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RCMP in the Yukon can now access the financial, health and telecommunications records of missing people.
Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai announced the new powers Monday during an accountability forum for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S+). He said police can also now also apply for a search warrant if they believe a missing minor or vulnerable person is in immediate danger.
Pillai called the new rules “a significant milestone for all Yukoners.” They’ve been in the works since 2017, when the territory first passed legislation to allow them.
Doris Bill, the former chief of Kwanlin Dün First Nation and co-chair of the Yukon Advisory Committee on MMIWG2S+, echoed that.
“It’s very significant for our families,” she said. “When you look across the North, we have a number of people missing.”
She pointed to the ongoing search for many missing people, including Ramona Peter, who went missing in April, and Joseph Chief, who went missing in June 2022.
She also acknowledged people in the N.W.T. who have gone missing, including Frank Gruben in Fort Smith, whose disappearance prompted renewed calls for missing persons legislation that would allow police to access personal records in that territory.
“One thing I notice is they all have something in common. They’re all Indigenous. Why is that?” Bill said. “That tells me we still have a lot of work to do. We still have a ways to go, and I pray that these young people are brought home to their families.”
The accountability forum is meant to update a plan the advisory committee released in June to implement the territory’s MMIWG2S+ strategy.
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