National framework needed, says advocate

“Lack of communications was our biggest roadblock with police,” said Maureen Trask, whose son, Daniel, was 28 when he went missing on Nov. 3, 2011.

Daniel’s body was found by a volunteer search crew in 2015 after a three-and-a-half-year search.

Trask is now a major advocate for families of missing persons. She says there is no national framework in Canada for how to handle missing persons, with procedures varying greatly between police agencies and data collection fragmented across Canada.

“Navigating the processes and the changes and the procedures was daunting,” said Trask.

That experience led her to author a report in 2020 about why Canada needs a national framework for missing persons, which she defines as a “cross government and inter-agency strategy with defined roles and responsibilities to effectively address the issue of missing persons.”

CBC Toronto requested comment from Public Safety Canada but did not receive a response before publication. This story will be updated when a response is received.

Trask says a framework would provide consistent procedures across police departments for responding to missing persons, make important data accessible and even provide resources to prevent persons from going missing in the first place.

The report also outlines recommended procedures for reporting missing persons, investigating disappearances, searching for missing persons and communicating through media when someone goes missing.

However, Trask says efforts to produce a national framework have gone largely ignored, with many over the years telling her that policing is a provincial responsibility.

2019 law provides police more tools

But progress has been made, she said.

Trask told CBC Toronto that police could not initially investigate Daniel’s whereabouts in 2011 because there wasn’t foul play or a criminal investigation.

“They couldn’t get a warrant like you could if there was a crime,” said Trask.

She says after a six year fight and support from her local MPP, Catherine Fife, the Missing Persons Act was proclaimed by Ontario’s government on July 1, 2019. It provides police with additional tools when there is no evidence a crime has been committed in someone’s disappearance.

The law allows police to obtain copies of records that may assist in a search, obtain a search warrant to enter a premises to locate a missing person and make an urgent demand for certain records without a court order.

Trask says a national framework would also help support families who are faced with missing loved ones, including providing reliable mental health supports and even financial resources to families who are busy searching for their loved one.

That could help families like Nathan’s, she says, who Trask reached out to after his disappearance.

Meanwhile, Jason says he is hoping police will continue to reach out to the public and that anyone knowing of Nathan’s whereabouts notify police, even anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

“We just want closure,” said Jason. “That’s all the family wants.”