Not quite a year ago, the Saskatchewan government became the first provincial government in Canada to formally adopt Clare's Law. Now, the Saskatchewan RCMP will join the list of police organizations that have already agreed to abide by it. 

The law first came into effect on June 29 of last year. It was named for Clare Wood, a woman in the United Kingdom who was killed in 2009 by a former boyfriend with a history of domestic violence that she did not know about. Under this law, the police would be able to disclose someone's violent or abusive past to a partner if their safety may be threatened. 

“The Saskatchewan RCMP has always played an active role in the planning provincially around Clare’s Law," said C/Supt. Alfredo Bangloy, Acting Commanding Officer for the Saskatchewan RCMP. "We have been working persistently towards this day for over 10 months, to ensure the people in the communities we police in Saskatchewan are able to exercise their right to ask and participate in Clare’s Law."

According to the RCMP release, part of the reason the official participation in this took so long was federal regulations. Saskatchewan was the first province to bring the law into effect, so there was new ground to be broken on several levels of government. The United Kingdom has had the law in place since 2014. 

People who suspect their partner may have a history of violence can now make an application under Clare's Law to the Saskatchewan RCMP. A concerned third party can also make an application if they have a close relationship with the person in question. 

"In Saskatchewan, our police partners began following the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police (SACP) Interpersonal Violence Disclosure Protocol on June 29, 2020," said the RCMP in a release, "which, under the Act, authorizes a police service to provide disclosure information to a potential victim of interpersonal violence. At that time, the Saskatchewan RCMP was actively part of the provincial Clare’s Law committee, but could not participate fully due to our authority around disclosing information that could be considered personal information, as per Section 8 of the Privacy Act."

In order to participate fully in the law, the RCMP said they had to make amendments to their regulations that would allow them to do so. This included talks with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and federal and provincial governments.