(Supreme Court of Canada) The court considered the retention of a juvenile first-time offender’s DNA sample on the national data bank. The court upheld the decision by a trial judge who had found, in the light of the principles and objects of youth criminal justice legislation, that the impact of the DNA retention would be grossly disproportionate. In his opinion, Fish J said: ‘Of more concern, however, is the impact of an order on an individual’s informational privacy interests. In R. v. Plant, [1993] 3 SCR 281, at p. 293, the Court found that s. 8 of the Charter protected the ‘biographical core of personal information which individuals in a free and democratic society would wish to maintain and control from dissemination to the state’. An individual’s DNA contains the ‘highest level of personal and private information’: S.A.B., at para. 48. Unlike a fingerprint, it is capable of revealing the most intimate details of a person’s biological makeup. . The taking and retention of a DNA sample is not a trivial matter and, absent a compelling public interest, would inherently constitute a grave intrusion on the subject’s right to personal and informational privacy.’
Citations:
[2005] 3 SCR 99, 2005 SCC 61
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Marper v United Kingdom; S v United Kingdom ECHR 4-Dec-2008
(Grand Chamber) The applicants complained that on being arrested on suspicion of offences, samples of their DNA had been taken, but then despite being released without conviction, the samples had retained on the Police database.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commonwealth
Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.278519