Mother fights for families of the missing
Maureen Trask frustrated by slow-moving bureaucracy
PUSLINCH TOWNSHIP — After pushing for change for years, Maureen Trask isn’t about to let the agonizingly slow process of government stop her fight for families of missing people.
When Ontario’s Standing Committee on Justice Policy meets next month to tackle a massive piece of proposed legislation that would mean changes for everything from policing to coroners to forensic laboratories, she’ll be there too.
Trask, the mother whose son Daniel went missing in 2011, doesn’t want the lawmakers to forget about the Missing Persons Act, part of a larger piece of legislation called the Safer Ontario Act, or Bill 175.
That act, if implemented, would make it easier for police to obtain cellphone and credit card records of missing people — changes that families say could help solve their cases much sooner.
The only problem is it’s tied up with Bill 175, which has been bogged down by procedural delays.
“Government is a slow-moving engine. They don’t call it bureaucracy for nothing,” Trask “I’d never dealt with government at this level before. I’ve learned to slow my pace down.”
But Trask says she’ll be sticking with the fight until the end, as part of her work as a vocal advocate for families of missing people. It’s a role she began before Daniel’s remains were discovered in the Temagami backcountry in May 2015, and has continued tirelessly since.
It’s important to her the committee hear her story, as a reminder of the families stuck in limbo when a loved one goes missing. She wants them to understand how police are handcuffed by privacy laws that make solving these cases more difficult.
“I want them to see the face behind this,” she said.
It’s all part of Trask’s work to help families
of the missing, both in Ontario and across the country.
On Monday, she’ll be on Parliament Hill, when a petition is presented to MPs during question period calling for a national Missing Persons Day. The campaign was started by the Boyle family of Pickering, who Trask helped create the e-petition and draw supporters through Facebook and elsewhere.
Trask, who now lives in Puslinch Township, hopes a nationally designated day would get the public talking about missing people, and hopefully put pressure on government to create national standards around the way police handle those cases.
While some forces such as the RCMP have a servicewide strategy to tackle missing persons cases, other police forces aren’t quite sure how to deal with those files, she said. Other countries have adopted a national framework for the problem, but Canada lags behind, Trask said.
Tens of thousands of Canadians are reported missing every year, and thousands of those cases remain unsolved. Some hope a Missing Persons Day could direct more resources to support families, and encourage them to submit DNA to a national DNA-based missing persons index.
Too many families grieve quietly when someone goes missing, and don’t know when or if they should hold memorials or funerals, Trask said. She wants those families to know they’re not alone.
“Families have no one to talk to about this. Most of them don’t want to bring it to the limelight,” she said.
“We’re saying we need a day to acknowledge those missing persons, to honour them somehow. It’s just a connecting point, but it’s a start.”