Vanderhoof-area event will mark second anniversary of young woman’s disappearance

BY FRANK LUBA, THE PROVINCE MAY 20, 2013

Madison Scott, above, was last seen at around 3 a.m. on May 28, 2011. Her pickup truck and tent were found at a campsite 25 kilometres southeast of Vanderhoof. — Submitted photo

What happened to Madison Scott remains a sad mystery, almost two years after the Vanderhoof woman disappeared after camping at Hogsback Lake, 25 kilometres southeast of her hometown.

Family, friends and the general public are being invited to a search of the area Saturday, May 25, which is as close as possible to the May 28, 2011 weekend when the 20-year-old went to a party and was last seen at around 3 a.m.

Her off-white, early 1990s Ford F-150 pickup and two-tone blue tent were left at the lake but, despite an extensive search, no other trace was ever found of Scott, who is Caucasian, stands 5-foot-4, weighs 170 pounds and has ginger-coloured hair.

Saturday’s search is the second On The Trail to Find Maddy Poker Ride, which is a competition divided into divisions for walkers, quad all-terrain vehicles and horses who go through checkpoints to assemble poker hands.

Wayne Woods, one of the event’s organizers and a friend of Maddy’s parents Eldon and Dawn Scott, said the area has been searched extensively already, “but everyone is asked to keep their eyes open” for any clues.

The event is more about keeping the hunt for Maddy in the public’s awareness, according to Woods.

“The message we’re trying to get out there is that if anyone has any information — we’re just trying to keep it foremost in people’s minds — that they need to come forward with it,” said Woods.

“Even if it’s a small detail, it can turn into something relevant,” he said. “We haven’t given up hope that she’ll be found and we’re not going to stop looking.”

While the area is remote, it’s not immune to problems — but not like Maddy vanishing.

“Things have happened, for sure,” conceded Woods. “But not like this, where there’s been just no answers at all.”

Her disappearance is still a concern for the community.

“In a small town, normally when something happens you hear rumours and people talk, and what not,” said Woods. “But there just hasn’t been a whisper about anything about Madison.

“It’s like she disappeared and no one knows anything,” he said.

The family offered a reward of $15,000, which was increased to $25,000 and is now at $100,000.

A video re-enactment of the story was done by RCMP, and Maddy’s disappearance was included in a documentary on the Highway of Tears, the route between Prince George and Prince Rupert along which 18 women have gone missing or been murdered.

Maddy was even part of CBS television’s 48 Hours focus on the Highway of Tears, although Woods said neither the family nor police believe she is part of that tragedy.

More information about the poker ride is available online at madisonscott.ca.

fluba@theprovince.com

twitter.com/frankluba

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Pickton lawsuit prompts Steven Point's resignation from advisory board on inquiry recommendations

THE CANADIAN PRESS MAY 17, 2013 2:54 PM

Steven Point is seen following the release of the report on the findings of the Missing Women Commission in Vancouver, B.C., on Monday, December, 17, 2012.

Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER — A series of lawsuits filed by children of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton prompted the resignation of Steven Point, the former B.C. lieutenant governor appointed five months ago to implement recommendations from the public inquiry into the case.

The British Columbia government also warned its own work to fix the problems identified at the high-profile inquiry will also likely be hampered because of the lawsuit.

Point's resignation drew an immediate rebuke from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, and the lawyer for the victims' children who angrily rejected the suggestion that the lawsuits should have anything to do with Point's position.

Point, who was appointed last December, said his resignation was prompted by the four lawsuits filed earlier this month by children of women whose remains or DNA were found on Pickton's farm.

"Litigation has been commenced by certain family members of the victims of Pickton, and I have been served with documents that have put me on notice regarding this litigation," Point wrote in a letter to Attorney General Shirley Bond, dated Friday.

Wally Oppal, a former judge and one-time attorney general, issued a report last December that found significant errors in how Vancouver police and the RCMP responded to reports of missing sex workers from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and blamed systemic bias against vulnerable women.

He made 63 recommendations, many focused on reforming police service in the province, as well as financial compensation for the children of missing women. The province asked Point to oversee the report's implementation.

Earlier this month, the children of four women filed separate lawsuits against Pickton, his two siblings, the B.C. government and the City of Vancouver, seeking damages for the women's deaths and the botched investigation that failed to prevent them. The province was named on behalf of the RCMP and the city was named on behalf of its police force.

Attorney General Shirley Bond released a statement Friday that said the "plaintiffs have put Mr. Point on notice" that his public comments could become evidence in the civil case. A ministry spokeswoman later clarified that the families sent Point a copy of the statements of claim, which he interpreted as having been "put on notice."

A lawyer for the victims' families, Jason Gratl, said they never suggested in any way that Point could be dragged into the civil case.

Although he didn't want to be quoted, Gratl was clearly upset with what he perceived as an attempt to blame the children of the women for Point's decision to resign.

Gratl confirmed he sent Point an email with copies of the lawsuits, but the email makes no mention of Point becoming a potential witness.

"I appreciate that neither of you are parties to the action," Gratl wrote in an email to both Point and Oppal, dated May 8.

"But I thought you might be asked to comment on the claims at some point, and it might be of assistance to you if you had a chance to review them first," the email stated.

Point, a former provincial court judge, could not be reached to further explain his resignation.

Bond also said the lawsuits could slow the province's work to implement the report's recommendations, though she did not explain why that would be the case or what specific work would be affected.

"Continuing to address the recommendations is very important to me personally and to our government, but we also need to ensure that as we do that we consider the impact of the litigation that is underway," Bond said in a statement.

"That is exactly what we intend to do and move forward as soon as possible."

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs issued a joint news release criticizing Point's resignation and the government's suggestion that the lawsuits will prevent the province from implementing Oppal's recommendations.

"It appears that the government is prepared to indefinitely stall or abandon this work," Micheal Vonn, policy director of the civil liberties association, said in the news release.

"This is a terrible indicator of the state of the government's commitment to women's safety and equality. "

Oppal, who spent months hearing evidence from police officers, sex workers, and the families of Pickton's victims, said he was disappointed to hear about Point's resignation.

"I know he was making progress on the report, because I met with him on a number of different occasions," Oppal said in an interview Friday.

"Obviously, I am concerned because I wanted to see a speedy resolution as far as the recommendations of the report are concerned. "

The lawsuits involve the daughters and sons of Dianne Rock, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks and Yvonne Boen. They were not among the six women Pickton was convicted of killing, but their remains or DNA were found on Pickton's property following his arrest.

Pickton was arrested in February 2002 and eventually convicted of six counts of second-degree murder.

The remains or DNA of 33 women were found on Pickton's property in Port Coquitlam. He once told an undercover police officer that he killed a total of 49.

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