Canada: "Highway of Tears"
BY Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
A sign along Highway 16 marks the plight of the missing women.
Every spring when the snow melts, Sally Gibson organizes a search team to look for her niece, Lana Derrick, who went missing in October 1995. "It's a ritual," she says. Once the weather warms up, Gibson gathers her friends and encourages them to walk the desolate roads behind her house.
She's not alone. Families all along Canada's Highway 16 -- a 425-mile stretch of road that cuts through pine forests, rivers and remote Indigenous reserves in central British Columbia -- are searching for their missing loved ones. There was Delphine Nikals who went missing in 1990; Ramona Wilson who disappeared in 1994; and last year, Tamara Chipman disappeared.
The families have dubbed the road the "Highway of Tears," and Amnesty International estimates that 32 aboriginal Canadian women have gone missing in the last three decades along the highway, which runs from Prince Rupert to Prince George.
Gibson, whose niece has been missing for 11 years, refuses to accept that Lana is dead. "She is not dead to us, she is just missing."
Gibson, whose niece has been missing for 11 years, refuses to accept that Lana is dead. "She is not dead to us, she is just missing," Gibson says. Local police stopped pursuing the case a long time ago.
With eyes filling with tears, Gibson points to the green trailer where Lana grew up. "We all lived on this reserve together," she says, as it begins to drizzle. She zips up her cotton jacket and offers to give me a tour of her neighborhood.
As we walk around, it becomes clear that the reserve, similar to Indian reservations in the United States, is very different from other parts of Canada. Here, aboriginal Canadians live in stark poverty. A blue Ford pick-up truck with three of its tires missing is parked next to an abandoned tin boat. A stray dog sniffs through piles of garbage that no one comes to collect. A young girl in denim shorts roller blades past a pile of plastic bags and crushed beer cans.
An abandoned car on the aboriginal reserve.
It's a side of Canada that many don't see. The unemployment rate in this part of British Columbia is more than 90 percent. People here are suspicious of outsiders and feel ignored by the Canadian government.
When Lana went missing, her family contacted the Canadian police to file a missing person's report. "They gave us 72 hours; after that they said we were on our own," says Gibson. "To us, prejudice is alive and well in Canada, against our people. And every time a young woman goes missing along the highway they ignore it, because it's not one of theirs -- it's an aboriginal girl," she says.
In October 2004, Amnesty International released a report titled Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada. The report linked high levels of violence against Indigenous women and girls across Canada to deep-rooted marginalization and discrimination. "Not enough is being done to ensure that police forces consistently respond swiftly and effectively when Indigenous families report a missing sister or daughter," the report stated. "And not enough is being done to ensure that Indigenous women and girls are not put in situations of extreme vulnerability in the first place."
"The problem is that aboriginal women are seen as prostitutes, as dispensable women by Caucasian Canadians," says Lucy Glaim, an aboriginal youth justice advocate.
Driving down the desolate highway, I see posters of the missing girls tacked to utility poles. In gas stations, family members have posted pleas to help them find their lost little girls. At the town of Burns Lake, I see a sign that says, "Highway of Tears: In memory of the missing women." Every town seems to have been affected.
"The problem is that aboriginal women are seen as prostitutes, as dispensable women by Caucasian Canadians," says Lucy Glaim, an aboriginal youth justice advocate. Glaim's sister, Delphine Nikals, went missing in 1995. Her family has not heard of her since.
Glaim acts as a facilitator between young aboriginal offenders, the tribal elders and the Canadian police. She says the police stereotype aboriginal Canadians and look at them as troublemakers. "If the Canadian police see us as disposable people, how are we going to get the respect of the Caucasian community?" asks Glaim.
Many of the small towns that dot the highway have their own theories about the missing women. Some say a serial killer is on the loose. Others think it's one of their own, a person who knows the community and the women well. Since the Canadian police routinely have no suspects and make no arrests in connection with the disappearances, the rumors continue to thrive.
Correy Millwater, Tamara's mother, holds an early photograph of her daughter who disappeared in 2005.
"I don't think a serial killer is on the loose," says Glaim. "It's easier for our society to lay the blame on one person, but I believe that there are multiple murderers out there who are racist and are targeting aboriginal women."
Further down the highway, in the fishing town of Terrace, known for its salmon, Tom Chipman is putting up posters of his 22-year-old daughter Tamara, who went missing in September 2005. Tamara's two-year-old son Jaden walks around with his mother's photograph tucked under his arm. Tamara's mother spent days in the hospital after her daughter's disappearance.
"I just couldn't look for my baby daughter in ditches and side roads," she tells me. "How can a mother bring herself to do that?"
Once the posters are up, the Chipmans gather around a makeshift outdoor campfire to discuss their next strategy and to reminisce.
"Tamara was a headstrong girl, she knew how to defend herself. So whoever took her was strong and knew what he was doing," says Tom Chipman.
One of Tamara's aunts points out that the Greyhound bus, the only public transportation from Prince Rupert to Prince George, is cutting back on services. "Unemployment is high in aboriginal communities, there is a lack of public transportation, and now they are cutting back on the Greyhound bus service. How do they expect people to travel? Not everyone has cars," she says.
Tom Chipman puts up a missing persons poster of his daughter Tamara at a local gas station.
Another aunt reveals a secret she has kept hidden from her family. Many years ago, while hitchhiking, she was picked up by a local truck driver who tried to rape her. "He put his hand on my thigh and tried to rip my clothes off," she says. "But I bit his hand and opened the car door and ran as fast as I could. I never reported it because I didn't think the police would do anything about it," she tells the group.
When I speak with Staff Sgt. John Ford, who handles media relations for the Royal Canadian Police, he tells me relations are good between the aboriginal community and the police.
"The message we are getting from the families is that they are satisfied with our investigation," he says. "They know we are doing our job to the best we can."
Ford denies this is a race issue but more the logistics of patrolling such a desolate area. "The area we are talking about is vast, it's rugged; witnesses are non-existent. It's as if these women have vanished into thin air," he says.
Reporter Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy talks to Staff Sgt. John Ford.
While the police make little headway, local private investigator Ray Michalko, a former police officer with the Canadian mounted police, has started his own investigation. He has spent time with the families retracing the last steps of many of the victims. Now, he routinely gets tips from locals who would rather talk to him than go to the police.
Michalko has driven the stretch of Highway 16 and the numerous back roads that lead into the woods from the highway. "The terrain is difficult; the bodies could be dumped anywhere," he says. "But that's no excuse for not finding out who is behind these murders."
Despite his ex-cop status, Michalko says the police aren't doing enough. "It takes most people a lot of thought and internalizing to get up the courage to call their local police with a tip," he says. "When they finally do make the call, they need to be made to feel that their call was appreciated and that they are making a difference by calling the police."
While many families still search for their missing daughters, Matilda Wilson, who lives in the town of Smithers, visits the grave of her daughter Ramona, whose body was found along the highway sexually assaulted and strangled more than 12 years ago. Ramona was 14 when she went missing.
Matilda Wilson at the graveside of her 14-year-old daughter Ramona.
"They took the light of my life away from me," Wilson says. "Ramona was a bundle of joy, she made us all laugh, she was so young. Why her?"
On April 9, 1995, Wilson received a call from the local police. They wanted her to identify her daughter's belongings. The 10-month search had come to an end.
"Someone asked me that if my daughter had blonde hair and blue eyes, would her killers be found?" says Wilson. "I think they would. Smithers is a small town and the police have to only ask questions and do a little investigation and they will come up with clues."
Keeping attention on the disappearances, the Chipman family organized a walk from Prince Rupert to Prince George earlier this year to honor all the missing women along the highway. They walked the 425 miles through rain and snow. Family members of other missing women joined in. They walked for 20 days, urging each other to cover 20 miles a day. In every town people cheered them on. They arrived in Prince George on March 30, where a symposium was organized to discuss what families and the police could do to make the highway safer.
In Smithers, local artists have also put together an art show to commemorate the missing women. Alongside a painted facemask of one of the young women, someone had scribbled:
I dreamt I held you in my arms, safe and warm
I woke to tears falling silently.
My heart is heavy and burdened
smothered with grief so hard to bear.
Please return to me and let me gently touch your cheek
if only in my dreams.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a regular contributor to FRONTLINE/World. Click on the links to watch her Rough Cut report about the devastating earthquake in Pakistan last year, and her 2004 broadcast "Pakistan: On A Razor's Edge" about the country's 50-year dispute with India over Kashmir.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2006/08/canada_highway.html
Highway of Tears website:
www.highwayoftears.ca/
Saturday, August 26
Tuesday, August 22
Family takes issue with ruling in Pickton case; Diane Rock's sister says Accused killer should be tried on all 26 counts of first-degree murder
Printed from www.wellandtribune.ca web site Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - © 2006 Welland Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Barkovich
Monday, August 21, 2006 - 09:00
Local News - Two family members of a victim of Robert Pickton, the accused killer facing 26 counts of first-degree murder in British Columbia are "angry and frustrated" by a judge's ruling in how the case should be tried.
Fourth Street residents Lillian and Rene Beaudoin say Pickton should be tried on all 26 counts of first-degree murder, not six.
Lillian was a sister, through adoption, to Diane Rock, formerly of Welland.
Rock, born Sept. 2, 1967, was last seen Nov. 23, 2001 and reported missing Nov. 30, 2001. Pickton was charged with her murder April 2, 2002 following a search of his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The charge was laid on the basis of DNA evidence; as far as the Beaudoins know, Rock's remains were not found.
The Beaudoins are taking issue with a ruling by Justice James Williams who, according to a Canadian Press story, decided that trying Pickton on 26 counts all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first, but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
The Beaudoins contend the judge's ruling is "driving a wedge" between the families of the victims, who from the beginning wanted Pickton tried on all counts at the same time.
"First and foremost, what I think it comes down to is the criminal has more rights than the victims or the victims' families, " Rene said in an interview.
He said the judge's decision to sever six counts from the 26 is "severing the families. The families have always been united in seeing this come through as whole, as one."
The Beaudoins said they were looking forward to the start of the trial on Jan. 8, 2007, because it meant the end of the ordeal was in sight.
But because of the judge's ruling, they say it could be two or three years before Pickton is tried for Rock's murder, or if ever.
"We don't know what's going to happen now," Lillian said. "This changes everything."
Rene said he could understand the concern about a burden on jurors listening to evidence in a trial of 26 counts of first-degree murder.
"But can you imagine the burden on the families? Four years in the waiting and now they're telling us it's going to be longer and possibly not even be heard?" he said.
Lillian said the latest news is even more difficult to comprehend for her 77-year-old mother, who adopted Diane as an infant. She was raised in Welland as Diane Rosemary Murin. Rock is the name of her second husband. The Rocks moved to British Columbia in 1992 where, after a while, the couple became estranged. Diane ended up in Vancouver's notorious downtown east side.
Twice married, Rock was the mother of five children. One of her daughters lives in Niagara, the Beaudoins said.
They are at a loss to understand reasons for the judge's selection of the six charges that were severed from the others.
According to news reports about the judge's decision, the evidence in those cases was described as "materially different" than in the others.
But said Rene: "We don't know what that means. Nobody is telling us." Said Lillian: "We need some answers on that. We don't understand the reasons for them choosing those six."
But Lillian did acknowledge being told of opportunity for a telephone conference with the judge. She said that came from a victims' services staff member in Vancouver.
"I was told I could have a meeting with the judge by phone to express my feelings in this matter ... she sounded like she was trying to encourage me to express my opinion to him on how I feel about his decision," she said, adding she was uncomfortable doing so because "the judge will talk circles around me."
Though four years have gone by since learning of Rock's death, their interest in the case has not waned, the Beaudoins say.
"It's on our minds 24/7," said Rene.
Lillian has compiled a collection of news story clippings, photos and Internet posts about the case that are kept in hard-cover binders.
The judge's ruling this month was a big set back for them, they said.
"We're frustrated. We were prepared (for trial) Jan. 8 for the 26, to be part of the 26 but now it's not going to be and may not ever be," Lillian said.
