ROBERT MATASNovember 17, 2007
Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER -- For years, everyone wanted to know what happened to the vulnerable women who were disappearing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Then details started coming out earlier this year at Robert Pickton's first-degree murder trial. Many people very quickly decided they had heard enough.
Marge Humchitt, 43, is not like that. She has spent more than 20 years as a prostitute in the gritty, drug-infested neighbourhood. Now a grandmother of two and trying to move away from her addiction and from prostitution, she decided in June to go to the Pickton trial for a week to hear what she would hear and possibly support others who were in court.
She showed up for one week, then another, then another. "After three weeks, I woke up one day and said, 'I'm doing something important.' And there I was. I've been going ever since," Ms. Humchitt said in a recent interview, sounding as surprised as anyone else that she would end up as the only person from the Downtown Eastside to sit through court proceedings day after day.
Ms. Humchitt will be back in court on Monday, when lawyer Adrian Brooks begins closing remarks to the jury from the defence. Mr. Pickton is on trial for the murder of Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
Mr. Pickton was arrested on Feb. 22, 2002. The trial began on Jan. 22, 2007. The jury heard from 98 prosecution witnesses and 30 defence witnesses over the past 10 months. The final days of the trial are expected to draw increased crowds and stepped-up security. Seats in the public gallery reserved for family members that have been empty on most days will likely be filled.
Crown counsel Mike Petrie is expected to give his closing remarks later next week. Mr. Justice James Williams's review of the evidence and instructions to the jury on the law are expected to start on Thursday. The seven men and five women on the jury will begin deliberations likely late on Nov. 26 or on Nov. 27. They will be sequestered until they reach a unanimous verdict on the six murder charges against Mr. Pickton.
The 10-month trial has marked a significant transition in Ms. Humchitt's life. She sees her time in court as part of her journey away from a life of drugs and prostitution in the Downtown Eastside. Getting up in the morning to attend the trial, listening to what happened to women like her and being ready to support others in court has become an important part of her effort to change her life.
She sees herself as a possible role model for others who are stuck in the world of drugs and prostitution. "I'm not saying look at me, look at how good I look. But I can be an inspiration," she said hesitantly, searching for words, "to show that no one has to be down there. I'm an example of someone who succeeded in leaving the street-and-drug thing behind. I'm here to give support."
She says she is there for the family members if they want to talk to her.
Ms. Humchitt has come to court daily although she is not related to any of the six women that Mr. Pickton is accused of murdering. She feels as if she may have known them and as if she was part of their families.
She listens closely to the evidence, taking it as it comes, and sometimes she feels like crying. "I'm definitely connected, as much as family can be," she said. "We all came from a similar place, from the street-and-drug thing."
At times, Ms. Humchitt feels a little uncomfortable in the courthouse. She recognizes some of the women who have been called to testify. "I see their faces. I say to myself, ohmygawd, and my head goes down, like I do not want them to see me," she said.
She stopped coming to court for a short period after a key witness tried to strike up a conversation with her in the hallway. Ms. Humchitt thought that was a bit too close. "I was not there to socialize with anybody," she said. "She was going to start saying things to me, and how was this going to end up. I left at midday and did not go back that day."
Nevertheless, she feels she had to be in the courtroom every day, even while lawyers were hashing out the finer points of the law. "I think about those things, about why am I doing this. And I see myself as the only one going there. The families are not there. Most likely they cannot sit and hear it."
By her own telling, Ms. Humchitt spent more than 20 years "drugging and partying on the streets" after she came to Vancouver from her family's home in Bella Bella, an extremely remote native community of 2,500 about 600 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
On her first visit to Vancouver, she stayed with a family member who was a prostitute and used drugs. Ms. Humchitt recalled working at a cannery and partying when she was not working. She spent the next three years exploring Western Canada, hitchhiking from Vancouver to Calgary to Edmonton and back. "It was fun," she said. "It was all partying. I would go to a bar where the bikers and drugs were."
After becoming pregnant in Winnipeg, she hitchhiked back to Vancouver. Ms. Humchitt's sister adopted her daughter at birth, while Ms. Humchitt resumed her lifestyle of drugs and prostitution. "I got so bombed on drugs," she said. "I was up and down, up and down. Usually, I was snorting crack cocaine." She tried other drugs, including heroin, but did not enjoy them as much.
Her corner was Hastings and Clark. She developed rules to survive without a pimp. She never went to work stoned. She did her dates and then got stoned, she said. She was always clean and not jumpy. And she smiled a lot. "It was my life, my way of life," Ms. Humchitt said.
She has been beaten up, knifed through the chin, raped three times and spent nights in jail, she said. She lost many valuable things to pay for her drugs.
Her experiences with police have made her cynical about whether they could be relied on to help women on the street. She recalled contacting police after a violent incident. It was a few hours before they showed up. She had the impression the police thought the incident was funny.
"They did not take my name. I told them a description of the car, of the guy. They said, okay, have a good night. This is your profession and you should expect it," Ms. Humchitt said. She recalled she was so mad, she "pulled" another date and beat him up.
