George,
Did you see the article in the Edmonton Sun? It is on the Helix website but I'll post anyway. BTW--Terry Owen was called as an expert witness in a local trial recently and is currently attending a forensic conference in Edmonton. I'm hoping the Health Protection Branch (HPB) announces final approval soon for the Bausch & Lomb glaucoma product soon. Maybe that will kickstart the stock again. I feel this should be trading between 1.10 and 1.40 not .75!
Regards,
Dan Byrne
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The Edmonton Sun
Wednesday, July 9, 1997
Cops pay more for results
Stories by BART JOHNSON
Staff Writer
ÿ
City cops will soon be forking out big bucks for private DNA tests because the RCMP labs that now do it for free are taking too long.
Const. Joe Slembo, of the Edmonton police identification section, says the RCMP lab in Edmonton and the force's other five labs in the country are swamped with cases and don't have the manpower to deal with them all quickly.
As a result, it's taking up to a year for samples to be tested and returned, he said.
"In no way are we unhappy with the service we're getting from the RCMP," Slemko said.
"But we have to look at it this way: We have our suspects and we have our DNA standards. Can we close this case now or do we have to continue investigating for months and months when it's really not necessary?"
Where the RCMP will take up to a year, private labs boast turnaround times of one to four weeks, says Jennifer Clay, spokesman for Richmond, B.C.-based Helix Biotech, the largest of five private DNA labs in Canada.
It costs money - up to $1,050 for one sample, depending on the test - but Clay says police forces already using her lab's services say it's well worth it.
"They figure they save that money in surveillance and other investigative work," she said, citing forces in Vancouver and New Westminster as regular clients.
Slemko agrees the cost is not a concern, especially given the fact helix offers every kind of DNA testing, while only three of the RCMP's six labs offer the full gamut of tests, creating even more of a delay in some cases.
"When you start to offset it against investigative costs - which can be tens of thousands of dollars a day - there's not much argument that can be made against it," he said.
"I can't say we'll use them exclusively," he added. "But definitely we'll be utilizing them more and more frequently in cases where time is a factor."
The one downside to using private labs like Helix, which specializes in paternity cases, is that they don't have the court-recognized credibility of RCMP labs, Slemko said.
But he said he expects that will become less of a concern with each criminal case it handles and testifies about.
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