It felt like a turning point. After years of requests by advocacy groups, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was finally about to begin.
This was back in September, when Nexus covered the epidemic of missing and murdered women in BC. Many hoped that justice would be served.
As the commission was preparing to launch its investigation, our September 7 article looked at the disproportionate number of Aboriginal women represented, and the lack of attention that has been paid to this situation historically.
Discrimination, colonization, racism on behalf of the media, law enforcement, and justice system, as well as the indifference of society to the violence faced by Aboriginal women, were all suggested as being causes of this disturbing situation.
Meanwhile, the commission pledged to look at how the missing women investigations were conducted in Vancouver between 1997 and 2002; to examine why charges against Robert Pickton were dropped in early 1998, a decision that likely allowed him to continue killing; to recommend changes respecting homicide investigations, missing women investigations, and suspected multiple homicides; to recommend changes respecting investigations that cross jurisdictions and organizations; and to submit a final report to the attorney general of BC.
It’s time to look at what’s actually been done.
Something rotten in Vancouver
Unfortunately, there were early indications the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry wouldn’t hear the voices of those most affected by tragedy.
First, the appointment of Wally Oppal as head of the inquiry in 2010 came as a shock to many. He was fresh out of politics, having been the attorney general from 2005 to 2009. As attorney general, Oppal was reported as opposing a provincial inquiry, saying not much would be learned.
“When [the calls for an inquiry] started he was in a position to promote positive social change. He chose not to do it then, and he’s choosing not to do it again, through the current process,” says Gladys Radek, the co-founder of Walk4Justice, a long-time human rights activist, and the aunt of Tamara Chipman, who disappeared near Prince Rupert in 2005.
These initial misgivings were exacerbated when the provincial government refused to fund legal aid for groups representing women, Aboriginal interests, and those living and working in the sex industry in Vancouver’s downtown east side.
“The funding for the women’s groups and advocates should have been top priority. Those groups were there on the frontlines when these women were disappearing,” says Radek. “When it comes to public safety measures and recommendations, they are the ones who should have the voice and deem what is necessary for us to live in a sustainable society that’s going to protect women and children.”
Oppal said publicly that he supported provincial funding for every group who was accepted to participate in the inquiry, but repeated appeals made to the provincial government were denied.
At the same time, police officers involved in the inquiry were all provided with provincially funded legal support. The province defended their decision, saying it wasn’t required to have a lawyer to participate in the inquiry, but the groups fought back, saying the inquiry would be one-sided.
It was at this point, before the inquiry had even begun, that organizations started dropping out. Different organizations had many reasons for withdrawing from the inquiry, but the root issue appeared to be a lack of faith in the inquiry to serve justice.
By February of this year, only a few groups representing the Aboriginal community and no groups representing sex workers remained, casting doubts any fairness or validity was left in the process.
The most recent blow came when Robyn Gervais, the lawyer representing Aboriginal interests, quit the inquiry on March 6.
Gervais was originally representing the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, but says she was let go when the funding the council was expecting wasn’t provided. When the position at the inquiry was announced last summer, Gervais saw it as an opportunity to participate.
“Being an Aboriginal person and being part of that community, it was something that I definitely needed to think through,” says Gervais. “At the time, I thought that some Aboriginal voice at the table was better than none, so I accepted the appointment.”
Sorely mistaken
On the day of Gervais’ resignation on March 6, nearly five months into the inquiry, there had been 39 days of police testimony, with minimal input from the Aboriginal community. Gervais outlined her reasons for leaving the inquiry in part of a 51-point statement she made regarding her resignation. It was an emotional moment for Gervais, who wept as she read her statement to the inquiry.
“The delay in calling Aboriginal witnesses, the failure to provide adequate hearing time, the ongoing lack of support from the Aboriginal community, and the disproportionate focus on police evidence have led me to conclude that Aboriginal interests have not and will not be adequately represented in these proceedings,” wrote Gervais in her resignation.
She also says in the statement that she regrets not being able to find a way to bring the voices of Aboriginal women to the inquiry.
“If you look at the terms of reference strictly, which is to inquire into police conduct, they’re doing that,” she says. “But is this the kind of inquiry that needed to happen? I don’t think so.”
Gervais says the terms of reference should have been much broader.
