Public Enquiry into the Missing Women
the following was my statement to the public enquiry into the case of the missing women on january 19,2011 at the japanese language school in the DTES;
Good afternoon, thankyou for allowing me an opportunity to contribute here today.
my name is susan davis and i am an active sex worker of 25 years. I am the development coordinator for canada's first sex worker cooperative, the west coast cooperative of sex industry professionals and for the canadian adult entertainment council. I have been a part of many committees and initiatives to bring stability to the sex industry community such as living in community, a city wide collaboration between residents, business inprovement associations, police, city staff, sex worker support services and sex workers and the sex industry worker safety action group, a collaborative action group connecting Vancouver Police, Sex Industry Workers and Community Organizations to address the safety concerns of sex workers.
I am also a member of the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities and it is themi am representing today. The BCCEW was formed out of two regional meetings of women in and from the sex industry in 2002 and 2003. Renamed the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC), members include men and women from across the province who have over 30 years combined experience in advocacy, research, service delivery and management, and well over 50 years experience in all facets of the sex industry. Members have founded, operated or significantly contributed to eight sex worker organizations including the BC Coalition of Experiential Men. The B.C. Coalition of Experiential Communities works to inspire experiential leadership toward the elimination of oppressive systems and forces that create harm within the sex industry.
It is our understanding that this enquiry has been set to attempt to identify what conditions allowed the disaster in the case of the missing women to evolve. Some may feel this enquiry should focus on the criminal status of prostitution and the BC Coalition agree this is an important and contributing factor however, we also feel it is an opportunity to examine the broader systematic failings in the way society supports the victims of crime.
For that reason i am here today to adress the scope and depth of the enquiry.
Many of the impacts and harms experienced by sex workers are the result of a cummilation of biases and actions within mainstream services and supports and that harm immerged over a long period of time. The narrow timeline this enquiry proposes to examine will not demonstrate adequately this build up and so the BCCEC respectfully request that the scope be broadened to include evidence starting from 1970.
Before this time,there were no recorded murders of sex workers in vancouver. What has changed? What impact did the "west end injunction" have on the safety of sex workers? What were the recommendations of the "fraser committee"? why were they not implemented?
As a sex worker who was impacted,my experiences fall outside of the proposed timeline but are directly related to the case of the missing women. In 1990, I met the person found guilty for their murders. I was sexually assaulted and robbed at knife point by that person and attempted on 3 seperate occassions to report the crime to police. I had his license plate number and naively believed the police would take action. No one came,no one collected my report.
These are only a few examples of why the timeline must be expanded.
The enquiry also seems to be set to focus solely on police response. Over the life of the BCCEC, we have engaged with 100's of sex workers and identified the many ways in which biased policies and bad procedures with no oversight have created a wall of barriers to the supports sex workers need in particular when they have been the victim of a crime.
Being refused victims compensation as a result of being a sex worker, being refused social assistance as a result of being a sex worker, battered women's shelters refusing sex workers, doctor's refusing to treat sex workers, abstinence based support services in direct conflict with the recommended treatment for survivors of violence.
An unjust societal blaming of the victims that blocked their every attempt to access the supports that could have saved their lives.
This is not to say things are not moving forward. The BC Coalition have had numerous opportunities and successful collaborations withsome of these systems
In 2006, The BCCEC , with support from the Vancouver Agreements' former Women's Strategy Task Team worked with 95 sex workers, 17 community organizations, VPD officers and victim's services staff who gave their time, energy and insights to collaboration in the "protection for all:bad date report ing and response strategies" and who took part in the evaluation of the new violence sheet for sex workers entitled:"Red Light Alert".
With financial support from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, monumental alliances were built and sex workers had access to training from a leading professional psychologist in the area of Post Traumatic Stress. The training sessions and revelations about barriers to supports resulted in a series of recommendations that are critical to reform within the victim services section of criminal justicein BC
Additionally, sex workers and community organization staff members peer reviewed "The 411" a document created by the BCCEC, based on literature developed by the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. This show of support for change and sex worker specific resources and supports by victim services demonstrate another way in which we are moving forward together.
The vancouver police sex industry liaison officer, Lynda Malcom is doing ground breaking work building trust with the sex industry community and identifying best practices for safely enagaing sex workers in a way that connecting them to the supports they need.
The Living in Community Action Plan, a comprehensive 29point action developed in partnershipwith all stakeholders and that respects the safety of all community members, including sex workers.
