The Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry
September 16, 2011 - 2:26pm
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Under a storm of controversy, the Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry has begun in B.C., looking into police investigations of serial killer Robert Pickton and their handling of reports of women missing from Vancouver's DTES.
Your host, Laura Wood, speaks with Native Women's Association of Canada president and long-time activist Jeannette Corbiere Lavell about the many challenges facing the commission and those participating, and about what needs to be done to ensure respect and safety for Aboriginal women.
I just got back from a DTES demonstration against gentrification. We ended at the Regent Hotel on Main Street where a woman was thrown out of an upper-floor window late last night. Almost exactly a year ago, the same thing happened to another Aboriginal woman, which the police ruled a suicide even though her shoes were said to have followed her out of the window a minute later. It's said to be the standing threat of drug dealers against women who fail to pay for the drugs they use. How long before we get a commisson on missing women for these deaths?
The only certainty seemed to be that Simard‘s death wasn’t an isolated event, but something that could only be understood in the context of extreme violence and ongoing murders of women, which have haunted the neighborhood since convicted mass murderer Robert Pickton roamed the streets.
“Nothing’s changed, if anything it seems to have gotten more harsh for the women living in SROs,” said Carol Martin, a community based victim services worker with the Downtown East Side Women’s Centre. Martin was down the street at the Carnegie Centre when Simard was killed, and Saturday afternoon she was still reeling from what she had seen when she went to the Regent after hearing of Simard's death.
People were “freaked right out” said Martin, sitting down under a small tent beside the main stage on Hastings Street, where scheduled events continued into the evening. “I was in shock, I couldn’t walk away.”
One year and one day before Martin saw Simard's body lying beside the Regent , she witnessed 22 year old Ashley Machiskinic, who was also Indigenous, fall to her death in the alley behind the same hotel.
RIP, Verna Simard
It seems that some people don't want the whole truth to be told ... VANCOUVER — A lawyer representing the families of missing or murdered women at the inquiry into the bungled police investigation of serial killer Robert William “Willie” Pickton demanded Monday that police and government be compelled to produce a wide array of documents. ... Chantler argued the inquiry should have such crucial RCMP documents as profiles done of both Robert and his brother Dave Pickton and the Hell’s Angels cohorts or hangers-on at the Pickton family business, the after-hours drinking spot Piggy’s Palace. (Dave Pickton’s nickname was Piggy and Piggy’s Palace was frequented by many off-duty officers and even municipal politicians.) Yet RCMP files on the Picktons still have not been disclosed in their entirety, and the RCMP has retained the right to heavily redact most documents before disclosure, said Chantler. ... Commission head Wally Oppal heard the complaints about disclosure made by Chantler and lawyers Jason Gratl and Robyn Gervais, on behalf of First Nations and Downtown Eastside groups, but has issued no ruling. He said the inquiry already has generated “200,000 pages of disclosure” and indicated he intends to stick to a strict timetable of concluding hearings by the end of April. http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/... I'm not optimistic about the integrity of this inquiry, but at least the media seems to be trying to expose the bias, even the national post.It's the first time -'ve seen the information about the Piickton's clientele in the news, though it's common knowledge that politicians, law enforcement and justice officials frequented the place., and have a stake in hiding information. Thoughts are with the families of the victims, none of whom were given standing at the inquiry.
Hundreds of demonstrators - maybe more than a thousand - marched yesterday in Montréal to demand action on missing Aboriginal women... and I can't find any MSM reports to link to!
ETA: This was the announcement, but no reports yet that I can find. Help!
just discovered this little nugget when i went to the news site from a link about somethin else and am feeling like nothing will happen in this investigation about the investigation. Her law firm is not on the side of workers and exploited people. The 2 men pretending "outrage" are just WAFI.
Police excuses on why they failed to catch serial killer pile up at inquiry
video
APTN National News
In Vancouver, the Missing Women’s Inquiry is holding their final days of testimony.
Once again, three retired Vancouver officers repeated the familiar claim that the failure to catch serial killer Robert Pickton was due to a lack of resources and senior officers being slow to realize a serial killer was at work.
As APTN National News reporter Rob Smith tells us, this comes just one day after the lawyer for the victims’ families called the inquiry a fiasco.