“You can address policing issues, you can address investigative issues, and that’s all fine and good,” says Gervais, “but I think there’s a bigger question and that was not a part of this inquiry.”
Gervais feels that only an approach that encompasses all aspects of our society is adequate.
“They need to include looking at things like systemic racism,” she says. “I think basically when you boil it down you need to look at why those women were so vulnerable, and why they were getting into Pickton’s car in the first place. Those issues need to be addressed.”
The Vancouver Police Department has denied allegations of discrimination in the past, although they declined our request to comment while the inquiry is ongoing. Much of their testimony at the inquiry has been on possible structural and investigative issues within the organization. Critics of the inquiry say the testimony so far is tantamount to finger-pointing, without responsibility being taken by many of the officers for mistakes that may have been made.
Something amiss
At the beginning of the inquiry, Gervais was looking forward to a report that apparently explored institutional bias.
“When I was first appointed, Dr. Bruce Miller [from UBC] was on a list of witnesses that we were given,” says Gervais. “He had written an expert report but we never saw it, and he was never called as a witness, and we don’t know why.”
During the first two months of the inquiry Gervais says she asked six other experts to write reports on the same topic, but nobody would touch it. Gervais says she hasn’t had any luck contacting Miller either, and he hasn’t spoken to the media.
Another troubling scenario for Gervais involved missing documents from the Native Liaison Society. The society worked in the same building as the officers investigating the missing women and helped facilitate communication between aboriginal people and police.
“In the context of the missing women investigation, they worked with some of the families, and they dealt with some reports of missing women,” says Gervais. “We looked for the documents for a long time. Finally they were located, but this was months into the proceedings.”
Due to confidentiality reasons Gervais can’t say where the documents were found, or by whom, although at the time of her resignation they were scheduled to be included in the inquiry.
Blinders on
So far, Gervais, Radek, and many others, such as the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, feel the events being examined by Oppal are being told through a “police filter.”
Without the input of key groups such as WISH (a drop-in centre for sex workers in Vancouver), Amnesty International Canada, the First Nations’ Summit, and the Native Women’s Association of Canada, it’s doubtful that a well-rounded perspective regarding police conduct will be heard.
“There’s a serious lack of voices,” says Radek. “It seems to me they’re more interested in protecting the police officers at fault.”
Radek feels that issues surrounding allegations of systemic racism and historic discriminatory practices within the police force can only be addressed one way: acknowledgement. She says that by not hearing from organizations with evidence of these issues, the inquiry is enabling ignorance.
Radek says she understands why Gervais had to resign. “We can’t have one lone Indian standing there, expecting her to cover all the issues that three percent of the Canadian population lives through on a daily basis.”
The business of sex work
According to Sherri Kiselbach, violence prevention coordinator at Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society in Vancouver, prostitutes who work on the streets generally represent about 10 to 15 percent of the total population of people working in the sex industry, at least in Canada. She says the other 85 to 90 percent who make up the sex industry work indoors, either as strippers, escorts, or masseuses, or working in pornography or other areas.
“We want the public to view it as legitimate work,” says Kiselbach. “It’s legitimate work, and there’s a need for it, just like any other need in our society.”
On the east side of Vancouver, and Victoria as well, Aboriginal women are disproportionately represented on the streets, although Kiselbach says the stigma attached to sex workers applies across racial boundaries.
She says the simple process of supply and demand fuels sex work, like everything else in our economy, and that our misperceptions about the sex industry needs to be addressed.
“I don’t know if my views are different than the average person, but I just wish [the public] would starting treating sex workers with a little respect,” says Kiselbach. “Don’t look down on them as horrible human beings.”
Marion Little, executive director of Victoria’s Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Recovery Society, says a recent survey of their clients indicates women working the stroll are 60 to 100 times more likely to face violence than other women, which is alarming even at the lowest end of the spectrum.
“Out on the streets we don’t afford [prostitutes] the same care, consideration, or belonging,” says Little. “Often it’s because of our judgement. Our decision around who gets services and who doesn’t is coloured by whether or not we approve of the kind of poverty they’re in.”
It’s those working on the stroll, often alone, who are generally the most vulnerable to violence, and it’s these women that Robert Pickton targeted.
With this kind of discrimination present, it becomes clear that Pickton was easily able to kidnap and murder women working the streets in Vancouver.
Justice for who?