Their hope is that other victims' families who also disagree with the ruling "will speak loud like we're doing," she said.
"We want the judge to proceed as one trial on the 26 counts so that all of us families can have a conclusion to our nightmare," she said.
Regardless of what happens, the Beaudoins agree they will never have closure because "documentaries, books, movies" will keep the story going for years.
But it's important to them for Pickton to be tried on all counts at the same time because they want him convicted as a serial killer.
"If he is convicted on six counts, he's a killer but if he's convicted on 26 counts he's known as Canada's most notorious serial killer and I want him to wear his title...I don't want that to be taken away from him," Lillan said.
ID- 160723
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© 2006 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Joe Barkovich
Monday, August 21, 2006 - 09:00
Local News - Two family members of a victim of Robert Pickton, the accused killer facing 26 counts of first-degree murder in British Columbia are "angry and frustrated" by a judge's ruling in how the case should be tried.
Fourth Street residents Lillian and Rene Beaudoin say Pickton should be tried on all 26 counts of first-degree murder, not six.
Lillian was a sister, through adoption, to Diane Rock, formerly of Welland.
Rock, born Sept. 2, 1967, was last seen Nov. 23, 2001 and reported missing Nov. 30, 2001. Pickton was charged with her murder April 2, 2002 following a search of his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The charge was laid on the basis of DNA evidence; as far as the Beaudoins know, Rock's remains were not found.
The Beaudoins are taking issue with a ruling by Justice James Williams who, according to a Canadian Press story, decided that trying Pickton on 26 counts all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first, but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
The Beaudoins contend the judge's ruling is "driving a wedge" between the families of the victims, who from the beginning wanted Pickton tried on all counts at the same time.
"First and foremost, what I think it comes down to is the criminal has more rights than the victims or the victims' families, " Rene said in an interview.
He said the judge's decision to sever six counts from the 26 is "severing the families. The families have always been united in seeing this come through as whole, as one."
The Beaudoins said they were looking forward to the start of the trial on Jan. 8, 2007, because it meant the end of the ordeal was in sight.
But because of the judge's ruling, they say it could be two or three years before Pickton is tried for Rock's murder, or if ever.
"We don't know what's going to happen now," Lillian said. "This changes everything."
Rene said he could understand the concern about a burden on jurors listening to evidence in a trial of 26 counts of first-degree murder.
"But can you imagine the burden on the families? Four years in the waiting and now they're telling us it's going to be longer and possibly not even be heard?" he said.
Lillian said the latest news is even more difficult to comprehend for her 77-year-old mother, who adopted Diane as an infant. She was raised in Welland as Diane Rosemary Murin. Rock is the name of her second husband. The Rocks moved to British Columbia in 1992 where, after a while, the couple became estranged. Diane ended up in Vancouver's notorious downtown east side.
Twice married, Rock was the mother of five children. One of her daughters lives in Niagara, the Beaudoins said.
They are at a loss to understand reasons for the judge's selection of the six charges that were severed from the others.
According to news reports about the judge's decision, the evidence in those cases was described as "materially different" than in the others.
But said Rene: "We don't know what that means. Nobody is telling us." Said Lillian: "We need some answers on that. We don't understand the reasons for them choosing those six."
But Lillian did acknowledge being told of opportunity for a telephone conference with the judge. She said that came from a victims' services staff member in Vancouver.
"I was told I could have a meeting with the judge by phone to express my feelings in this matter ... she sounded like she was trying to encourage me to express my opinion to him on how I feel about his decision," she said, adding she was uncomfortable doing so because "the judge will talk circles around me."
Though four years have gone by since learning of Rock's death, their interest in the case has not waned, the Beaudoins say.
"It's on our minds 24/7," said Rene.
Lillian has compiled a collection of news story clippings, photos and Internet posts about the case that are kept in hard-cover binders.
The judge's ruling this month was a big set back for them, they said.
"We're frustrated. We were prepared (for trial) Jan. 8 for the 26, to be part of the 26 but now it's not going to be and may not ever be," Lillian said.
Their hope is that other victims' families who also disagree with the ruling "will speak loud like we're doing," she said.
"We want the judge to proceed as one trial on the 26 counts so that all of us families can have a conclusion to our nightmare," she said.
Regardless of what happens, the Beaudoins agree they will never have closure because "documentaries, books, movies" will keep the story going for years.
But it's important to them for Pickton to be tried on all counts at the same time because they want him convicted as a serial killer.
"If he is convicted on six counts, he's a killer but if he's convicted on 26 counts he's known as Canada's most notorious serial killer and I want him to wear his title...I don't want that to be taken away from him," Lillan said.
ID- 160723
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2006 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Pickton can still change mind, have judge-alone trial
Greg Joyce
Canadian Press
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
VANCOUVER -- The man accused of being Canada's worst serial killer could still change his mind and opt for a judge-alone trial, even after the jury is selected at considerable public expense, says a Crown spokesman.
Geoff Gaul said Robert Pickton, who has indicated he wants to be tried by judge and jury, still has the option to switch to a judge-alone trial "at any point in time up to the point where he has been arraigned and put in charge of the jury."
Pickton's trial began in January but defence and Crown lawyers have been making arguments under a publication ban over what evidence is admissible before the jury.
Jurors are to be selected in December and will begin hearing evidence in January 2007.
It's expected 3,500 people will be called for jury duty. In a normal murder case, only 500 would be called. It could take several days to select a jury.
Gaul noted that both the defence and Crown must consent to a judge-alone trial, as was the case in the recent, lengthy Air India trial that resulted in the judge acquitting the two accused.
Earlier this month, Justice James Williams released a B.C. Supreme Court ruling saying the original case against Pickton - 26 counts of first-degree murder - would pose "an unreasonable burden" on a jury because the trial would go on for too long and involve too much evidence.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment," Williams wrote.
Williams concluded six of the 26 charges should be separated out of the original indictment.
"One trial will proceed on those six counts; the balance will be tried separately," he wrote.
It wasn't clear, however, whether the Crown would apply to have all 26 counts tried at once if Pickton chose judge alone.
"I don't know whether the Crown could apply (to do that) in that (circumstance)," Gaul said Tuesday.
Under the judge's ruling, Gaul said there are six counts for one trial and 20 for the next.
But the order of which goes first is still being considered by the Crown.
"We have 20 counts outstanding. The decision hasn't been made yet whether we're going with the six first or the 20 first, or a certain number of those 20."
The judge's ruling specifically did not direct that the Crown must proceed with the six counts first.
"I don't think the court can direct that," said Gaul.
"The court can grant severance, can break up an indictment into parts but the court can't direct which goes first.
"Is it possible we go with the six first? Oh sure, it's very possible but that is a discretionary call on the Crown's part."
Should the Crown decide to proceed with 20 first, the defence would likely file a severance application again, Gaul suggested.
"They said 26 was too high. Would 20 be too high? That's an issue for the defence. If they bring on a severance application again that's something we would have to argue."
The Crown intends to tell the defence and court soon of its decision for the counts in a new indictment.
"That's why we are reviewing it now and we intend to come to a decision in the very near future."
Lawyers for Pickton could not be reached for comment.
The six counts the judge said should be tried together are the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
He has been in custody since February 2002 on charges of murdering prostitutes who disappeared from the city's notorious Downtown Eastside.
The other 20 women not included in the judge's six counts are: Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Kerry Koski, Wendy Crawford, Debra Lynne Jones, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Furminger, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.
© Canadian Press 2006
Canadian Press
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
VANCOUVER -- The man accused of being Canada's worst serial killer could still change his mind and opt for a judge-alone trial, even after the jury is selected at considerable public expense, says a Crown spokesman.
Geoff Gaul said Robert Pickton, who has indicated he wants to be tried by judge and jury, still has the option to switch to a judge-alone trial "at any point in time up to the point where he has been arraigned and put in charge of the jury."
Pickton's trial began in January but defence and Crown lawyers have been making arguments under a publication ban over what evidence is admissible before the jury.
Jurors are to be selected in December and will begin hearing evidence in January 2007.
It's expected 3,500 people will be called for jury duty. In a normal murder case, only 500 would be called. It could take several days to select a jury.
Gaul noted that both the defence and Crown must consent to a judge-alone trial, as was the case in the recent, lengthy Air India trial that resulted in the judge acquitting the two accused.
Earlier this month, Justice James Williams released a B.C. Supreme Court ruling saying the original case against Pickton - 26 counts of first-degree murder - would pose "an unreasonable burden" on a jury because the trial would go on for too long and involve too much evidence.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment," Williams wrote.
Williams concluded six of the 26 charges should be separated out of the original indictment.
"One trial will proceed on those six counts; the balance will be tried separately," he wrote.
It wasn't clear, however, whether the Crown would apply to have all 26 counts tried at once if Pickton chose judge alone.
"I don't know whether the Crown could apply (to do that) in that (circumstance)," Gaul said Tuesday.
Under the judge's ruling, Gaul said there are six counts for one trial and 20 for the next.
But the order of which goes first is still being considered by the Crown.
"We have 20 counts outstanding. The decision hasn't been made yet whether we're going with the six first or the 20 first, or a certain number of those 20."
The judge's ruling specifically did not direct that the Crown must proceed with the six counts first.
"I don't think the court can direct that," said Gaul.
"The court can grant severance, can break up an indictment into parts but the court can't direct which goes first.
"Is it possible we go with the six first? Oh sure, it's very possible but that is a discretionary call on the Crown's part."
Should the Crown decide to proceed with 20 first, the defence would likely file a severance application again, Gaul suggested.
"They said 26 was too high. Would 20 be too high? That's an issue for the defence. If they bring on a severance application again that's something we would have to argue."
The Crown intends to tell the defence and court soon of its decision for the counts in a new indictment.
"That's why we are reviewing it now and we intend to come to a decision in the very near future."
Lawyers for Pickton could not be reached for comment.
The six counts the judge said should be tried together are the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
He has been in custody since February 2002 on charges of murdering prostitutes who disappeared from the city's notorious Downtown Eastside.
The other 20 women not included in the judge's six counts are: Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Kerry Koski, Wendy Crawford, Debra Lynne Jones, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Furminger, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.
© Canadian Press 2006
Stranger than fiction
Graham Long
Tuesday August 22, 2006
Drayton Valley Western Review — The most interesting thing about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case is that, well, so many of us are interested in it.
Think about it. There are literally thousands of murders in North America every year. A distressingly high number of those crimes go unsolved. Yet, almost without exception, the reaction of the general public is a shrug of the shoulders and a ‘so what?’
The JonBenet case, on the other hand, has been in and out of the news and a topic of speculation, water cooler conversations and television specials for damned near a decade. Can any of us name a single one of the women Robert Pickton is accused of murdering? Or one of the Edmonton sex trade workers whose bodies have been turning up in fields surrounding the city? I know I can’t. And yet I’m willing to bet that more of us know who JonBenet Ramsey was than can name their Member of Parliament.
Some things, of course, simply capture the public’s imagination. JonBenet was just one of more than 800 children (no, that’s not a typo, 800) murdered in the United States in 1996. But her death was, in many ways, stranger than fiction. And that aura of strangeness looks set to continue.
The arrest last week of John Mark Karr looked at first as if it would put the whole sorry case to bed. That impression lasted for about a day until new questions over Karr’s apparent confession arose. This one, it appears, will run and run.
And if JonBenet’s death was bizarre, then so too was her short life.
While anyone with an ounce of humanity will feel overwhelming sympathy for John and Patsy Ramsey over the loss of their daughter -- especially now in the light of Patsy’s death and the news that they may be finally cleared once and for all of any involvement in the crime -- there’s something about the Ramseys that doesn’t feel quite right.
There’s something slightly creepy about the thought of parents who would dress a six-year-old child in adult clothes, slather her in make-up and enter her in beauty pageants at an age when she should have been drinking Kool-Aid and watching Sesame Street.
In photographs and videos of JonBenet we see a child with a woman’s face perched on her tiny body. She may have won those beauty pageants. She may have loved dressing up and enjoyed every minute of taking part. But is that really the way we want our children to be? Tiny little adults? Because it just doesn’t feel right. It just doesn’t feel right at all.
