Ontario to reform Amber Alert system

TORONTO – Ontario will introduce changes later this year to the Amber Alert system, which has been under the microscope following the disappearance and murder of Victoria Stafford.

Police said after the eight-year-old’s disappearance on April 8 her case didn’t fit the criteria for an Amber Alert and it was never activated.

Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Dave Rektor said Thursday the province will announce changes to the system this fall or winter.

"I don’t think they are going to be major changes, " Rektor said. "What we are trying to do is look at the language in the criteria to see if there is anything we can do to make it clearer or more understandable.

"Ultimately, our goal is to roll that information out to all police agencies in Ontario just to make sure that everybody is on the same page and can easily access Amber Alerts should they need to use it," Rektor said.

Stafford’s remains were discovered in July in a rural field just east of Mount Forest, Ont., about 130 kilometres northwest of Toronto.

Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, and Michael Rafferty, 28, of Woodstock, Ont. are charged in her death.

Meanwhile, the RCMP in B.C. also faced criticism this week from the family of a 12-year-old autistic boy found dead Monday. The family of John Fulton said in a statement that any child with autism should automatically qualify as an amber alert.

Kimberly Ruth Noyes, 42, has been arrested in connection with the death of Fulton, who vanished Saturday afternoon from his doorstep in Grand Forks, about 520 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Police are treating the case as a homicide.

The Amber Alert program was created in the United States in 1996 after the kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas.

Each province is responsible for its own Amber Alert program.