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Officials with the GNWT are asking the public for feedback on regulations laid out in the draft of the territory’s first-ever Missing Persons Act.
Feedback will be accepted at the GNWT’s website until July 24.
“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,” stated Ngan Trinh, senior communications advisor with the Department of Justice. “Missing persons legislation can help address some of the aspects that may make it difficult to investigate a missing persons case.”
Among the changes the act proposes are provisions and procedures to enable police officers to make emergency demands of individuals and access public records, while also providing a system to inform individuals if their records were accessed in a missing persons investigation.
Several unsolved disappearances have affected families in the Northwest Territories over the past few years. Frank Gruben, originally of Aklavik, has been missing from Fort Smith since 2023. More recently, Lance Briere of Inuvik has been missing since February of this year with multiple searches finding no trace of him.
Statistics from the federal government show there are currently 25 active missing person cases in the territory as of 2023.
You can read the proposed regulations in their entirety here. Submit feedback to the GNWT here.
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