And perhaps that’s the only lasting lesson we’ll learn from the entire tragedy.
A six-year-old should be playing with Barbie dolls, not dressing like one.
Drayton Valley Western Review
http://www.draytonvalleywesternreview.com/story.php?id=249373
Tuesday August 22, 2006
Drayton Valley Western Review — The most interesting thing about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case is that, well, so many of us are interested in it.
Think about it. There are literally thousands of murders in North America every year. A distressingly high number of those crimes go unsolved. Yet, almost without exception, the reaction of the general public is a shrug of the shoulders and a ‘so what?’
The JonBenet case, on the other hand, has been in and out of the news and a topic of speculation, water cooler conversations and television specials for damned near a decade. Can any of us name a single one of the women Robert Pickton is accused of murdering? Or one of the Edmonton sex trade workers whose bodies have been turning up in fields surrounding the city? I know I can’t. And yet I’m willing to bet that more of us know who JonBenet Ramsey was than can name their Member of Parliament.
Some things, of course, simply capture the public’s imagination. JonBenet was just one of more than 800 children (no, that’s not a typo, 800) murdered in the United States in 1996. But her death was, in many ways, stranger than fiction. And that aura of strangeness looks set to continue.
The arrest last week of John Mark Karr looked at first as if it would put the whole sorry case to bed. That impression lasted for about a day until new questions over Karr’s apparent confession arose. This one, it appears, will run and run.
And if JonBenet’s death was bizarre, then so too was her short life.
While anyone with an ounce of humanity will feel overwhelming sympathy for John and Patsy Ramsey over the loss of their daughter -- especially now in the light of Patsy’s death and the news that they may be finally cleared once and for all of any involvement in the crime -- there’s something about the Ramseys that doesn’t feel quite right.
There’s something slightly creepy about the thought of parents who would dress a six-year-old child in adult clothes, slather her in make-up and enter her in beauty pageants at an age when she should have been drinking Kool-Aid and watching Sesame Street.
In photographs and videos of JonBenet we see a child with a woman’s face perched on her tiny body. She may have won those beauty pageants. She may have loved dressing up and enjoyed every minute of taking part. But is that really the way we want our children to be? Tiny little adults? Because it just doesn’t feel right. It just doesn’t feel right at all.
And perhaps that’s the only lasting lesson we’ll learn from the entire tragedy.
A six-year-old should be playing with Barbie dolls, not dressing like one.
Drayton Valley Western Review
http://www.draytonvalleywesternreview.com/story.php?id=249373
Friday, August 11
Surrey victime one of six Pickton cases to proceed
By Dan Ferguson, Tom Fletcher
Staff Reporters
Aug 11 2006
Anna Draayers is struggling with her feelings after a judge ruled that accused serial killer Robert Pickton will stand trial for the murder of her foster daughter and five others, while 20 other cases will not proceed right away.
Draayers, the foster mother of Surrey resident Serena Abotsway, learned about the decision from a reporter Wednesday.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled that hearing evidence in all 26 charges would be too much for one jury, and ordered that six murder counts should be heard together while the remaining 20 are referred to another trial.
Draayers said it means her family will have some closure sooner than others.
“I know how hard it is to wait,” she said. “For the other people, they want to know just as well as we do.”
Draayers said she contacted the Crown prosecutor’s office, but they had not returned her call as of Thursday.
Abotsway and another Surrey woman, Heather Gabrielle Chinnock, are among the 26 victims listed by the Crown in the largest serial murder case in Canadian history.
The Chinnock murder is among the 20 postponed cases.
Chinnock was 30 when she went missing in April of 2001. She was said to be a regular visitor to Pickton’s farm.
She disappeared after an argument with her boyfriend, who told police Chinnock stormed out of their Surrey residence without taking any clothes or other personal possessions.
Abotsway was 29 when she disappeared in August of the same year.
She was an abused child who was described by Anna and Bert Draayers as an emotionally wounded girl who never got the counselling she needed.
At the time she went missing, Abotsway was living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
Another missing Surrey woman, Yvonne Marie Boen, was linked to the Pickton pig farm after forensic experts found her DNA there, but Pickton has not been charged in her disappearance. Boen went missing in March of 2001.
Pickton, a Port Coquitlam pig farmer, is charged with murdering the 26 women, most of whom worked as prostitutes in east Vancouver between 1995 and 2001.
Geoffrey Gaul, director of legal services for the Attorney General’s criminal justice branch, said the judge was concerned about the jury’s ability to digest all the evidence in 26 murders, and his decision does not reflect on the strength of the Crown’s case in any of them.
Pickton’s defence lawyers asked for the trial to be divided, and prosecutors could seek to divide it further by splitting up the 20 counts, Gaul said.
“All 26 counts remain very active,” Gaul said.
Earlier this year, the judge threw out a 27th murder charge involving an unidentified victim, and Pickton pleaded not guilty to the other 26.
Pickton has been in jail for four years.
A judge has been hearing evidence since February to determine if it is admissible to a jury, and once jury selection is complete the trial is expected to begin in 2007.
© Copyright 2006 Surrey Leader
Staff Reporters
Aug 11 2006
Anna Draayers is struggling with her feelings after a judge ruled that accused serial killer Robert Pickton will stand trial for the murder of her foster daughter and five others, while 20 other cases will not proceed right away.
Draayers, the foster mother of Surrey resident Serena Abotsway, learned about the decision from a reporter Wednesday.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled that hearing evidence in all 26 charges would be too much for one jury, and ordered that six murder counts should be heard together while the remaining 20 are referred to another trial.
Draayers said it means her family will have some closure sooner than others.
“I know how hard it is to wait,” she said. “For the other people, they want to know just as well as we do.”
Draayers said she contacted the Crown prosecutor’s office, but they had not returned her call as of Thursday.
Abotsway and another Surrey woman, Heather Gabrielle Chinnock, are among the 26 victims listed by the Crown in the largest serial murder case in Canadian history.
The Chinnock murder is among the 20 postponed cases.
Chinnock was 30 when she went missing in April of 2001. She was said to be a regular visitor to Pickton’s farm.
She disappeared after an argument with her boyfriend, who told police Chinnock stormed out of their Surrey residence without taking any clothes or other personal possessions.
Abotsway was 29 when she disappeared in August of the same year.
She was an abused child who was described by Anna and Bert Draayers as an emotionally wounded girl who never got the counselling she needed.
At the time she went missing, Abotsway was living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
Another missing Surrey woman, Yvonne Marie Boen, was linked to the Pickton pig farm after forensic experts found her DNA there, but Pickton has not been charged in her disappearance. Boen went missing in March of 2001.
Pickton, a Port Coquitlam pig farmer, is charged with murdering the 26 women, most of whom worked as prostitutes in east Vancouver between 1995 and 2001.
Geoffrey Gaul, director of legal services for the Attorney General’s criminal justice branch, said the judge was concerned about the jury’s ability to digest all the evidence in 26 murders, and his decision does not reflect on the strength of the Crown’s case in any of them.
Pickton’s defence lawyers asked for the trial to be divided, and prosecutors could seek to divide it further by splitting up the 20 counts, Gaul said.
“All 26 counts remain very active,” Gaul said.
Earlier this year, the judge threw out a 27th murder charge involving an unidentified victim, and Pickton pleaded not guilty to the other 26.
Pickton has been in jail for four years.
A judge has been hearing evidence since February to determine if it is admissible to a jury, and once jury selection is complete the trial is expected to begin in 2007.
© Copyright 2006 Surrey Leader
Publication ban could cover Pickton trial severing of counts: lawyers
Jeremy Hainsworth
Canadian Press
Friday, August 11, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - If accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces more than one trial on charges he killed 26 women, there's a good chance the public won't find out the details of the case for years, legal experts say.
Pickton is scheduled to stand trial in January, but a judge may decide the case should be subject to a publication ban if there are plans for later trials, they say. The first trial alone is expected to take a year. Vancouver media lawyer David Sutherland says the possibility of a publication ban is "very high."
"As soon as there was a suggestion that some counts be split and tried first, there was an obvious expectation on the part of Crown and defence that there will be a publication ban cloaking the entire first trial with secrecy," Sutherland said.
"That is not beneficial because publicity improves trials, holds witnesses to acount and allows others to come forward if evidence needs to be rebutted or qualified."
Justice James Williams released a ruling Wednesday concluding that trying Pickton on 26 counts of murder all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul, however, said it would be premature at this stage to discuss whether a ban would be sought in a first trial for Pickton.
"We're going to have to wait and see what happens at the beginning of the trial. If defence wish to have a publication ban, they can bring on a motion. Crown will have to consider that issue and the court will also.
"We'll just have to wait and see."
Gaul said it has not been determined which of the 26 murder counts Pickton will face when he goes on trial Jan. 8, nor is there a timeline for any subsequent trials.
Pickton's lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Sutherland said when there are multiple accused facing separate trials or one accused facing multiple charges as Pickton is, the likelihood of a publication ban on a trial is not unheard of.
For example, a publication ban was ordered on the trial of Karla Homolka in order to prevent tainting a potential jury pool for the trial of her school-girl-killer husband, Paul Bernardo, in 1994.
Only Canadian reporters were allowed to cover Homolka's trial. American reporters were barred from the court because they would not be covered by a judge's order, Sutherland said.
Vancouver lawyer Greg DelBigio, acting chair of the national criminal section for the Canadian Bar Association, said the defence could have a very real concern that Pickton might not be able to get a fair second trial with a jury should he be convicted in a first trial.
"There is always a concern of that sort and that would have to be assessed by the defence lawyers at the time of the second trial," DelBigio said.
Sweeping bans have covered all court proceedings in the case to this point so as not to taint the pool of potential jurors.
However, Sutherland said the publication bans in the Pickton case have already been breached after several American media outlets allegedly reported details from the preliminary hearing.
While Judge David Stone extended the preliminary hearing publication ban to the Internet, Sutherland questioned whether a Canadian judge has such jurisdiction.
"If the New York Times or the Associated Press wants to cover the William Pickton trial, it's very, very difficult to block coverage," he said.
Sutherland noted, however, that American TV stations covering the preliminary hearing agreed to notify Canadian cable providers when a news story would air about Pickton so it could be blocked from B.C. televisions.
Sutherland said such bans have the effect of cloaking courts in secrecy.
"It's not a public trial," he said. "It will sure prevent the public from having an opportunity to scrutinize the administration of justice."
It's expected that 3,500 people will be called as potential jurors this fall to pick the jury for Pickton's first trial. Testimony is due to start Jan. 8.
The decision to separate the charges against Pickton has upset some of the families of the women he is accused of killing.
But Pat de Vries, whose daughter Sarah is among those who were severed from the indictment following Williams' ruling Wednesday, said she agrees with the decision.
She said the move "makes perfect sense."
"I think it's a practical solution, having six rather than the 26 which is ridiculous and costs the taxpayer a hell of a lot more and would probably get mucked up," she said from Guelph, Ont., where she lives.
DelBigio said the severing of charges in a complex case is not common, though it is done sometimes to ensure an accused gets a fair trial.
"The (Pickton) case is uncommon," he said.
"The severing of charges is not a day-to-day occurrence but it is an established remedy that a judge can grant on very broad grounds simply when the interests of justice require the severance of counts," he said.
"When a case is long and complex and before a jury, there is always a concern that you're going to lose jurors or that jurors might be unable to appreciate the significance of all of the evidence or properly apply the law to all of the evidence."
© The Canadian Press 2006
Canadian Press
Friday, August 11, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - If accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces more than one trial on charges he killed 26 women, there's a good chance the public won't find out the details of the case for years, legal experts say.
Pickton is scheduled to stand trial in January, but a judge may decide the case should be subject to a publication ban if there are plans for later trials, they say. The first trial alone is expected to take a year. Vancouver media lawyer David Sutherland says the possibility of a publication ban is "very high."
"As soon as there was a suggestion that some counts be split and tried first, there was an obvious expectation on the part of Crown and defence that there will be a publication ban cloaking the entire first trial with secrecy," Sutherland said.
