Supporters are calling for Dawn Walker's extradition: Here's how that might work

Supporters of the Saskatoon woman who is accused of staging her disappearance and then fleeing to the U.S. say she should be brought home to Canada. 

Dawn Walker, 48, and her son, age seven, were at the centre of an exhaustive, emotional search after they were reported missing from Saskatoon on July 24. They were found in Oregon City on Friday, and Walker has been detained in the U.S. since.

Walker is charged in the U.S. with aggravated identity theft, which, if convicted, would lead to a minimum prison sentence of two years. She has also been criminally charged with parental abduction and public mischief in Canada. 

U.S. prosecutors allege that Walker faked her and her son's deaths as part of an elaborate scheme that began several months ago and involved stolen identities, as well as a fraudulent bank account. 

People defending Walker believe there is more to the story than meets the eye, and they want officials to bring her closer to home. 

"I really support and hope that they will extradite her back to Canada so that she can face those charges here on her homeland," Walker's aunt, Marie-Anne Daywalker-Pelletier, said at a support rally in Regina Tuesday night.

Erica Beaudin, the executive director of Regina Treaty/Indian Services, encouraged others at the rally to amplify calls for extradition. 

"Dawn felt that she had no other choice, but that is her story to tell," Beaudin said. "But our story — as family, as friends, as colleagues, as women — is to stand and to say, 'We want you safe and home here on your own treaty lands to tell your story.'"

Extradition is the formal legal process that allows federal governments to send people from one country to another to face prosecution or serve a sentence, according to Rob Currie, a law professor at the Schulich school of law at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

It's ultimately up to U.S. officials to make the final decision on whether Walker will be extradited and when, but the process must begin with the Canadian Department of Justice making a formal request to the U.S. 

CBC News asked the government department if it has made the request but did not receive a response by publication time.

Once the request is made, U.S. officials would hold an extradition hearing to consider things including paperwork, evidence and criteria for legal extradition. 

"It's not unusual for the individual who is sought to waive the process, which is to say, 'I voluntarily agree to go back to Canada,'" Currie said, noting this would speed up the process. 

If the extradition is given the go-ahead, Currie says, the process could play out in different ways since Walker faces charges on both sides of the border.