NOTE: Versions of this article also appeared today in Regina Leader Post, Edmonton Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen.

PUBLICATION:          National Post

DATE:                         2005.02.05

EDITION:                    All but Toronto

SECTION:                  Canada

PAGE:                         A8

BYLINE:                     Cristin Schmitz

SOURCE:                   CanWest News Service

DATELINE:                 OTTAWA

ILLUSTRATION:        Black & White Photo: DNA.

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Government denies DNA forensic backlog endangers public: Response to opposition: McLellan aide says Public Safety Ministry has been meeting 'performance standard'

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OTTAWA - Delays in processing DNA samples at the RCMP's troubled forensic labs shot up to more than 100 days in 2004, but the government denies that a 1,000-case backlog is imperiling public safety or criminal investigations.

Responding to a written question from Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, the government revealed this week that the average turnaround time for doing DNA forensic analysis in all but 89 of the most urgent criminal cases increased last year to 102 days from 92 days in 2003 -- up 11 per cent.

The turnaround time at the RCMP's swamped forensic lab services in Vancouver, Regina and Ottawa was more than triple the 30-day standard recommended in 1998 by Ontario Judge Archie Campbell, who concluded that a two-year delay in analyzing Paul Bernardo's DNA samples at Ontario's Centre of Forensic Sciences, a non-RCMP facility, allowed the killer to commit four more rapes and two murders.

The information tabled by Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan also shows that 1,043 requests for DNA analysis had not been completed at the end of 2004 -- boosting the RCMP's backlog 54 per cent from 2003 when 679 requests were still unprocessed at the end of 2003.

However, the RCMP's performance in handling DNA samples in the most urgent cases, which for example involved life-threatening situations, improved in 2004 to 29 days -- a substantial drop from 51 days the year before -- but still double the desired 15-day standard.

Ms. McLellan's parliamentary secretary, Toronto MP Roy Cullen, insisted there are no delay problems at the RCMP's forensic laboratory services.

"There is no backlog, absolutely not," he told CanWest News Service. "I am totally satisfied that we are meeting our performance standard, and if we aren't, in those rare exceptions we are communicating with law enforcement and we are finding a way to deal with it."

Mr. Cullen echoed the argument of RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli to the Commons justice committee last December that all the DNA cases in the RCMP lab system do not constitute a "backlog" because "they are works-in-process. (The cases) are being processed. It's sort of like saying if you went to General Motors 'All those cars that are in the production plant now are backlogs.' It's the same idea."

Yet former auditor general Denis Desautels found the RCMP does have a big "backlog," which he defined as "the number of cases that have not been fully completed." His 2000 report raised "serious concerns" about the "long delays" and backlogs at the RCMP's six forensic laboratories.

Mr. Desautels noted "numerous complaints" from police and provincial attorneys general from across Canada , other than Quebec and Ontario which have their own forensic labs.

Mr. Desautels cited one first-degree murder case where the pivotal DNA evidence arrived only on the day of trial while in another case the delay in DNA testing led to an acquittal.

Mr. Breitkreuz has been pushing the government to boost funding for DNA services since 2003 when the National Post reported that under-resourced RCMP labs were being overwhelmed, and hundreds of prosecutions were being jeopardized.

He accused the government of trying to redefine the RCMP's "backlog" out of existence.

"They don't admit to having a backlog. Once they receive a sample and acknowledge that they have received it, even if they haven't done anything with it it's no longer regarded as a 'backlog' even though it might be quite some time before they finish the analysis.

"But our RCMP sources tell us there is a backlog, and because they have not had enough money a lot of their forensic experts have gone to the U.S. , they've lost some top-notch people, and RCMP officers are often frustrated with the fact that they don't get results back in a timely fashion. That's the word on the street."

Dave Hepworth, a retired RCMP staff sergeant with more than 30 years of forensic experience who quit the RCMP's forensic lab in Regina in 2003, called it "nonsense" that the forensic lab system is improving its handling of non-urgent cases.

"All the information is that the backlog is much bigger than when I left," said Mr. Hepworth, who keeps in touch with former colleagues. He accused the RCMP of being "highly evasive" and challenged it to disclose its processing targets.

Mr. Hepworth warned that the RCMP labs will be further inundated when legislative changes now before Parliament are passed.

The reforms require DNA samples to be taken for the DNA data bank from everyone convicted of break and enter, a common offence.

"They will never be able to handle it," Mr. Hepworth predicted.