In order to solve the homicide of an 11-year old girl, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is gathering DNA samples from an estimated 2,000 males between 15-66 years old on a remote Manitoba First Nation. Bert Paquet, RCMP spokesman, said that samples are being given to officers voluntarily. Corey Sherman, a human rights lawyer in Winnipeg and past president of the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties, however doubts that the DNA samples are offered voluntarily, since refusing to give a sample can make them a prime suspect. He is further questioning the generalisation and sweeping conclusions being made about a group of people such as a First Nations community in this case. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the DNA samples will be destroyed or put into the national DNA database after this investigation, although Paquet assures that they will be used for this investigation only. The head of the group that represents northern First Nations also has questions about what the RCMP are doing in the community.
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