Moments after Oaklynn Schweder was found and her parents reunited with her

By Tommy Osborne

Amber Alerts

BCAFN calls for new missing child alert system following rescue of missing girl

Sep 24, 2024 | 4:47 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – In the wake of six-year-old Oaklynn Schweder being found after 72 hours missing, the BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN) is calling for a new child alert system. This is prompted due to the fact that an Amber Alert was not issued for Oaklynn, as it did not meet the required criteria, so the BCAFN is looking for this new child alert system to fill this gap.

“Much of the questions that were brought upon me as the Regional Chief was: ‘why isn’t an Amber Alert sent out?’ And certainly this one didn’t meet the criteria, so in that case what can we do?” said BCAFN Regional Chief Terry Teegee.

“We’re very successful and lucky that the child was found, but in the case of Johnson Redhead in Manitoba, that wasn’t the case, where the child succumbed to the elements. So I think it’s really important, because timing is of the essence, in these types of cases,” Teegee added.

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For an Amber Alert to be issued, RCMP say all of the following criteria must be met:

• The victim is under the age of 18
• Police have reasonable grounds to believe that the victim has been abducted
• Police have reasonable grounds to believe the victim is in imminent danger
• Police have obtained enough descriptive information about the victim, abductor and/or the vehicle involved
• Police believe that the alert can be issued in a time frame that will provide a reasonable expectation that the child can be returned or the abductor apprehended

While Oaklynn’s situation didn’t meet the criteria, that doesn’t mean nothing was done though, as an RCMP statement says :”significant resources from across the province including RCMP, SAR, BC Wildfire, and Canadian Rangers were deployed to assist with coordinated search efforts. Additionally, there was support from the Skin Tyee Band and an overwhelming number of volunteers.”

“Helicopters, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), and Police Service Dogs were also utilized during the searches,” the statement continued.

The combination of resources, alongside hundreds of volunteers, certainly played a huge role in Oaklynn being found safely, but what about the other cases where these resources and manpower haven’t been regularly available? This is one of the core focuses this new child alert system would hope to address.

“They (Search and Rescue for Oaklynn) handled things beautifully and they had so many volunteers. And my concern is for our more remote communities all across the country and how we’re not going to get that response,” said Charity West, an MMIP Advocate and search party member.

“We need to have a standardized blanket system that’s in place where we’re going to have volunteers on standby and be able to cover their costs to get there, because I know a lot of a lot of volunteers went there on their own dime. The same way we have the emergency response for a wildfire, we need to have something in place for children missing,” she continued.

As for what Teegee hopes the new system would like, he says establishing criteria would be important to help with letting the community know of serious situations as quickly as possible, which could include things like the age of the victim and how remote the community is. However, another priority would be ensuring the alerts aren’t too common, as this could have an inverse effect of rescuing children if the public gets desensitized due to an overabundance of alerts. This balancing act and establishing criteria would be a big focus moving forward, if a new missing child alert system were to be implemented.

“We don’t want to put an alert out there that isn’t necessary. So, I think that’s kind of the risk,” Teegee said.

Managing the system and who gets what alerts would also be key. 50,000 children are reported missing in Canada every year, which is 137 a day.

“If you think about it: 137. That’d be overwhelming, hearing your phone go off and go off, right? But they could probably pinpoint a certain area and just condense the the alert,” said MMIP Advocate and search party member Cameron West.

RCMP declined to comment, but provided CKPG News with information regarding amber alert criteria and the resources used in Oaklynn’s search.

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