Evidence of meeting #54 for Public Safety and National Security in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services, Forensic Science and Identification Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
They concern the way to enter the information, but that's for the purpose of complying with the act.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
You talk about entering information, but does that imply the decision to accept or reject the form?
Director General, Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services, Forensic Science and Identification Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
There's no connection with that. In fact, the idea is to determine whether the fingerprints have been obtained legally and what the charges are.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
So based on what you say, keeping such and such a form has absolutely nothing to do with internal directives.
Director General, Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services, Forensic Science and Identification Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
To determine what we keep, we do so in accordance with the act which allows us or doesn't allow us to retain the information.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I understand from everything you've said today that you attribute the problem with CPIC information to the police departments, not to your organization. You say the police departments don't necessarily send you the information and that you aren't able to obtain that information.
A/Commr Peter Henschel
No. I think it's a combination. We definitely don't receive all the available information on, for example, the charges, convictions and so on.
A/Commr Peter Henschel
We aren't able to do that because we don't have the necessary tools. Not all the CPIC information concerning criminal records is up to date. There's a certain delay.
Bloc
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
With regard to DNA, I must admit I find it hard to understand. You're telling me the law ultimately prevents you from using form 3801. Should the act be amended?
A/Commr Peter Henschel
No, I would say instead that we apply processes in order to comply with the laws. There is one concerning DNA samples and another that we apply in order to open criminal records and add information to them. These are two different processes. Even though we have a form for our fingerprints process, we would not be able to decide to use the form for that process. After a certain time, everything would be mixed up and we would no longer be able to guarantee the quality of our information or protect the information in the DNA data bank.
With regard to DNA samples, we have an act in Canada that protects personal information. We have separate processes that we follow to ensure compliance with the act, but also to protect personal information.
Bloc
A/Commr Peter Henschel
Those processes are based on the law, but they have been developed by the RCMP over the years.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
I understand, but I admit I find it a bit odd that two processes are used for the same purpose.
Conservative
A/Commr Peter Henschel
I wouldn't say there's a duplication or that it's odd. We do a kind of double check to ensure that what we have really corresponds to the actual situation. The worst thing that can happen is for us to establish a correspondence starting with the DNA data bank and then to consult the criminal records and retrieve someone's name but discover that's not the right person. It would be horrible if that situation were to arise. That's why we're really very strict about the processes designed to ensure information quality and—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much, Madam Mourani.
We want to thank each one of you for appearing before us today. I can tell you, as a member of Parliament—and I think you've heard it—all members have been called or e-mailed or sent letters with frustration over some of what we've seen happening.
You've given us a little bit of an idea of the process that you go through, and also a little bit of the hope that some of these things are going to be streamlined even more. So we thank you for being here.
I see that our time is up, so we will adjourn. I just ask the committee to stick around for one second.
The meeting is adjourned.