The sex industry safety action group a collaborative action group connecting Vancouver Police, Sex Industry Workers and Community Organizations to address the safety concerns of sex workers. The action group has already identified key areas that need to be improved in order to
keep sex workers safe. They include:
§ Incident reporting;
§ Identifying predatory offenders;
§ Facilitating greater success in the prosecution of those who commit violence
against sex industry workers;
§ Training in self‐defence and violence prevention;
§ Direct outreach to the sex industry;
§ Creating educational materials for sex industry workers and VPD recruits;
§ Communication between sex industry workers and the police.
This work and other projects that have already been started to adress the gaps in supports for sex workers will also be critical in informing the enquiries findings. The BCCEC once again respectfully request that the inquiries scope be broadened to include not only other mainstream systmes failures but actions and best practices that are emerging as successful be highlighted in any recommendations moving forward as ways to reform the way that criminal justice interact with sex industry workers.
The BCCEC would finally like to ask that this enquiry is prudent in ensuring evidence is reliable and that any research considered is done in accordance with federal policies for research involving human beings and meets court guidelines for qualification as expert testimony.
As was seen in justice himmel's decision, this is a very heated issue and many people have feelings on how things could be improved. Many mistakes have been made in the past when decisions were made based on skewed or bias eveidence.
We respectfully request that the evidence and facts brought forward from all sides be carefully scrutinized to ensure the best possible outcomes.
In closing, i want to express how greatful and hopeful we are about this process.it has been noted that this process will have to be limited and i guess we can accept that but would like to suggest at least some broadening even if it is not back to 1970.
We must ensure that the lives of the workers impacted by our mistakes as a society were not lost in vain and that we truely do whatever we can to ensure this never happens again.
Brava Susan!! Your courage and smarts in the face of oppression is always inspiring.
Missing Women Commission of Inquiry
tanx maysie!!
Former mayor, Owen owns up to doing his part in making sure the women on the downtown east side didn't get the help they so desperately needed. Owen is sorry I read it this morning only his apology is only extended to the officer who had Pickton's number right from the start and not the women who he helped find a early grave. Owen says I ridiculed the possibility of there being a serial killer and ensured police resources where not wasted hunting for a killer that didn't exist or so his story goes.
I agree the problem is ingrained into society and it is a man's world that is for sure. It starts in school where whore, slut and faggot are common school yard words. Why do women become involved in the sex industry is a good place to start and when you speak of women who are involved in the sex trade being denied any services it is equally hard for low income women to access many of the services spoke of in the article above.
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=b260b6a6-4a62-4ef9-bc09-6e6dd9dc6a5c
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Owen also sits on the board where the 100 huskies in Whistler underwent a horrific death.
2 more groups pull out of missing women's inquiryThe End Violence Association and Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, or LEAF, announced their withdrawal on Tuesday, joining three First Nations groups and a sex-workers association who pulled out of the inquiry in July.
Inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal granted 13 groups standing and recommended they get legal funding, but the provincial government refused, saying it would only pay the legal bills for the families of Robert Pickton's victims.
"The problems in the justice system that give rise to the Commission's mandate were born of women being silenced..."
Indeed.
The Attorney General of BC's decision to only fund the victims' families means that one lawyer would represent all non-police Inquiry participants. By comparison, last year's Cohen Inquiry into missing salmon stocks provided funding for in excess of 26 lawyers to be involved representing various perspectives.
Wally Oppal heading the inquiry IMO was an insult to the women and their families.
i am honestly feeling a bit frustrated. its such a huge opportunity to move towards change and filling the gaps in service that allowed this to happen. i hope this doesn't dissolve into nothing....hope that they can still find a way....
Missing Women, Missing Documents, Missing Respect ... Missed the Boat
On the day of the 21st annual Women’s Memorial March, I am reminded of an old saying about the law that goes something like this: “Justice must not only be done but must appear to have been done.” The Missing Women Inquiry which is tasked with examining why so many street-based sex workers from Vancouver’s notorious downtown east side went missing and were ultimately found to have been murdered by a serial killer is absolutely failing in this regard. I have a particular interest in this case as I am a former sex worker and work for a small organization which supports sex workers in the DTES and we, in coalition with two other sex worker support groups, were granted full standing to participate in the Inquiry.
We all know what happened next. Despite the strong recommendations from Commissioner Wally Oppal that groups such as ours receive funding to participate, only the families of the victims, the police and the Crown were granted funding from the Office of the Solicitor General. Sometime later, two lawyers were appointed to represent DTES interests and Aboriginal women. One lawyer for 25 families, one lawyer for the multiple perspectives of the downtown east side, and one lawyer for aboriginal women. These are the individuals and groups most directly impacted by this tragedy while those on the other side (and let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that this is not an adversarial process with police and the crown defending their actions or lack thereof) are defended by no fewer than 22 publicly-funded lawyers.
