches to be legal, better rules are needed. \u201cThese kinds of tactics risk trampling into or evolving into basically unbridled genetic surveillance,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Patricia Kosseim, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, is calling for clearer rules and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,815,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,159,1458,158,1164,2141,67,132,68,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-21535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-genetics","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-science","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-united-states","55":"tag-unitedstates","56":"tag-us","57":"tag-us-news","58":"tag-world-news","59":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}