The Yukon Advocate Case Review was set up in 2018 to examine sexual assault cases police labelled unfounded or where no one was charged. 

For a criminal incident to be considered unfounded, it must be "determined through police investigation that the offence reported did not occur, nor was it attempted" 

(Statistics Canada 2016)

YACR was built on the working relationships established through the Court Watch Yukon program and through the Women's Coalition's Together for Safety Protocol with the RCMP.  It was based on the work of Sunny Marriner and the Violence Against Women Advocate Case Review (VACR) model, more commonly known as the “Philadelphia model” in the United States, which has been piloted successfully in a number of other Canadian jurisdictions, most involving the review of police services, with the exception of Northern Ontario where they reviewed Crown files as well.

Goals:

• To decrease the number of misclassified sexualized assault cases;

• To reduce the number of sexualized assault charges that are not taken to court by the Crown, stayed or withdrawn (unless it is at the request of the victim) consequently improving the climate for women to report cases of sexualized assault

• To investigate the reasons for low conviction rates and increasing rates of successful appeals in Yukon.

Findings were meant to be shared each year giving the partners and stakeholders the opportunity to respond and make changes to their systems leading to improvements on a yearly basis. This would have allowed for ongoing feedback, identification of areas of concern and more monitoring. The project was the first of its kind in the North and a way for Yukon stakeholders to lead the way in improving the criminal justice system.

PROJECT WORK HALTED

Unfortunately, in late 2020 the Yukon RCMP's M-Division received word from National Headquarters requiring the shutdown of the Yukon Advocate Case Review Project. This was a shock among many involved in the process.  Many women's groups believed this was a blatant attempt for National Headquarters to shirk transparency and accountability. Despite lobbying attempts to reinstate the project, a formal request for a copy of the RCMP's privacy assessment on the project, and numerous indications that the newly established Sexual Assault Review Committee process was not transparent or external, there has been little success.

When Yukon's sexual assault rate is 3.5 times the national average and the rate of unfounded cases is 25%, compared with 19% nationally, critical and external oversight of police handling of sexual assault cases is crucial. The Yukon Status will continue to find other ways to advocate and inform systems changes to make the territory safer for all genders.