"That is not beneficial because publicity improves trials, holds witnesses to acount and allows others to come forward if evidence needs to be rebutted or qualified."
Justice James Williams released a ruling Wednesday concluding that trying Pickton on 26 counts of murder all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul, however, said it would be premature at this stage to discuss whether a ban would be sought in a first trial for Pickton.
"We're going to have to wait and see what happens at the beginning of the trial. If defence wish to have a publication ban, they can bring on a motion. Crown will have to consider that issue and the court will also.
"We'll just have to wait and see."
Gaul said it has not been determined which of the 26 murder counts Pickton will face when he goes on trial Jan. 8, nor is there a timeline for any subsequent trials.
Pickton's lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Sutherland said when there are multiple accused facing separate trials or one accused facing multiple charges as Pickton is, the likelihood of a publication ban on a trial is not unheard of.
For example, a publication ban was ordered on the trial of Karla Homolka in order to prevent tainting a potential jury pool for the trial of her school-girl-killer husband, Paul Bernardo, in 1994.
Only Canadian reporters were allowed to cover Homolka's trial. American reporters were barred from the court because they would not be covered by a judge's order, Sutherland said.
Vancouver lawyer Greg DelBigio, acting chair of the national criminal section for the Canadian Bar Association, said the defence could have a very real concern that Pickton might not be able to get a fair second trial with a jury should he be convicted in a first trial.
"There is always a concern of that sort and that would have to be assessed by the defence lawyers at the time of the second trial," DelBigio said.
Sweeping bans have covered all court proceedings in the case to this point so as not to taint the pool of potential jurors.
However, Sutherland said the publication bans in the Pickton case have already been breached after several American media outlets allegedly reported details from the preliminary hearing.
While Judge David Stone extended the preliminary hearing publication ban to the Internet, Sutherland questioned whether a Canadian judge has such jurisdiction.
"If the New York Times or the Associated Press wants to cover the William Pickton trial, it's very, very difficult to block coverage," he said.
Sutherland noted, however, that American TV stations covering the preliminary hearing agreed to notify Canadian cable providers when a news story would air about Pickton so it could be blocked from B.C. televisions.
Sutherland said such bans have the effect of cloaking courts in secrecy.
"It's not a public trial," he said. "It will sure prevent the public from having an opportunity to scrutinize the administration of justice."
It's expected that 3,500 people will be called as potential jurors this fall to pick the jury for Pickton's first trial. Testimony is due to start Jan. 8.
The decision to separate the charges against Pickton has upset some of the families of the women he is accused of killing.
But Pat de Vries, whose daughter Sarah is among those who were severed from the indictment following Williams' ruling Wednesday, said she agrees with the decision.
She said the move "makes perfect sense."
"I think it's a practical solution, having six rather than the 26 which is ridiculous and costs the taxpayer a hell of a lot more and would probably get mucked up," she said from Guelph, Ont., where she lives.
DelBigio said the severing of charges in a complex case is not common, though it is done sometimes to ensure an accused gets a fair trial.
"The (Pickton) case is uncommon," he said.
"The severing of charges is not a day-to-day occurrence but it is an established remedy that a judge can grant on very broad grounds simply when the interests of justice require the severance of counts," he said.
"When a case is long and complex and before a jury, there is always a concern that you're going to lose jurors or that jurors might be unable to appreciate the significance of all of the evidence or properly apply the law to all of the evidence."
© The Canadian Press 2006
Pickton case split up to avoid mistrial
By Janis Warren The Tri-City News
Aug 11 2006
A Coquitlam woman whose sister is listed as Count 25 on the charge sheet for accused Port Coquitlam killer Robert Pickton says she’s upset with the trial judge’s ruling this week to allow only six counts to proceed next year.
But Val Hughes, the sister of Kerry Koski, said she understands Mr. Justice James Williams’ decision that the trial would be too overwhelming for a jury to hear evidence on all the 26 murders Pickton is alleged to have committed.
“I’m very disappointed,” Hughes said. “I temper that with an understanding that Kerry will have her case heard in court. And, if that doesn’t happen, all hell is going to break loose.”
The Supreme Court judge’s ruling Wednesday sent shock waves to many families of the women who were allegedly murdered on Pickton’s Dominion Avenue farm.
Wayne Leng, a friend of Sarah de Vries, who’s listed as Count 18 on the charge sheet, runs a website devoted to the missing women’s case. He said he, too, understands the need to go ahead with only six charges because of the enormity of the case.
“Whether Pickton goes to trial on Sarah’s charge or not, I still believe that she was murdered out on the farm,” he said via email. “I can live with that knowledge and a trial won’t change that. I’m not sure the families of the other murdered women can, though.”
The request to proceed with only six charges came from Pickton’s defence team.
The six charges refer to the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
Geoff Gaul, spokesperson for BC’s Attorney General ministry, said the judge ruled the six counts be severed from the indictment because they are “materially different” from the other charges.
He was unable to specify how the charges are different as evidence from the proceedings remains under a publication ban until the trial starts Jan. 8, 2007.
Severance is not uncommon: An accused is allowed to make an application to have the charges heard separately or be tried without a co-accused, Gaul said.
He also was unable to say how much the Pickton case has cost to date (taxpayers are on the hook for both prosecution and defence lawyers’ fees as well as court costs). Gaul declined to speculate if the case for all 26 charges would cost more than the Air India trial.
“The Air India trial was extremely expensive and the allegations [in the Pickton case] are horrific,” said PoCo-Burke Mountain MLA Mike Farnworth, who is the NDP critic to the ministry of Public Safety. “I don’t think the general public fully comprehends what this trial is going to be like. It’s gruesome.”
Still, he added, “It would be my expectation that all of those families get due process and closure and justice through the trial process.”
Meanwhile, Hughes’ Missing Women’s Legacy Society is running the Quilts of Hope Legacy Project at Peardonville House, a residential treatment centre for chemically-dependent women located in Abbotsford. The quilts are given to women recovering from addiction.
It’ looking for donations of sewing machines (in working condition) and scraps of cotton cloth for the quilts. Call 604-931-1315.
-- with files from Monisha Martins of the Maple Ridge News.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
The 20 victims to be removed from the indictment are:
• Cara Ellis
• Andrea Borhaven
• Kerry Koski
• Wendy Crawford
• Debra Lynne Jones
• Tiffany Drew
• Sarah de Vries
• Cynthia Feliks
• Angela Jardine
• Diana Melnick
• Jacqueline McDonell
• Diane Rock
• Heather Bottomley
• Jennifer Furminger
• Helen Hallmark
• Patricia Johnson
• Heather Chinnock
• Tanya Holyk
• Sherry Irving
• Inga Hall.
Mr. Justice James Williams’ ruling, as rendered Wednesday:
“I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment. This conclusion is based upon a number of considerations, predominant among them, my concern that proceeding to trial on the indictment as it is presently constituted will impose an unreasonable burden upon the members of the jury in terms of the anticipated duration of the trial, the volume and the nature of the evidence, and the complexity of the legal tasks that this case will require of them.
“More than any other, the fact that this matter is to be tried by a judge and jury has informed my analysis and governed this outcome. I recognize that some inconveniences will result from this order. However, the proper exercise of my discretion to maximize the likelihood that this trial will proceed properly to verdict without mistrial makes necessary an order for severance.
“Accordingly, I order that all Counts other than Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 and 16 be severed from the indictment. The evidence in support of those counts is materially different than that with respect to the others such that it justifies this outcome. One trial will proceed on those six counts; the balance will be tried separately.
“It is important that it be understood that this order does not in any way bar prosecution of the severed counts. Each count will be permitted to proceed. The effect of this order is simply to require that the matter be dealt with in separate trials rather than one large trial.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2006 The Tri-City News
Aug 11 2006
A Coquitlam woman whose sister is listed as Count 25 on the charge sheet for accused Port Coquitlam killer Robert Pickton says she’s upset with the trial judge’s ruling this week to allow only six counts to proceed next year.
But Val Hughes, the sister of Kerry Koski, said she understands Mr. Justice James Williams’ decision that the trial would be too overwhelming for a jury to hear evidence on all the 26 murders Pickton is alleged to have committed.
“I’m very disappointed,” Hughes said. “I temper that with an understanding that Kerry will have her case heard in court. And, if that doesn’t happen, all hell is going to break loose.”
The Supreme Court judge’s ruling Wednesday sent shock waves to many families of the women who were allegedly murdered on Pickton’s Dominion Avenue farm.
Wayne Leng, a friend of Sarah de Vries, who’s listed as Count 18 on the charge sheet, runs a website devoted to the missing women’s case. He said he, too, understands the need to go ahead with only six charges because of the enormity of the case.
“Whether Pickton goes to trial on Sarah’s charge or not, I still believe that she was murdered out on the farm,” he said via email. “I can live with that knowledge and a trial won’t change that. I’m not sure the families of the other murdered women can, though.”
The request to proceed with only six charges came from Pickton’s defence team.
The six charges refer to the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
Geoff Gaul, spokesperson for BC’s Attorney General ministry, said the judge ruled the six counts be severed from the indictment because they are “materially different” from the other charges.
He was unable to specify how the charges are different as evidence from the proceedings remains under a publication ban until the trial starts Jan. 8, 2007.
Severance is not uncommon: An accused is allowed to make an application to have the charges heard separately or be tried without a co-accused, Gaul said.
He also was unable to say how much the Pickton case has cost to date (taxpayers are on the hook for both prosecution and defence lawyers’ fees as well as court costs). Gaul declined to speculate if the case for all 26 charges would cost more than the Air India trial.
“The Air India trial was extremely expensive and the allegations [in the Pickton case] are horrific,” said PoCo-Burke Mountain MLA Mike Farnworth, who is the NDP critic to the ministry of Public Safety. “I don’t think the general public fully comprehends what this trial is going to be like. It’s gruesome.”
Still, he added, “It would be my expectation that all of those families get due process and closure and justice through the trial process.”
Meanwhile, Hughes’ Missing Women’s Legacy Society is running the Quilts of Hope Legacy Project at Peardonville House, a residential treatment centre for chemically-dependent women located in Abbotsford. The quilts are given to women recovering from addiction.
It’ looking for donations of sewing machines (in working condition) and scraps of cotton cloth for the quilts. Call 604-931-1315.
-- with files from Monisha Martins of the Maple Ridge News.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
The 20 victims to be removed from the indictment are:
• Cara Ellis
• Andrea Borhaven
• Kerry Koski
• Wendy Crawford
• Debra Lynne Jones
• Tiffany Drew
• Sarah de Vries
• Cynthia Feliks
• Angela Jardine
• Diana Melnick
• Jacqueline McDonell
• Diane Rock
• Heather Bottomley
• Jennifer Furminger
• Helen Hallmark
• Patricia Johnson
• Heather Chinnock
• Tanya Holyk
• Sherry Irving
• Inga Hall.
Mr. Justice James Williams’ ruling, as rendered Wednesday:
“I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment. This conclusion is based upon a number of considerations, predominant among them, my concern that proceeding to trial on the indictment as it is presently constituted will impose an unreasonable burden upon the members of the jury in terms of the anticipated duration of the trial, the volume and the nature of the evidence, and the complexity of the legal tasks that this case will require of them.
“More than any other, the fact that this matter is to be tried by a judge and jury has informed my analysis and governed this outcome. I recognize that some inconveniences will result from this order. However, the proper exercise of my discretion to maximize the likelihood that this trial will proceed properly to verdict without mistrial makes necessary an order for severance.
“Accordingly, I order that all Counts other than Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 and 16 be severed from the indictment. The evidence in support of those counts is materially different than that with respect to the others such that it justifies this outcome. One trial will proceed on those six counts; the balance will be tried separately.
“It is important that it be understood that this order does not in any way bar prosecution of the severed counts. Each count will be permitted to proceed. The effect of this order is simply to require that the matter be dealt with in separate trials rather than one large trial.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2006 The Tri-City News
Thursday, August 10
Publication ban could cover Pickton trial severing of counts: lawyers
Jeremy Hainsworth
The Canadian Press
Thursday, August 10, 2006
VANCOUVER -- If accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces more than one trial on charges he killed 26 women, there’s a good chance the public won’t find out the details of the case for years, legal experts say.