It has yet to be seen whether Oppal will address these issues in his final report. Due to a shortage of testimony by frontline downtown eastside workers, Oppal may not be given all sides to this story.
As of last week, both attorney general Shirley Bond and premier Clark have said no extension will be given to the inquiry, even after requests from Pickton’s victims’ families and BC New Democrat leader Adrian Dix. The families said in a press conference last week that they are worried about the inquiry running out of time before the remaining witnesses have testified, especially after an unscheduled two-week break was added to the inquiry when Gervais resigned.
Most agree this is a multifaceted issue. Gervais is uncertain if justice will be served by the inquiry. Her frustration can be heard in her voice.
“Whose definition of justice? How do the families feel? I don’t know,” she says, sounding defeated. “I think there may be some recommendations that come out of it with respect to policing, in terms of missing persons investigations going forward, and they may be valuable policing recommendations. But this certainly was not the holistic inquiry that I was hoping it would be.”
A timeline of missing women
1965-1988: Between eight and 10 deaths due to alcohol poisoning are linked to Gilbert Jordan. “The Boozing Barber,” as he’s called, is convicted only of manslaughter in one of the deaths, the only one considered not to have been a “marginalized” woman.
1988: Two sex trade workers found murdered in alleys in Vancouver; the incident is called “the alley murders.”
1995: Three women from the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver found murdered in mountains near Mission, BC; known as “the valley murders.”
1995: Bisected skull of a woman found near Lougheed Highway near Mission. Woman later linked to DNA found at Pickton’s farm.
1997: Pickton attacks a sex trade worker in his trailer. She escapes. He’s investigated, but the Crown drops charges in early 1998.
1998: Community activists report a number of women missing to patrol officers of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), not only from 1998, but years previous as well.
July 1998: Detective constable Lori Shenher transferred to missing persons unit. Still no unit designated to missing women. One week after her transfer to missing persons, tips are made to the Crimestoppers hotline about Pickton. Bill Hiscox claims Pickton, whom he worked for sometimes, offered him use of his meat grinder if he ever wanted to dispose of a body. Shenher believes immediately that Pickton is their guy, but says senior officers believed otherwise.
1998: VPD form Project Amelia. Compile official list of 27 known missing women; no remains have been found.
1999: Project Amelia mistakenly believes the disappearances have stopped. This belief seriously hampers further investigations.
November 2000: A presentation regarding the disappearances is made to a multi-jurisdictional group. Group concedes that missing women are likely victims of one or more serial killers.
January 2001: Project Evenhanded takes over missing women file from Project Amelia, which had been stalled. Project Evenhanded pools suspects from the valley murders and the new disappearances, believing it could be the same killer. Later that month, three more women are reported missing from the DTES. These disappearances are investigated by the VPD, not Evenhanded. This separation of investigation is thought to have had a major impact on the direction of Evenhanded.
April 2001: Pickton is cleared as not being responsible for the valley murders through DNA testing.
May 2001: VPD tells Evenhanded the number of new missing women is at five.
August 2001: Concerned that more women are missing, Evenhanded kicks off an intense effort to get an accurate number. Later that month, Evenhanded adds an additional 17 women that were likely missing, bringing the total number to 49.
September 2001: Evenhanded creates a suspect pool of 130 men from across the province. Pickton is considered a top priority.
Fall 2001: A woman who had claimed earlier to have witnessed Pickton killing a woman is re-interviewed. The woman lies to Evenhanded about the event. Officers of Evenhanded believe her truthful account would have elicited a search warrant.
January 2002: List of missing women stands at 50. Later that month, the suspect list is whittled down to 39.
February 4, 2002: Constable Nathan Wells of the Coquitlam RCMP obtains a search warrant for Robert Pickton’s property during a separate case involving firearms.
February 5, 2002: An inhaler and identification of two of the missing women are located in Pickton’s trailer. The search is halted while Evenhanded obtains a murder search warrant. Fencing is put up around the entire Pickton property. Investigators begin what will become Canada’s longest forensic investigation, totalling over 17 months and identifying the DNA of 33 of the missing women.
December 12, 2006: A jury is selected for the Pickton trial.
January 22, 2007: The Pickton trial begins.
December 9, 2007: After nine days of deliberation, the jury finds Pickton guilty of six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Georgina Faith Papin, and Marnie Frey.