Meanwhile, the federal Solicitor General's office, though promising to deliver a databank this fall, claims not to know how much the national databank will cost. The limitations of this technology are only some of its problems. The compulsory seizure and storage of genetic information poses still larger problems for a democratic society. In the first instance, DNA provides far more than just identifying information about a suspect, an attacker, or a victim. This information is of great potential interest to insurers of all sorts , and to employers, educational institutions, researchers and various agencies of governments.
Genetic discrimination is a real and growing threat .
Consequently information about an individual's DNA must be protected from search or seizure but to date in Canada only limited protections exist . However privacy protections which ensure the rights of individuals are of limited value because genetic information about one individual implicates other members of that individual's biological kinship. Moreover, guarantees of confidentiality may not provide sufficient protection. Finally, individual protections of privacy and research requirements of anonymity do not protect collectivities from the effects of research which uses their genetic material. Moreover, DNA is the subject of a considerable mystique.