Pickton is scheduled to stand trial in January, but a judge may decide the case should be subject to a publication ban if there are plans for later trials, they say. The first trial alone is expected to take a year.
Vancouver media lawyer David Sutherland says the possibility of a publication ban is “very high.”
“As soon as there was a suggestion that some counts be split and tried first, there was an obvious expectation on the part of Crown and defence that there will be a publication ban cloaking the entire first trial with secrecy,” Sutherland said.
“That is not beneficial because publicity improves trials, holds witnesses to acount and allows others to come forward if evidence needs to be rebutted or qualified.”
Justice James Williams released a ruling Wednesday concluding that trying Pickton on 26 counts of murder all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul, however, said it would be premature at this stage to discuss whether a ban would be sought in a first trial for Pickton.
“We’re going to have to wait and see what happens at the beginning of the trial. If defence wish to have a publication ban, they can bring on a motion. Crown will have to consider that issue and the court will also.
“We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Gaul said it has not been determined which of the 26 murder counts Pickton will face when he goes on trial Jan. 8, nor is there a timeline for any subsequent trials.
Pickton’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Sutherland said when there are multiple accused facing separate trials or one accused facing multiple charges as Pickton is, the likelihood of a publication ban on a trial is not unheard of.
For example, a publication ban was ordered on the trial of Karla Homolka in order to prevent tainting a potential jury pool for the trial of her school-girl-killer husband, Paul Bernardo, in 1994.
Only Canadian reporters were allowed to cover Homolka’s trial. American reporters were barred from the court because they would not be covered by a judge’s order, Sutherland said.
Vancouver lawyer Greg DelBigio, acting chair of the national criminal section for the Canadian Bar Association, said the defence could have a very real concern that Pickton might not be able to get a fair second trial with a jury should he be convicted in a first trial.
“There is always a concern of that sort and that would have to be assessed by the defence lawyers at the time of the second trial,” DelBigio said.
Sweeping bans have covered all court proceedings in the case to this point so as not to taint the pool of potential jurors.
However, Sutherland said the publication bans in the Pickton case have already been breached after several American media outlets allegedly reported details from the preliminary hearing.
While Judge David Stone extended the preliminary hearing publication ban to the Internet, Sutherland questioned whether a Canadian judge has such jurisdiction.
“If the New York Times or the Associated Press wants to cover the William Pickton trial, it’s very, very difficult to block coverage,” he said.
Sutherland noted, however, that American TV stations covering the preliminary hearing agreed to notify Canadian cable providers when a news story would air about Pickton so it could be blocked from B.C. televisions.
Sutherland said such bans have the effect of cloaking courts in secrecy.
“It’s not a public trial,” he said. “It will sure prevent the public from having an opportunity to scrutinize the administration of justice.”
It’s expected that 3,500 people will be called as potential jurors this fall to pick the jury for Pickton’s first trial. Testimony is due to start Jan. 8.
The decision to separate the charges against Pickton has upset some of the families of the women he is accused of killing.
But Pat de Vries, whose daughter Sarah is among those who were severed from the indictment following Williams’ ruling Wednesday, said she agrees with the decision.
She said the move “makes perfect sense.”
“I think it’s a practical solution, having six rather than the 26 which is ridiculous and costs the taxpayer a hell of a lot more and would probably get mucked up,” she said from Guelph, Ont., where she lives.
DelBigio said the severing of charges in a complex case is not common, though it is done sometimes to ensure an accused gets a fair trial.
“The (Pickton) case is uncommon,” he said.
“The severing of charges is not a day-to-day occurrence but it is an established remedy that a judge can grant on very broad grounds simply when the interests of justice require the severance of counts,” he said.
“When a case is long and complex and before a jury, there is always a concern that you’re going to lose jurors or that jurors might be unable to appreciate the significance of all of the evidence or properly apply the law to all of the evidence.”
© The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press
Thursday, August 10, 2006
VANCOUVER -- If accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces more than one trial on charges he killed 26 women, there’s a good chance the public won’t find out the details of the case for years, legal experts say.
Pickton is scheduled to stand trial in January, but a judge may decide the case should be subject to a publication ban if there are plans for later trials, they say. The first trial alone is expected to take a year.
Vancouver media lawyer David Sutherland says the possibility of a publication ban is “very high.”
“As soon as there was a suggestion that some counts be split and tried first, there was an obvious expectation on the part of Crown and defence that there will be a publication ban cloaking the entire first trial with secrecy,” Sutherland said.
“That is not beneficial because publicity improves trials, holds witnesses to acount and allows others to come forward if evidence needs to be rebutted or qualified.”
Justice James Williams released a ruling Wednesday concluding that trying Pickton on 26 counts of murder all at once would be too much for jurors to comprehend and would drag the case on needlessly.
Williams suggested the Crown proceed on six counts at first but did not rule out trying Pickton on the remaining 20 at a later time.
Crown spokesman Geoffrey Gaul, however, said it would be premature at this stage to discuss whether a ban would be sought in a first trial for Pickton.
“We’re going to have to wait and see what happens at the beginning of the trial. If defence wish to have a publication ban, they can bring on a motion. Crown will have to consider that issue and the court will also.
“We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Gaul said it has not been determined which of the 26 murder counts Pickton will face when he goes on trial Jan. 8, nor is there a timeline for any subsequent trials.
Pickton’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Sutherland said when there are multiple accused facing separate trials or one accused facing multiple charges as Pickton is, the likelihood of a publication ban on a trial is not unheard of.
For example, a publication ban was ordered on the trial of Karla Homolka in order to prevent tainting a potential jury pool for the trial of her school-girl-killer husband, Paul Bernardo, in 1994.
Only Canadian reporters were allowed to cover Homolka’s trial. American reporters were barred from the court because they would not be covered by a judge’s order, Sutherland said.
Vancouver lawyer Greg DelBigio, acting chair of the national criminal section for the Canadian Bar Association, said the defence could have a very real concern that Pickton might not be able to get a fair second trial with a jury should he be convicted in a first trial.
“There is always a concern of that sort and that would have to be assessed by the defence lawyers at the time of the second trial,” DelBigio said.
Sweeping bans have covered all court proceedings in the case to this point so as not to taint the pool of potential jurors.
However, Sutherland said the publication bans in the Pickton case have already been breached after several American media outlets allegedly reported details from the preliminary hearing.
While Judge David Stone extended the preliminary hearing publication ban to the Internet, Sutherland questioned whether a Canadian judge has such jurisdiction.
“If the New York Times or the Associated Press wants to cover the William Pickton trial, it’s very, very difficult to block coverage,” he said.
Sutherland noted, however, that American TV stations covering the preliminary hearing agreed to notify Canadian cable providers when a news story would air about Pickton so it could be blocked from B.C. televisions.
Sutherland said such bans have the effect of cloaking courts in secrecy.
“It’s not a public trial,” he said. “It will sure prevent the public from having an opportunity to scrutinize the administration of justice.”
It’s expected that 3,500 people will be called as potential jurors this fall to pick the jury for Pickton’s first trial. Testimony is due to start Jan. 8.
The decision to separate the charges against Pickton has upset some of the families of the women he is accused of killing.
But Pat de Vries, whose daughter Sarah is among those who were severed from the indictment following Williams’ ruling Wednesday, said she agrees with the decision.
She said the move “makes perfect sense.”
“I think it’s a practical solution, having six rather than the 26 which is ridiculous and costs the taxpayer a hell of a lot more and would probably get mucked up,” she said from Guelph, Ont., where she lives.
DelBigio said the severing of charges in a complex case is not common, though it is done sometimes to ensure an accused gets a fair trial.
“The (Pickton) case is uncommon,” he said.
“The severing of charges is not a day-to-day occurrence but it is an established remedy that a judge can grant on very broad grounds simply when the interests of justice require the severance of counts,” he said.
“When a case is long and complex and before a jury, there is always a concern that you’re going to lose jurors or that jurors might be unable to appreciate the significance of all of the evidence or properly apply the law to all of the evidence.”
© The Canadian Press
Judge orders two trials for Pickton to avoid mistrial
Deciding on 26 counts of murder too much for one jury
Neal Hall, with a file from Miro Cernetig in Victoria
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The case involving Canada's alleged worst serial killer will not proceed as one large trial but as two separate trials, the trial judge ruled Wednesday.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams decided a trial involving an unprecedented 26 counts of first-degree murder would be too much of a burden on the jury who will hear the case against Robert (Willie) Pickton.
Pickton's lawyer, Peter Ritchie, said earlier this year that the "epic" murder trial could last for two years, which the defence felt was too long for a jury.
The judge had the same concern, deciding to trim 20 counts from the current indictment, dividing it into two trials. The Crown hasn't decided which trial will start first -- the six-count trial or the 20-count trial.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance from the present indictment," the judge said in a three-paragraph summary of Wednesday's ruling.
Williams added he was concerned "that proceeding to trial on the indictment as it is presently constituted will impose an unreasonable burden upon the members of the jury in terms of the anticipated duration of the trial, the volume and nature of the evidence, and the complexity of the legal tasks that this case will require of them."
The judge said he recognized that "some inconveniences will result from this order. However, the proper exercise of my discretion to maximize the likelihood that this trial will proceed properly to verdict without mistrial makes necessary an order for severance."
Williams ordered that Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 and 16 -- the charges related to the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Faith Papin -- be heard as a separate trial.
"The evidence in support of those counts is materially different than that with respect to the others such that it justifies this outcome," the judge noted.
"It is important to understand that this order does not in any way bar the prosecution of the severed counts," he added.
"Each count will be permitted to proceed. The effect of this order is simply to require that the matter be dealt with in separate trials rather than one large trial."
A 12-person jury is selected for a criminal trial but the longer the trial proceeds increases the likelihood that jurors will be forced to drop out due to health or family problems.
Once two jurors are excused from a jury, a mistrial could be declared, which would result in a new trial.
Unlike the United States, alternate jurors cannot replace jurors once a trial begins.
Geoff Gaul, a spokesman for the B.C. Crown's criminal justice branch, said Wednesday's ruling did not reflect on the strength of the prosecution's evidence against Pickton.
"What is vitally important to understand is that the court has not ruled that any of the 26 counts should not proceed; that any of those counts are not worthy of prosecution," he said. "All 26 counts remain very active."
Gaul said the team of prosecutors handling the Pickton case have not decided which trial will proceed first.
"It will be for the prosecution to decide whether the six proceed first or whether the 20 counts that have been severed will proceed first," he said. "And that's a decision we will make in the coming days."
Still, the decision is expected to lengthen the trial proceedings, which began earlier this year but have been subject to a sweeping ban on publication in order to protect Pickton's right to a fair jury trial.
The actual trial before a jury isn't expected to begin until later this year or early next year. The first trial could last for a year or more. The second trial may be shorter because of evidence already established at the first trial.
Pickton was originally charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder, but one count involving an unknown woman -- identified on the indictment as simply Jane Doe -- was earlier stayed by the trial judge, who is a former criminal defence lawyer and RCMP officer.
Pickton, who co-owned a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, is accused of killing 26 women who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside.
The remaining 20 counts include the first-degree murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Lynn Furminger, Helen Mae Hallmark, Patricia Rose Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, Inga Hall, Tiffany Drew, Sarah Devries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Debra Lynne Jones, Wendy Crawford, Kerry Koski, Andrea Borhaven and Cara Ellis.
"I'm furious," said Marilyn Craft of Calgary, who reported her daughter Cynthia Feliks missing nine years ago.
"I'm going to be dead before I see any justice," said the 62-year-old. "I'm sick of it. I can see it taking another year if they take the six first."
If Pickton is convicted at his first trial, Craft is worried that the Crown won't proceed with a second trial.
"I cannot see them spending money on another trial," she said. "We have no say in it, that's what is frustrating."
Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn went missing from the Downtown Eastside -- though no charge was laid against Pickton -- said of the judge's ruling: "It sounds like he's trying to expedite things. That sort of shortens the horizon."
nhall@png.canwest.com
Other alleged victims of Robert Pickton
THE REMAINING 20 COUNTS AGAINST ROBERT PICKTON INCLUDE THE FIRST-DEGREE MURDERS OF:
- Jacqueline McDonell, who was last seen in January 1999.
- Diane Rock. Last seen: October 2001.
- Heather Bottomley. Last seen: April 2001.
- Jennifer Lynn Furminger. Last seen: December 1999.
- Helen Mae Hallmark. Last seen: October 1997.
- Patricia Rose Johnson. Last seen: March 2001.
- Heather Chinnock. Last seen: April 2001.
- Tanya Holyk. Last seen: October 1996.
- Sherry Irving. Last seen: April 1997.
- Inga Hall. Last seen: February 1998.
- Tiffany Drew. Last seen: March 2000.
- Sarah Devries. Last seen: April 1998.
- Cynthia Feliks. Last seen: December 1997.
- Angela Jardine. Last seen: November 1998.
- Diana Melnick. Last seen: December 1995.
- Debra Lynne Jones. Last seen: December 2000.
- Wendy Crawford. Last seen: December 1999.
- Kerry Koski. Last seen: January 1998.
- Andrea Borhaven. Last seen: March 1997.
- Cara Ellis. Last seen: January 1997.
MORE THAN STATISTICS: MISSING WOMEN HAD REAL LIVES, CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND FRIENDS
GEORGINA FAITH PAPIN, 38, was a mother of five who vanished from the Downtown Eastside in 1999. In September 2002, members of the RCMP-Vancouver Police missing women's task force visited Papin's brothers Rick and George to confirm her remains had been found on the Pickton farm.
Elaine Allan, a former co-ordinator at a drop-in centre for sex trade workers, said Papin was well liked.
"She was just so well respected. People just always said the nicest things about Georgina -- she was fun, she was beautiful, she was kind, everyone loved her," she said in an earlier interview. "From the time she went missing, everyone just talked about it because she was so popular."
Papin's brother Rick, who gave a blood sample so police could match his DNA to his sister's, said she had a troubled life growing up in Alberta, moving around between foster homes, group homes and a residential school.
Papin was one of 10 children to be taken away from her parents. She started taking drugs and began working in the sex trade when she was only 11.
In her 20s, Papin moved to Las Vegas where she worked in a restaurant by day and on the streets at night to support her first child. When she moved back to B.C., she had four more children.
The last time Rick saw his sister was in February 1999, when she was living with a boyfriend in Mission. Weeks later, she was dropped off at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre on East Hastings and never seen again.
Pamela Fayerman
SEREENA ABOTSWAY, 29 when she was reported missing on Aug. 1, 2001, was one of the first women whose remains were identified after police began searching the Pickton farm.
Her uncle, Albert Abotsway, said his niece's parents were separated and both died young, her father of a drug overdose on the Downtown Eastside.
Abotsway lived in foster homes and got involved with drugs, prostitution and jail as a teenager.
At her memorial service in March of 2002, friends and family remembered her as a bubbly, outgoing young woman with a big heart and a roaring laugh, despite her troubled childhood.
Her one-time priest, James Comey, said at the time that she loved to sing, "not always on key. I remember her as a happy child, very outgoing, very affectionate."
Abotsway was removed from foster parents Bert and Anna Draayers' home at age 17 when she became violent. The Draayers say she was placed, against their advice, in a group home with street-wise teens and ended up hooked on drugs and working in the sex trade.
Near the end, her friends said, she had been worried she would share the fate of other women missing from the Downtown Eastside.
In her final years, she went through a full-immersion baptism in Burrard Inlet and her pastor, Randy Barnetson, said she was trying to turn her life around.
When Abotsway disappeared, there was a warrant out for her arrest on a charge of stealing chocolate bars.
Bill Boei
MONA WILSON was among the last women to go missing from the Downtown Eastside, and her murder was one of the first with which Robert (Willie) Pickton was charged.
Wilson was 26 when she was last seen by friends on Nov. 23, 2001 and was reported missing a week later. Her family realized something was wrong one month later. It was the first time she hadn't joined the family or at least called at Christmas.
Her sister Ada recalls Wilson as a dreamer, the youngest of five siblings who still believed in unicorns even as she grew up and became addicted to heroin.
One of her school teachers, Joanna Lundy, said Wilson had struggled to overcome a troubled past that included abuse.
She had pleaded guilty to shoplifting and was sentenced to 30 days in jail a few months before disappearing.
ELAINE ALLAN, who worked in a Downtown Eastside drop-in centre for sex trade workers, described Wilson as a very sweet young woman who had experienced a lot of violence. She wanted to kick her serious drug problem but couldn't get a space in a treatment centre.
"She was firmly entrenched in the survival sex trade," Allan said in a previous interview. "She was such a sweetheart. She had been out on the street for a long time."
Her boyfriend, Steve Rix, said the two of them had shared an apartment for two months before she went missing.
"We had a nice place," he said previously. "A warm apartment in a basement suite with a nice bed and TV. We weren't homeless."
Bill Boei
ANDREA JOESBURY was just 23 -- a beautiful young woman with blond hair and an engaging smile -- when her doctor reported her missing in June 2001 after she stopped picking up her methadone treatments.
Joesbury was born in the Lower Mainland. Her grandfather, Jack Cummer, said she had an abusive father, and lived at times with her grandparents in Nanoose Bay.
She was a moody and disruptive teenager and struggled in school.
"She went to Vancouver because she was looking for love," Cummer said in an earlier interview. "And she found this guy, and she fell in love with him. She was a young, naive girl -- 16 years old -- not knowing what's going on.
"Eventually she phoned and let me know he was 15 or 20 years older than she was, so it gave her two things: A man she loved and a father figure. But she was put on the streets because he was a drug dealer."
Her heroin addiction escalated after her baby daughter was seized from her, said her mother, Karin Joesbury.
The baby was adopted but Joesbury had been talking about trying to get her back.
Friends said she would go to the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam to party.
She stopped calling family members in June 2001, and early in 2002, police said her remains had been found on the farm.
Karin Joesbury has filed a civil lawsuit over her daughter's death.
Bill Boei
BRENDA ANN WOLFE was born in Pincher Creek, Alta., on Oct. 20, 1968 and was last seen in February 1999 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where she worked in the sex trade.
She frequented the Women's Information Safe House drop-in centre where workers remembered her as a sweet individual.
Like most other victims, Wolfe struggled with addictions. She was not reported missing until April 2000.
In May 2002, her boyfriend and relatives were told that her remains were found on the Pickton farm.
Pickton was charged with Wolfe's murder on May 22, 2002. The indictment lists the date range of her death as sometime between March 5, 1999 and February 5, 2002.
Pamela Fayerman
MARNIE FREY liked the simple things in life, like spending time with her grandmother at her home on the banks of the Campbell River.
She loved small animals and helping others. She was one of 63 women -- most of them prostitutes -- who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Like many of Robert (Willy) Pickton's other alleged victims, Frey struggled with addiction problems. Thirteen years ago, when she was only 18, she gave birth to a daughter who was raised and adopted by her parents. Frey vanished in August 1997 and it wasn't until the fall of 2002 when her remains were found on Pickton's farm.
RCMP Inspector Don Adam went to the Campbell River home of Frey's parents to break the news. Her mother, Lynn, said the news only brought more anger, not closure. She had walked the streets of the downtown area for years trying to find her daughter.
Family lawyer James Hormoth said Lynne kept receiving tips about the Pickton farm but, when she turned them in to the police, they didn't act.
At a memorial service held in December 2002, attended by about 150 people, former Campbell River mayor Jim Lornie read a message from Frey's father, Rick, calling her a "carefree, loving girl."
United Church Reverend Bill Rasmus also said at the time that family members told him Frey was so giving, "she would take her shoes off and give them to someone else and walk home barefoot."
Frey's mother Lynne said her granddaughter has been preparing a victim impact statement for the trial.
Pamela Fayerman
Profiles of Georgina Faith Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Elaine Allan, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Marnie Frey. Ran with fact boxes "The remaining 20 counts against Robert Pickton include the first-degree murders of:" and "More than statistics: Missing women had real lives, children, families and friends", which have been appended to the end of the story.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Neal Hall, with a file from Miro Cernetig in Victoria
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The case involving Canada's alleged worst serial killer will not proceed as one large trial but as two separate trials, the trial judge ruled Wednesday.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams decided a trial involving an unprecedented 26 counts of first-degree murder would be too much of a burden on the jury who will hear the case against Robert (Willie) Pickton.
Pickton's lawyer, Peter Ritchie, said earlier this year that the "epic" murder trial could last for two years, which the defence felt was too long for a jury.
The judge had the same concern, deciding to trim 20 counts from the current indictment, dividing it into two trials. The Crown hasn't decided which trial will start first -- the six-count trial or the 20-count trial.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance from the present indictment," the judge said in a three-paragraph summary of Wednesday's ruling.
Williams added he was concerned "that proceeding to trial on the indictment as it is presently constituted will impose an unreasonable burden upon the members of the jury in terms of the anticipated duration of the trial, the volume and nature of the evidence, and the complexity of the legal tasks that this case will require of them."
The judge said he recognized that "some inconveniences will result from this order. However, the proper exercise of my discretion to maximize the likelihood that this trial will proceed properly to verdict without mistrial makes necessary an order for severance."
Williams ordered that Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 and 16 -- the charges related to the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Faith Papin -- be heard as a separate trial.
"The evidence in support of those counts is materially different than that with respect to the others such that it justifies this outcome," the judge noted.
"It is important to understand that this order does not in any way bar the prosecution of the severed counts," he added.
"Each count will be permitted to proceed. The effect of this order is simply to require that the matter be dealt with in separate trials rather than one large trial."
A 12-person jury is selected for a criminal trial but the longer the trial proceeds increases the likelihood that jurors will be forced to drop out due to health or family problems.
Once two jurors are excused from a jury, a mistrial could be declared, which would result in a new trial.
Unlike the United States, alternate jurors cannot replace jurors once a trial begins.
Geoff Gaul, a spokesman for the B.C. Crown's criminal justice branch, said Wednesday's ruling did not reflect on the strength of the prosecution's evidence against Pickton.
"What is vitally important to understand is that the court has not ruled that any of the 26 counts should not proceed; that any of those counts are not worthy of prosecution," he said. "All 26 counts remain very active."
Gaul said the team of prosecutors handling the Pickton case have not decided which trial will proceed first.
"It will be for the prosecution to decide whether the six proceed first or whether the 20 counts that have been severed will proceed first," he said. "And that's a decision we will make in the coming days."
Still, the decision is expected to lengthen the trial proceedings, which began earlier this year but have been subject to a sweeping ban on publication in order to protect Pickton's right to a fair jury trial.
The actual trial before a jury isn't expected to begin until later this year or early next year. The first trial could last for a year or more. The second trial may be shorter because of evidence already established at the first trial.
Pickton was originally charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder, but one count involving an unknown woman -- identified on the indictment as simply Jane Doe -- was earlier stayed by the trial judge, who is a former criminal defence lawyer and RCMP officer.
Pickton, who co-owned a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, is accused of killing 26 women who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside.
The remaining 20 counts include the first-degree murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Lynn Furminger, Helen Mae Hallmark, Patricia Rose Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, Inga Hall, Tiffany Drew, Sarah Devries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Debra Lynne Jones, Wendy Crawford, Kerry Koski, Andrea Borhaven and Cara Ellis.
"I'm furious," said Marilyn Craft of Calgary, who reported her daughter Cynthia Feliks missing nine years ago.
"I'm going to be dead before I see any justice," said the 62-year-old. "I'm sick of it. I can see it taking another year if they take the six first."
If Pickton is convicted at his first trial, Craft is worried that the Crown won't proceed with a second trial.
"I cannot see them spending money on another trial," she said. "We have no say in it, that's what is frustrating."
Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn went missing from the Downtown Eastside -- though no charge was laid against Pickton -- said of the judge's ruling: "It sounds like he's trying to expedite things. That sort of shortens the horizon."
nhall@png.canwest.com
Other alleged victims of Robert Pickton
THE REMAINING 20 COUNTS AGAINST ROBERT PICKTON INCLUDE THE FIRST-DEGREE MURDERS OF:
- Jacqueline McDonell, who was last seen in January 1999.
- Diane Rock. Last seen: October 2001.
- Heather Bottomley. Last seen: April 2001.
- Jennifer Lynn Furminger. Last seen: December 1999.
- Helen Mae Hallmark. Last seen: October 1997.
- Patricia Rose Johnson. Last seen: March 2001.
- Heather Chinnock. Last seen: April 2001.
- Tanya Holyk. Last seen: October 1996.
- Sherry Irving. Last seen: April 1997.
- Inga Hall. Last seen: February 1998.
- Tiffany Drew. Last seen: March 2000.
- Sarah Devries. Last seen: April 1998.
- Cynthia Feliks. Last seen: December 1997.
- Angela Jardine. Last seen: November 1998.
- Diana Melnick. Last seen: December 1995.
- Debra Lynne Jones. Last seen: December 2000.
- Wendy Crawford. Last seen: December 1999.
- Kerry Koski. Last seen: January 1998.
- Andrea Borhaven. Last seen: March 1997.
- Cara Ellis. Last seen: January 1997.
MORE THAN STATISTICS: MISSING WOMEN HAD REAL LIVES, CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND FRIENDS
GEORGINA FAITH PAPIN, 38, was a mother of five who vanished from the Downtown Eastside in 1999. In September 2002, members of the RCMP-Vancouver Police missing women's task force visited Papin's brothers Rick and George to confirm her remains had been found on the Pickton farm.
Elaine Allan, a former co-ordinator at a drop-in centre for sex trade workers, said Papin was well liked.
"She was just so well respected. People just always said the nicest things about Georgina -- she was fun, she was beautiful, she was kind, everyone loved her," she said in an earlier interview. "From the time she went missing, everyone just talked about it because she was so popular."
Papin's brother Rick, who gave a blood sample so police could match his DNA to his sister's, said she had a troubled life growing up in Alberta, moving around between foster homes, group homes and a residential school.
Papin was one of 10 children to be taken away from her parents. She started taking drugs and began working in the sex trade when she was only 11.
In her 20s, Papin moved to Las Vegas where she worked in a restaurant by day and on the streets at night to support her first child. When she moved back to B.C., she had four more children.
The last time Rick saw his sister was in February 1999, when she was living with a boyfriend in Mission. Weeks later, she was dropped off at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre on East Hastings and never seen again.
Pamela Fayerman
SEREENA ABOTSWAY, 29 when she was reported missing on Aug. 1, 2001, was one of the first women whose remains were identified after police began searching the Pickton farm.
Her uncle, Albert Abotsway, said his niece's parents were separated and both died young, her father of a drug overdose on the Downtown Eastside.
Abotsway lived in foster homes and got involved with drugs, prostitution and jail as a teenager.
At her memorial service in March of 2002, friends and family remembered her as a bubbly, outgoing young woman with a big heart and a roaring laugh, despite her troubled childhood.
Her one-time priest, James Comey, said at the time that she loved to sing, "not always on key. I remember her as a happy child, very outgoing, very affectionate."
Abotsway was removed from foster parents Bert and Anna Draayers' home at age 17 when she became violent. The Draayers say she was placed, against their advice, in a group home with street-wise teens and ended up hooked on drugs and working in the sex trade.
Near the end, her friends said, she had been worried she would share the fate of other women missing from the Downtown Eastside.
In her final years, she went through a full-immersion baptism in Burrard Inlet and her pastor, Randy Barnetson, said she was trying to turn her life around.
When Abotsway disappeared, there was a warrant out for her arrest on a charge of stealing chocolate bars.
Bill Boei
MONA WILSON was among the last women to go missing from the Downtown Eastside, and her murder was one of the first with which Robert (Willie) Pickton was charged.
Wilson was 26 when she was last seen by friends on Nov. 23, 2001 and was reported missing a week later. Her family realized something was wrong one month later. It was the first time she hadn't joined the family or at least called at Christmas.
Her sister Ada recalls Wilson as a dreamer, the youngest of five siblings who still believed in unicorns even as she grew up and became addicted to heroin.
One of her school teachers, Joanna Lundy, said Wilson had struggled to overcome a troubled past that included abuse.
She had pleaded guilty to shoplifting and was sentenced to 30 days in jail a few months before disappearing.
ELAINE ALLAN, who worked in a Downtown Eastside drop-in centre for sex trade workers, described Wilson as a very sweet young woman who had experienced a lot of violence. She wanted to kick her serious drug problem but couldn't get a space in a treatment centre.
"She was firmly entrenched in the survival sex trade," Allan said in a previous interview. "She was such a sweetheart. She had been out on the street for a long time."
Her boyfriend, Steve Rix, said the two of them had shared an apartment for two months before she went missing.
"We had a nice place," he said previously. "A warm apartment in a basement suite with a nice bed and TV. We weren't homeless."
Bill Boei
ANDREA JOESBURY was just 23 -- a beautiful young woman with blond hair and an engaging smile -- when her doctor reported her missing in June 2001 after she stopped picking up her methadone treatments.
Joesbury was born in the Lower Mainland. Her grandfather, Jack Cummer, said she had an abusive father, and lived at times with her grandparents in Nanoose Bay.
She was a moody and disruptive teenager and struggled in school.
"She went to Vancouver because she was looking for love," Cummer said in an earlier interview. "And she found this guy, and she fell in love with him. She was a young, naive girl -- 16 years old -- not knowing what's going on.
"Eventually she phoned and let me know he was 15 or 20 years older than she was, so it gave her two things: A man she loved and a father figure. But she was put on the streets because he was a drug dealer."
Her heroin addiction escalated after her baby daughter was seized from her, said her mother, Karin Joesbury.
The baby was adopted but Joesbury had been talking about trying to get her back.
Friends said she would go to the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam to party.
She stopped calling family members in June 2001, and early in 2002, police said her remains had been found on the farm.
Karin Joesbury has filed a civil lawsuit over her daughter's death.
Bill Boei
BRENDA ANN WOLFE was born in Pincher Creek, Alta., on Oct. 20, 1968 and was last seen in February 1999 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where she worked in the sex trade.
She frequented the Women's Information Safe House drop-in centre where workers remembered her as a sweet individual.
Like most other victims, Wolfe struggled with addictions. She was not reported missing until April 2000.
In May 2002, her boyfriend and relatives were told that her remains were found on the Pickton farm.
Pickton was charged with Wolfe's murder on May 22, 2002. The indictment lists the date range of her death as sometime between March 5, 1999 and February 5, 2002.
Pamela Fayerman
MARNIE FREY liked the simple things in life, like spending time with her grandmother at her home on the banks of the Campbell River.
She loved small animals and helping others. She was one of 63 women -- most of them prostitutes -- who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Like many of Robert (Willy) Pickton's other alleged victims, Frey struggled with addiction problems. Thirteen years ago, when she was only 18, she gave birth to a daughter who was raised and adopted by her parents. Frey vanished in August 1997 and it wasn't until the fall of 2002 when her remains were found on Pickton's farm.
RCMP Inspector Don Adam went to the Campbell River home of Frey's parents to break the news. Her mother, Lynn, said the news only brought more anger, not closure. She had walked the streets of the downtown area for years trying to find her daughter.
Family lawyer James Hormoth said Lynne kept receiving tips about the Pickton farm but, when she turned them in to the police, they didn't act.
At a memorial service held in December 2002, attended by about 150 people, former Campbell River mayor Jim Lornie read a message from Frey's father, Rick, calling her a "carefree, loving girl."
United Church Reverend Bill Rasmus also said at the time that family members told him Frey was so giving, "she would take her shoes off and give them to someone else and walk home barefoot."
Frey's mother Lynne said her granddaughter has been preparing a victim impact statement for the trial.
Pamela Fayerman
Profiles of Georgina Faith Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Elaine Allan, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Marnie Frey. Ran with fact boxes "The remaining 20 counts against Robert Pickton include the first-degree murders of:" and "More than statistics: Missing women had real lives, children, families and friends", which have been appended to the end of the story.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Wednesday, August 9
Judge orders Robert Pickton to be tried on six murder counts, not 26
Terri Theodore
Canadian Press
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - Accused serial killer Robert Pickton will be tried on six counts of murder, not 26, after a judge concluded trying all the counts would pose an unreasonable burden on a jury.
Justice James Williams said in a ruling Wednesday his decision to separate the six counts from the rest of the case does not prevent Pickton from being tried on the remaining 20 counts later.
Williams noted the length of the trial and the volume of evidence as the reasons for his ruling.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment," Williams wrote.
He said the evidence in support of the six counts is materially different than the evidence supporting the other 20, another justification to sever.
"One trial will proceed on those six counts The balance will be tried separately," he wrote.
The defence had said in May that it could take two years to try Pickton on the 26 counts. Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie said then that such a long trial "gives rise to some very serious issues about a jury."
In June, Pickton elected to be tried by a jury, though he had the option of a trial presided by a judge alone.
Pickton will now be tried starting in January for the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
He has been in custody since February 2002 on charges of murdering prostitutes who disappeared from the city's notorious Downtown Eastside.
The court ordered testimony in the trial to begin Jan. 8 following a month-long process to pick 12 jurors.
It's expected 3,500 people will be called for jury duty. In a normal murder case, only 500 would be called.
Legal experts have speculated the people most likely able to sit as jurors for such a long trial are people who are retired or government employees who can collect regular salary.
His trial began in January with arguments that are being heard under a sweeping publication ban.
The other 20 women who will now be removed from the indictment against Pickton are: Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Kerry Koski, Wendy Crawford, Debra Lynne Jones, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Furminger, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.
© The Canadian Press 2006
Canadian Press
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - Accused serial killer Robert Pickton will be tried on six counts of murder, not 26, after a judge concluded trying all the counts would pose an unreasonable burden on a jury.
Justice James Williams said in a ruling Wednesday his decision to separate the six counts from the rest of the case does not prevent Pickton from being tried on the remaining 20 counts later.
Williams noted the length of the trial and the volume of evidence as the reasons for his ruling.
"I am satisfied that the interests of justice require severance of counts from the present indictment," Williams wrote.
He said the evidence in support of the six counts is materially different than the evidence supporting the other 20, another justification to sever.
"One trial will proceed on those six counts The balance will be tried separately," he wrote.
The defence had said in May that it could take two years to try Pickton on the 26 counts. Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie said then that such a long trial "gives rise to some very serious issues about a jury."
In June, Pickton elected to be tried by a jury, though he had the option of a trial presided by a judge alone.
Pickton will now be tried starting in January for the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
He has been in custody since February 2002 on charges of murdering prostitutes who disappeared from the city's notorious Downtown Eastside.
The court ordered testimony in the trial to begin Jan. 8 following a month-long process to pick 12 jurors.
It's expected 3,500 people will be called for jury duty. In a normal murder case, only 500 would be called.
Legal experts have speculated the people most likely able to sit as jurors for such a long trial are people who are retired or government employees who can collect regular salary.
His trial began in January with arguments that are being heard under a sweeping publication ban.
The other 20 women who will now be removed from the indictment against Pickton are: Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Kerry Koski, Wendy Crawford, Debra Lynne Jones, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Furminger, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.
© The Canadian Press 2006
Missing - Debbie Slee
Jane Kolompar, last saw her sister Debbie on a visit to Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1994. At that time she was living with Mr. Jim Potter who is the father of her two children, Amanda and Scully. Debbie Slee left Niagara Falls in the late 1980s. Jane last talked with her sister by phone in 2001. Debbie was in Victoria, British Columbia at that time and Jane was in Nanaimo.
Debbie has always worn her hair long.
