This paper aims to develop on the original way set in Québec to address some of these challenges. Examples of new requirements from the database now include familial searches, low-copy-number analyses and the correct interpretation of mixed samples. These arise from the increasing power of detection of DNA traces, the diversity of demands from police investigators and the growth of the bank itself. Despite these achievements, the data bank is now facing new challenges that will inevitably defy the way the database is currently used.
Built on two indexes (convicted offenders and crime scene indexes), the database not only provides increasing matches to offenders or linked traces to the various police forces of the nation, but offers a memory repository for cold cases. Under management by the RCMP, the National DNA Data Bank of Canada offers each year satisfactory reported statistics for its use and efficiency. The Canadian National DNA Database was created in 1998 and first used in the mid-2000. 4Département de Chimie, Biochimie et Physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada.3The Department of Forensic Science, School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.Albert Science Centre, The Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand 1Groupe de Recherche PRIMUS, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.Lecomte 2,3, Hugo Germain 4 and Frank Crispino 4*