But Ms. Humchitt said she does not have regrets about her time on the street. "It was fun times," she said. "I'm not kidding you. It was definitely fun."
Sometimes when she sits in court, listening to the evidence at the Pickton trial, she has flashbacks to when she sat through the trial of Sheldon Williams, who was convicted of second-degree murder for strangling Ms. Humchitt's sister, Cheryl, in 1993, after Cheryl saw Mr. Williams kill her boyfriend, Trang Lam, over a $7,000 drug debt.
She feels she was particularly well suited to helping others at the Pickton trial as a result of what she went through, with the death of her sister and Mr. Williams trial.
Mr. Williams, who was also from Bella Bella, came back to the remote northern community after the blood-soaked bodies of Cheryl Humchitt and Mr. Lam were found in 1993. Marge Humchitt remembers being at a house party in Bella Bella with Mr. Williams and suspecting that he killed her sister.
She said she drank a lot of beer that night. She did not take drugs in front of her family. "I just kept drinking. I could not drink any faster." The family later phoned the police, who asked about setting up surveillance. But that was impractical in the small island community. The family said they would tell police what he was doing and when he left the island.
Later, she brought police a picture of the suspect. As a prostitute dependent on drugs, her relations with police were not easy. "I felt like I was a bad girl, that I did something bad. The police walked in and sat down. I was nervous. I was not supposed to be scared. They were supposed to be on my side. But it was so intense."
The family in Bella Bella received a call from someone at the local airport when Mr. Williams showed up to board a flight to Vancouver. Police arrested him in Vancouver. He pleaded not guilty.
The trial is now a blur for Ms. Humchitt. She remembers being there and seeing witnesses but not much more. Mr. Williams was convicted in March, 1995, and sentenced to a mandatory life term. But he was eligible for parole after 10 years. He was back in Bella Bella last year for Christmas with his family.
Ms. Humchitt said her family left the community so they would not be there for his visit.
Cheryl's death ripped their village apart, Ms. Humchitt said. "We'll live that way for the rest of our lives and we accept that."
Her family ties have been central to her decision to change her lifestyle. She began to move away from drugs and prostitution almost two years ago, when her first granddaughter, Alivia, was born. "I partied myself out," she said, adding that she was ecstatic to be invited to be at the birth.
She was there with her daughter for two days, dope-sick all the time, she said. When she came back to Vancouver, she put herself in a shelter for a while. About a year ago, she was offered housing outside the Downtown Eastside, in the area of Broadway and Main Street.
Ms. Humchitt said she still does drugs "once in a while," but feels an instant guilt. She is doing better in breaking her dependency on prostitution. "I've given it up," she said. In her next breath she said she is still involved in the business. It has been at least three months since she pulled a date off the street, she said. "I still have a few friends. It's my bread-and-butter. But it's nothing heavy. I'm not on the street any more," she said.
Yet it is clear that Ms. Humchitt is more comfortable on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside than in a courtroom. In a recent walk-through of the neighbourhood, she pointed out where to find a hot cup of tea, a decent free meal or any drugs she wants. She exchanged greetings with numerous regulars, including her niece.
In court, Ms. Humchitt has developed her own rituals to make herself feel comfortable and help her get through the day. She likes to sit right behind Mr. Pickton, hoping to catch a glance if he looks around. He never does. But she keeps staring at him, trying through psychic power to make him feel bad.
Ms. Humchitt has a ritual for leaving the courtroom. She tries to walk through the doorway at the same time that Mr. Pickton is taken back to his cell through another doorway. "He's going to jail and I'm walking out free," she said. "I'm not saying it makes my day, but it is something that just comes to my mind."
Before the daily session begins, she sits quietly by herself in a vestibule outside the courtroom and says a brief prayer. It's not a traditional kind of prayer. She just says to herself, "I'm here, and we're going to do it now."
She then goes over to the water fountain for six sips of water, one for each of the women that Mr. Pickton is accused of murdering. "It's a little thing I do, to show respect, in memory of the six women," Ms. Humchitt said.
The six women
Sereena AbotswayShe was last seen in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in July, 2001. Her remains were found on April 4, 2002, in a freezer on the Pickton property.
Georgina PapinShe abandoned an intravenous pole in a hospital bathroom on March 21, 1999, and was not heard from afterward. An investigator in July, 2002, found a bone from Ms. Papin's hand under a platform in the slaughterhouse.
Andrea JoesburyShe was reported missing in June, 2001. Her remains were found on April 4, 2002, in the freezer that contained the remains of Ms. Abotsway.
Brenda WolfeShe last had contact with her doctor and picked up her final prescription in February, 1999. A police investigator found her remains on the Pickton property on May 5, 2002.
Mona WilsonHer common-law husband reported her missing on Nov. 30, 2001. Her remains were found on June 4, 2002, in a green garbage can in the north end of the slaughterhouse on the Pickton property.
Marnie FreyHer last contact with her stepmother, police and welfare worker was in August, 1997. An investigator on Aug. 21, 2002, found part of her jaw and three teeth on the Pickton property.
Robert MatasGlobe and Mail
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Day by day, ex-prostitute finds meaning at the trial
