The National DNA Data Bank of Canada: a Quebecer perspective

Emmanuel Milot, Marie M. J. Lecomte, Hugo Germain, Frank Crispino

The Canadian National DNA Database was created in 1998 and first used in the mid-2000. Under management by the RCMP, the National DNA Data Bank of Canada offers each year satisfactory reported statistics for its use and efficiency. Built on two indexes (convicted offenders and crime scene indexes), the database not only provides increasing matches to offenders or linked traces to the various police forces of the nation, but offers a memory repository for cold cases. Despite these achievements, the data bank is now facing new challenges that will inevitably defy the way the database is currently used. These arise from the increasing power of detection of DNA traces, the diversity of demands from police investigators and the growth of the bank itself. Examples of new requirements from the database now include familial searches, low-copy-number analyses and the correct interpretation of mixed samples. This paper aims to develop on the original way set in Québec to address some of these challenges. Nevertheless, analytic and technological advances will inevitably lead to the introduction of new technologies in forensic laboratories, such as single cell sequencing, phenotyping, and proteomics. Furthermore, it will not only request a new holistic/global approach of the forensic molecular biology sciences (through academia and a more investigative role in the laboratory), but also new legal developments. Far from being exhaustive, this paper highlights some of the current use of the database, its potential for the future, and opportunity to expand as a result of recent technological developments in molecular biology, including, but not limited to DNA identification.