Three expert reports have been presented to the Inquiry by Deputy Chief Doug LePard on behalf of the Vancouver Police Department, Superintendant R.J. Williams on behalf of the RCMP and Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans of the Peel Regional Police on behalf of the Commission. Examination and cross-examination of these witnesses took up a full 20 days and yet none of these officers were directly involved in the case. And, despite the fulsome apology of the VPD and their assertion that "this can never happen again", a much less fulsome apology issued approximately 10 years late by the RCMP, it is clear that the report writers disagree with one another about what actually went wrong. Indeed, the R.J. Williams report, which was prepared in 2002 in the face of pending civil litigation, concluded that the RCMP did everything right. Sean Hern, representing the Vancouver Police Department, stated in his opening remarks regarding the Lepard report, that “it is important … to note that it will be seen that in some cases the views and perspectives of members and former members of the department diverge, in particular as to whether certain aspects of the police investigation were deficient. There is no unified perspective being put forward by the VPD witnesses.” (MWCI Transcript October 12, page 132 l 7-13) In other words, individual officers identified in the reports as having failed in some way, have lawyered up and are vigorously defending their reputations.All three experts, when questioned on the stand about the actions of individual officers have suggested that the question would be better asked of the individual officer.
There are now only 40 days of hearings left and the witness list stands at approximately 48. Cameron Ward, lawyer for 25 families has yet to have his list of witnesses approved which could bring the number much higher. Wally Oppal has recognized the obvious time constraints and has imposed extreme time restrictions on cross-examination – time restrictions which are causing a great deal of conflict between the Commissioner and lawyers who have to estimate the amount of time they will need with a witness when they have no idea of how long each witness will take in answering questions.
Add to this the contentious issue of document disclosure. Cameron Ward recently went on the record (http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/Afraid+truth/6117804/story.html) about his sense that the Commission is enabling a cover-up. An opinion that is borne out in several places. DC Evans, who was tasked by the Commission to write an independent expert report on the conduct of the Missing Women investigation found herself hampered by document disclosure stating she was “very frustrated about the disclosure and the type of disclosure I was getting in the format … I was receiving it in.” (MWCI Transcript Jan. 18, 2012) pg. 116 l6-9) It’s difficult not to agree with Mr. Cameron as the Crown file detailing why they stayed charges against the killer in a 1997 attempted murder has been destroyed; Lori Shenher’s (the VPD officer in charge of the case until 2000) notes were handed over to the RCMP after the killer’s arrest in 2002 and have never been returned; the photocopied pages of her notes submitted to the Inquiry are missing crucial pages; there are missing minutes from two important meetings regarding this case, one with then Attorney General Ujal Dosanjh. Even Commission counsel, Art Vertlieb stated on February 1, 2012 that “it was almost as if the documents had been thrown into a mixer and you couldn’t figure out what was going on” (MWCI Transcript pg 6, l 22-23)
Finally, there has been a great deal of unseemly behavior from the Commissioner and Commission counsel towards lawyers for the affected parties. Regular interruptions, offensive remarks and impatience are the norm but rarely happen with lawyers for the police and Crown. The apparent lack of respect offered to these hard-working lawyers who are there to represent the interests of those most directly impacted by this crime is disturbing, to say the least. Without the opportunity to call witnesses and to have enough time to properly cross-examine witnesses, I am doubtful that the Commissioner will have the right information to create a strong set of recommendations. This exercise appears to simply perpetuate the systemic bias and discrimination that pushed the victims to the margins of society and left them in the cold and dark to be picked up by a monster.
I've been following the Inquiry weekly, and I am becomming more and more convinced that a number of police officers (certainly not all) knew what Picton was doing, and didn't care-- in fact probably thought he was "cleaning up the streets". And this is what the Inquiry is trying it's best to cover up.
Police complicity in serial murder.
I should also point out that Pickton and the narrative accepted by the inquiry serves the myth of the "Serial Killer" threat to the DTES, which suggests that there is a single solitary circumscribable danger to society, which can be solved with a conviction. Better late than never har har har. As Tommy points out, not only does the systemic violence implicate any number of police officers, there are other Picktons, other predators and the usual other gang of thugs orbiting these murders: drug dealers, pimps, etc.
Courage to the women in the DTES who marched today against such reckless, violent hate. Fuck those fucking fucks.