The GNWT has opened up the draft regulations related to its Missing Persons Act for comment, one of the last stages before the legislation comes into full force.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls highlighted the need for legislation related to missing persons in Canada.
The territory’s Missing Persons Act, passed by MLAs last year, is designed to provide RCMP with additional tools to investigate missing persons cases.
“When police begin a missing person investigation, they often have no reason to suspect that a crime has been committed and cannot obtain a production order under the Criminal Code, or otherwise compel parties to release personal information about the missing person,” the NWT government stated.
“Missing persons legislation can help address some of the aspects that may make it difficult to investigate a missing persons case.”
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You can review the draft regulations and provide feedback on the GNWT’s public engagement website.
The GNWT said the regulations set out, among other things:
- procedures for the way police ask to access records or carry out searches;
- procedures and requirements for officers making emergency demands; and
- how people whose information has been accessed will be told.
Some families of missing people in the NWT have backed efforts to introduce this kind of legislation.
RCMP initially suggested a lack of missing persons legislation in the NWT had complicated efforts to find Frank Gruben, a 30-year-old Gwich’in Inuvialuit man from Aklavik who was last seen in Fort Smith on May 6, 2023 – and whose disappearance remains unexplained more than two years later.
Though a senior RCMP official later walked back that suggestion, Frank’s friends and family have maintained calls for such legislation to come into force.
Residents have until July 24 to provide comments on the draft regulations.
