Glebe resident is a new Order of Canada recipient: Della Wilkinson honoured for work on fingerprints
Photo: Glebe resident Della Wilkinson was named a member of the Order of Canada for her ground-breaking forensic work on fingerprint detection.
Photo: Della Wilkinson moderates the heat pump panel discussion organized recently by the Glebe Community Association’s Environment Committee, of which she is an active member.
Glebe resident is a new Order of Canada recipient
Della Wilkinson honoured for work on fingerprints
By Jennifer Humphries
What do former Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, sprinter Andre De Grasse and Glebe resident Della Wilkinson have in common? On New Year’s Day, they were among 80 Canadians newly appointed to the Order of Canada by Governor General Mary Simon.
Wilkinson is widely known in our community as chair of the Glebe Community Association’s Environment Committee and for organizing events on how to shrink your home’s energy consumption and the planting native pollinators and canopy trees in your garden.
But her appointment to the Order of Canada is for markedly different achievements of revolutionizing fingerprint detection and positioning Canada as a global leader in forensic identification.
“Canada is an amazing country to bestow such an honour on an immigrant who arrived on its shores 35 years ago and spent a career figuring out how science could give a voice to the victims of crime,” Wilkinson told me.
Immigrating to Canada in 1990 with a PhD in chemistry from Cambridge University PhD, Wilkinson began her career at the National Research Council (NRC), soon moving to the RCMP.
Her early work related to fingerprints on skin, which are difficult to detect because of the similarity of the chemical components of fingerprints to those present on the skin’s surface. The research involved collaboration with a Civic Hospital pathologist and night-time visits to the morgue, leading to new methods that made fingerprint-on-skin recovery possible. The murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy at that time lent particular urgency to her work.
Investigating Contaminated Crime Scenes
Wilkinson spent much of her career engaged with Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs), some of whom were on CBRNE Response Teams (CBRNE stands for chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosive). These teams were responsible for recovering evidence from contaminated crime scenes. It occurred to her that expecting techniques used in everyday investigations to work in the presence of chemical, biological or explosive materials was unrealistic. The US Department of Defense agreed and in 1998 funded her research on the impact of chemical agents on physical evidence such as fingerprints, footwear and DNA. Wilkinson identified ways to overcome many of these difficulties and thereby help CSIs in a range of settings.
For example, after anthrax attacks on the heels of 9/11, Wilkinson received further funding from the US to develop protocols for anthrax-contaminated evidence. And because criminals often use arson to destroy evidence, Wilkinson partnered with the NRC Fire Lab in Carleton Place to develop ways to recover evidence from fire-damaged buildings.
Canada’s first court challenge to fingerprint evidence came in 2017. The case was a residential break-and-enter in Surrey, B.C., and the defence attorney called upon world-renowned fingerprint critic and author Dr. Simon Cole. Wilkinson advised the Crown on its strategy to address this unprecedented challenge and counter Dr. Cole’s criticisms of fingerprint evidence that were developed in an American legal context. She was declared an expert witness in fingerprints by the presiding judge of the B.C. Supreme Court and testified on scientific research that supported fingerprint evidence as practised in Canada. The court ruled that the fingerprint evidence was valid.
Giving a Voice to Victims
Fundamental to Wilkinson’s approach was her focus on victims. “The victims of crime, not the perpetrators, are the people for whom you are working,” she told her students in Trent University’s Master of Forensic Science Program. Her career goal, ultimately, was to help achieve justice for the people who suffer at the hands of criminals.
Wilkinson made Canada a world leader in fingerprint recovery, but she is quick to thank collaborators along the way, including local police forces, national police organizations and international agencies such as the FBI and authorities in The Netherlands, Australia and the UK. Yet despite her desire to spread credit, many of these connections were established by Wilkinson herself or arose from invitations to share her expertise. Case in point is her founding of the Canadian Friction Ridge Working Group (CanFRWG) to provide an ongoing forum for critical information sharing among investigators nationwide. And Wilkinson has authored or co-authored more than 30 scholarly articles – the last before her retirement involved 16 authors from several countries.
What does she consider her top accomplishments? One is having engaged strong new people to carry on the work; another is having established Canadian standards and protocols for the use of fingerprint evidence in the courts.
Post-retirement, Wilkinson is applying herself to another passion, protecting the environment. What began as a concern when she and her husband had their first child is now a central focus of her life. Luckily for us, she’s using her tremendous skills and energy to make life in our community greener and more sustainable.
Jennifer Humphries is a member of the GCA-EC and enjoys working with Della Wilkinson and our dedicated group. The Committee welcomes new members who can offer their creativity and their time (a little or a lot!) to greening the Glebe. Email us for info and/or to share ideas at environment@glebeca.ca.