Hair Colour: dirty blonde
Height: approx 5'5"
Debbie may have diabetes and was last living in low income housing
and was on a methadone maintenance program through an Outreach
facility at the time of her last contact with Jane in 2001.
If you have any information on Debbie Slee, please contact:
Jane at: search_slee@ hotmail.com or Hazel at: hazel8500@hotmail.com
Photo of Debbie at the following links.
Missing Debbie Slee
http://www.missingpeople.net/missing_debbie_slee.htm
Seeking Debbie Slee
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/seeking-debbie-slee-your-sister-loves-you-and-wants-to-know-you-are-okay/
Debbie has always worn her hair long.
Hair Colour: dirty blonde
Height: approx 5'5"
Debbie may have diabetes and was last living in low income housing
and was on a methadone maintenance program through an Outreach
facility at the time of her last contact with Jane in 2001.
If you have any information on Debbie Slee, please contact:
Jane at: search_slee@ hotmail.com or Hazel at: hazel8500@hotmail.com
Photo of Debbie at the following links.
Missing Debbie Slee
http://www.missingpeople.net/missing_debbie_slee.htm
Seeking Debbie Slee
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/seeking-debbie-slee-your-sister-loves-you-and-wants-to-know-you-are-okay/
Tuesday, August 8
7 women's stories told - Book recounts rising above rough lives
Canadian Press
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
A book of the life stories of seven women who have triumphed over addiction, poverty and illness on Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside has won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in B.C. Writing and Publishing.
Leslie Robertson and Dara Culhane compiled In Plain Sight: Reflections On Life In Downtown Eastside Vancouver in an attempt to counter what they saw as the misconceptions that surround Vancouver's inner city.
"Readers will have found neither the idealized nor demonized images of the junkie, the prostitute, the underclass hero, the victimized woman, the AIDS sufferer, or the homeless aboriginal woman in these accounts," the editors say in the afterword.
"Rather than these conventionalized figures," they write, "you will have met seven women exhausted by their daily struggles who have, for reasons of their own, chosen to tell you their stories."
The book is gritty, at times dark and depressing, but is also pervaded by optimism, though the optimism is painted across a backdrop of mental illness, drug addiction, prostitution and desperate poverty.
One of the women whose tale is told is Anne. Sexual abuse, mental illness, trauma and poverty are threads woven through a life in which she is trying to raise a child alone. The father is long gone, a heroin addict somewhere.
"I don't know if our stories will help," writes Anne, "but that's my hope. I need to leave my child a better place to live in. If I don't actively work in my community to change things and make them better, even to some small degree, then I believe that, as a parent, I have failed."
Ken Smedley runs the George Ryga Centre in Summerland.
He said the women portrayed in In Plain Sight are the kind of people with whom Ryga, who died in 1987, could easily have sat down and enjoyed a long conversation over coffee.
He said the book displays the "multidimensionality" of people often discarded by society as down-and-outs and losers.
"It was so much of what [Ryga] represented in all of his work," Smedley said, "the disenfranchised and the marginalized.
"This piece was representative of that kind of multidimensionality," Smedley said. "Things have not looked up for that segment of the population."
Among previous winners of the award is Maggie De Vries for Missing Sarah, the author's story of her sister who vanished into the Downtown Eastside. Sarah De Vries's DNA was later found at the farm of accused serial killer Robert William Pickton.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
A book of the life stories of seven women who have triumphed over addiction, poverty and illness on Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside has won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in B.C. Writing and Publishing.
Leslie Robertson and Dara Culhane compiled In Plain Sight: Reflections On Life In Downtown Eastside Vancouver in an attempt to counter what they saw as the misconceptions that surround Vancouver's inner city.
"Readers will have found neither the idealized nor demonized images of the junkie, the prostitute, the underclass hero, the victimized woman, the AIDS sufferer, or the homeless aboriginal woman in these accounts," the editors say in the afterword.
"Rather than these conventionalized figures," they write, "you will have met seven women exhausted by their daily struggles who have, for reasons of their own, chosen to tell you their stories."
The book is gritty, at times dark and depressing, but is also pervaded by optimism, though the optimism is painted across a backdrop of mental illness, drug addiction, prostitution and desperate poverty.
One of the women whose tale is told is Anne. Sexual abuse, mental illness, trauma and poverty are threads woven through a life in which she is trying to raise a child alone. The father is long gone, a heroin addict somewhere.
"I don't know if our stories will help," writes Anne, "but that's my hope. I need to leave my child a better place to live in. If I don't actively work in my community to change things and make them better, even to some small degree, then I believe that, as a parent, I have failed."
Ken Smedley runs the George Ryga Centre in Summerland.
He said the women portrayed in In Plain Sight are the kind of people with whom Ryga, who died in 1987, could easily have sat down and enjoyed a long conversation over coffee.
He said the book displays the "multidimensionality" of people often discarded by society as down-and-outs and losers.
"It was so much of what [Ryga] represented in all of his work," Smedley said, "the disenfranchised and the marginalized.
"This piece was representative of that kind of multidimensionality," Smedley said. "Things have not looked up for that segment of the population."
Among previous winners of the award is Maggie De Vries for Missing Sarah, the author's story of her sister who vanished into the Downtown Eastside. Sarah De Vries's DNA was later found at the farm of accused serial killer Robert William Pickton.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
Sunday, August 6
Missing Pieces
Beginning September 5th From 8:00 Pm – 9:00 Pm, join Todd Matthews Director and Founder of Lost & Found Global Research Center on Missing Persons. The LFGR was established to provide new and existing programs for the volunteers sectors to assist Local and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies in the identification process of the deceased and the location of missing individuals. According to the FBI’s NCIC (National Crime Information Center), there are approximately 110,063 Missing persons listed in their system and there are approximately 6,070 Unidentified Persons listed, both children and adults.
WCANRadio.com is the proud sponsor of this much needed program for our listeners. Help us as we assist Todd Matthews with his epic journey on MISSING PIECES. For more information, visit the website at www.lfgrc.org/
WCANRadio WCANRadio.com
WCANRadio.com is the proud sponsor of this much needed program for our listeners. Help us as we assist Todd Matthews with his epic journey on MISSING PIECES. For more information, visit the website at www.lfgrc.org/
WCANRadio WCANRadio.com
Book on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside wins social awareness award
Jeremy Hainsworth
Canadian Press
Sunday, August 06, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - A book of the life stories of seven women who have triumphed over addiction, poverty and illness on Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside has won The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in B.C. Writing and Publishing.
Leslie Roberston and Dara Culhane compiled In Plain Sight: Reflections On Life In Downtown Eastside Vancouver in an attempt to counter what they saw as the misconceptions that surround Vancouver's inner city.
"Readers will have found neither the idealized nor demonized images of the junkie, the prostitute, the underclass hero, the victimized woman, the AIDS sufferer, or the homeless aboriginal woman in these accounts," the editors say in the afterword.
"Rather than these conventionalized figures," they write, "you will have met seven women exhausted by their daily struggles who have for reasons of their own, chosen to tell you their stories."
The book is gritty, at times dark and depressing, but is also pervaded by optimism, though the optimism is painted across a backdrop of mental illness, drug addiction, prostitution and desperate poverty.
One of the women whose tale is told is Anne. Sexual abuse, mental illness, trauma and poverty are threads woven through a life in which she is trying to raise a child alone. The father is long gone, a heroin addict somewhere.
"I don't know if our stories will help," writes Anne, "but that's my hope. I need to leave my child a better place to live in. If I don't actively work in my community to change things and make them better, even some to some small degree, then I believe that, as a parent, I have failed."
Ryga was a powerful advocate for recording the experiences of immigrants and indigenous peoples, his most famous work being The Ecstasy Of Rita Joe.
The work is considered a seminal Canadian play. It was first performed at the Vancouver Playhouse in 1967.
In The Ecstasy Of Rita Joe, a young aboriginal woman arrives to the city only to die there.
The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia says "the villains of the work are not so easy to pinpoint: the violence of white culture is to blame, to be sure, but so is the patriarchy of native culture."
Ken Smedley runs the George Ryga Centre in Summerland, B.C.
He said the women portrayed in In Plain Sight are the kind of people with whom Ryga, who died in 1987, could easily have sat down and enjoyed a long conversation over coffee.
He said the book displays the "multi-dimensionality" of people often discarded by society as down-outs and losers.
"It was so much of what (Ryga) represented in all of his work," Smedley said, "the disenfranchised and the marginalized.
"This piece was representative of that kind of multi-dimensionality," Smedley said. "Things have not looked up for that segment of the population."
Among previous winners of the award is Maggie De Vries for Missing Sarah, the author's story of her sister who vanished into the Downtown Eastside.
Sarah De Vries' DNA was later found at the farm of accused serial killer Robert William Pickton.
The award was presented July 27 in Vernon, B.C.
© The Canadian Press 2006
Canadian Press
Sunday, August 06, 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) - A book of the life stories of seven women who have triumphed over addiction, poverty and illness on Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside has won The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in B.C. Writing and Publishing.
Leslie Roberston and Dara Culhane compiled In Plain Sight: Reflections On Life In Downtown Eastside Vancouver in an attempt to counter what they saw as the misconceptions that surround Vancouver's inner city.
"Readers will have found neither the idealized nor demonized images of the junkie, the prostitute, the underclass hero, the victimized woman, the AIDS sufferer, or the homeless aboriginal woman in these accounts," the editors say in the afterword.
"Rather than these conventionalized figures," they write, "you will have met seven women exhausted by their daily struggles who have for reasons of their own, chosen to tell you their stories."
The book is gritty, at times dark and depressing, but is also pervaded by optimism, though the optimism is painted across a backdrop of mental illness, drug addiction, prostitution and desperate poverty.
One of the women whose tale is told is Anne. Sexual abuse, mental illness, trauma and poverty are threads woven through a life in which she is trying to raise a child alone. The father is long gone, a heroin addict somewhere.
"I don't know if our stories will help," writes Anne, "but that's my hope. I need to leave my child a better place to live in. If I don't actively work in my community to change things and make them better, even some to some small degree, then I believe that, as a parent, I have failed."
Ryga was a powerful advocate for recording the experiences of immigrants and indigenous peoples, his most famous work being The Ecstasy Of Rita Joe.
The work is considered a seminal Canadian play. It was first performed at the Vancouver Playhouse in 1967.
In The Ecstasy Of Rita Joe, a young aboriginal woman arrives to the city only to die there.
The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia says "the villains of the work are not so easy to pinpoint: the violence of white culture is to blame, to be sure, but so is the patriarchy of native culture."
Ken Smedley runs the George Ryga Centre in Summerland, B.C.
He said the women portrayed in In Plain Sight are the kind of people with whom Ryga, who died in 1987, could easily have sat down and enjoyed a long conversation over coffee.
He said the book displays the "multi-dimensionality" of people often discarded by society as down-outs and losers.
"It was so much of what (Ryga) represented in all of his work," Smedley said, "the disenfranchised and the marginalized.
"This piece was representative of that kind of multi-dimensionality," Smedley said. "Things have not looked up for that segment of the population."
Among previous winners of the award is Maggie De Vries for Missing Sarah, the author's story of her sister who vanished into the Downtown Eastside.
Sarah De Vries' DNA was later found at the farm of accused serial killer Robert William Pickton.
The award was presented July 27 in Vernon, B.C.
© The Canadian Press 2006
Thursday, August 3
67 now missing
The Province; News Services
Published: Thursday, August 03, 2006
Police have added another name to the list of women missing from the city's Downtown Eastside. They said 30-year-old Tanya Furman has been missing since July 4, when she spoke with a family member.
Furman is described as five feet four inches, 130 pounds, with a slim build and dark-brown shoulder-length hair.
There are now 67 women listed by police as missing from the Downtown Eastside.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
Published: Thursday, August 03, 2006
Police have added another name to the list of women missing from the city's Downtown Eastside. They said 30-year-old Tanya Furman has been missing since July 4, when she spoke with a family member.
Furman is described as five feet four inches, 130 pounds, with a slim build and dark-brown shoulder-length hair.
There are now 67 women listed by police as missing from the Downtown Eastside.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
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