PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Sun
DATE: 2004.08.19
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Comment
PAGE:
17
BYLINE:
MARK BONOKOSKI, TORONTO SUN
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DNA
DOES IT
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The
2,000th hit on the RCMP's National DNA Data Bank came and went with little
fanfare, ironically within a heartbeat of the recent death of Francis Crick, the
British-born scientist who helped unlock the secrets that lie within the
double-helix that defines genetic fingerprinting.
And
then, days later, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino mused of how it would be
nice if police had the power to collect DNA samples from everyone they arrested,
not just those the courts convicted. Suddenly a Big Brother debate was on.
On
the day of the 2,000th hit, however, some 40 DNA matches registered almost
simultaneously within the bank's computer brain in Ottawa, so it was virtually
impossible to single out which hit was the milestone. "But, in a way, they
were all winners," says Sylvain Lalonde, the bank's technology and
information officer.
Indeed,
if it were not an Ottawa dateline, the script would be more akin to something
out of a CSI television script, as 40 DNA matches linked 40 crime scenes to 40
convicted offenders whose DNA was on file.
And
that happened all in that single day, a day that Lalonde describes more as
"typical" than historic. "We're a success story, for sure,"
he says.
It
is an assessment that is difficult to argue, considering the fact that those 40
single-day hits virtually closed the book on 30 break-and-enters, two sexual
assaults, one case of manslaughter, one assault with a weapon, two assaults, one
hit-and-run, two murders and one attempted murder.
Launched
in June 2000, the DNA data bank has provided critical evidence to solve criminal
cases across Canada, many involving serious offences. According to a press
release, the 2,000 matches represent the bank's assistance in over 137 murders,
352 sexual assaults and 275 armed robbery cases. As a result, Canadian law
enforcement has what the RCMP calls "a solid and reliable investigative
tool that directly contributes to public safety."
Compare
that to anything supposedly achieved through the national gun registry, and then
compare the registry's billion-dollar-plus price ticket to the seemingly meagre
$3- to $5-million annual costs to run the DNA bank.
According
to RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, Canada's top federal cop, "the
National DNA Data Bank is one of the most cost-effective and sophisticated
investigative tools we have."
"It
also demonstrates how law enforcement and criminal justice agencies can work
effectively to gather intelligence and share information," he said.
"It is a model of integrated service delivery across Canada and
beyond."
Oddly, a similar statement from Zaccardelli regarding the
national gun registry is impossible to find, leading one to assume that none was
ever issued.
According
to Lalonde, the bank's forensic experts have no idea of the name of the criminal
whose DNA ends up being matched to a crime. Instead of names, there are bar
codes. Instead of victims and scenarios, there are case numbers.
But
one and one always add up to two.
It
is the kind of arithmetic that did in Domenic Marchese, the 50-year-old Toronto
man who was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after DNA evidence
presented to a jury from a 1991 cold-case file tied him to the rape of a
16-year-old prostitute who had taken him as her first john.
'RUINED
MY LIFE'
In
a victim-impact statement, the now 29-year-old woman, her life reportedly now on
the straight and narrow, told Superior Court Judge Bruce Hawkins that Marchese
"ruined my life and I despise him for that."
"He
hurt me physically and mentally," she said. "I honestly thought I was
going to get killed that day."
For 13 years, DNA gathered from her semen-stained socks awaited the day a sample put through the data bank's computer in Ottawa came up with a hit. Last year, Marchese had a DNA sample taken after he was convicted for an unrelated assault. And then the data bank's computer went to work.