Saturday, December 31

Oppal's inquiry faces major hurdles and tight deadline

Legal manoeuvring not only threatens commission's credibility, it's costing precious time and creating an opportunity for grandstanding

BY IAN MULGREW, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 31, 2011

Missing Women Commissioner Wally Oppal faces a serious hurdle this new year: His inquiry is taking too long and the legal manoeuvring is threatening its credibility.

When the former attorneygeneral was appointed in September 2010 to determine what went wrong with the investigation and initial prosecution of serial killer Robert Pickton, the provincial government wanted a report by the end of 2011.

That was overly ambitious. Oppal was granted a sixmonth extension by Victoria but after roughly two months of public hearings even he is exasperated.

"You know we can't go on forever," he complained at one point, all but throwing up his hands at the demands from the platoon of participating lawyers.

He engaged in a nasty exchange over calling more witnesses with Cameron Ward, who represents some of the families of Pickton's victims.

Oppal said no, much to Ward's displeasure.

One of his clients, a parent, snapped that Oppal might be a respected jurist and ex-cabinet minister but he was "full of s---."

And this was to be a healing process?

During the holiday break, one would hope, Oppal's staff was searching for a much-needed solution to this unseemly stasis.

Oppal must wrest control of the proceedings back from the lawyers with their oath-driven, court-nurtured bad habits.

This is not a trial, it need not proceed like a trial - Oppal can be creative. Why can't some of the witnesses come forward, tell their stories and answer a few questions as best they can without the legal rigmarole?

Too many lawyers think their job is to get someone in the box and interrogate them until they say what's wanted or until everyone gets so bored no one can remember what the issue is.

It's an epidemic within the profession where timelines are hypothetical, presentation estimates not even rough guesses and the word "urgent" all but unknown.

For some, we've already seen that this inquiry is an opportunity to grandstand and command attention.

That's what we've seen so far with the treatment of Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Doug LePard. His performance exhibited both what this inquiry can achieve, and what it threatens to become.

LePard changed his tune in his testimony and the public needed to hear that. Until now, he and the department staunchly defended its performance.

On the stand, however, Le-Pard explained and made manifest what was between the lines of his report on the Pickton case and he agreed with many criticisms - the VPD acted in a racist and indifferent manner to the disappearances of the women, many of them aboriginals, and the entire chain of command was culpable.

But he was also subjected to interminable cross-examination and too much theatrical disrespect.

Oppal made a mistake allowing a lawyer to spend hourafter-hour asking irrelevant questions about a make-believe search warrant and a charge police never considered laying, "kidnapping by fraud." It was surreal, and Oppal cannot permit any more of it.

Pickton was arrested in February 2002 after a hellish murder spree that lasted four years longer than it should have.

The public has been waiting for a decade to learn why he eluded both the VPD and the RCMP and why attempted murder charges and several specific tips did not lead to the end of his heinous activities.

Oppal has survived a storm of opposition to get the inquiry this far; it would be a great tragedy if he were unable to bring it to a reasonable and timely conclusion.

Still, a report by June 30?

At this rate, unless he reins in the lawyers, it won't be June 2012.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Friday, December 30

Cindy Louise Beck–Missing March 30, 1998

cindy beck

Justice 2011: The Mounties get a new broom and Canada gets tougher sentencing laws

BY DOUGLAS QUAN, POSTMEDIA NEWS DECEMBER 30, 2011 4:07 PM

The Mounties get a tough-talking new leader, as a harassment scandal deepens. The Harper government introduces a controversial slate of crime bills, while the courts hear arguments on the constitutionality of some old laws. And no one seemed to be able to agree on those darn crime statistics.

Photograph by: Don Healy, Leader-Post files

The Mounties get a tough-talking new leader, as a harassment scandal deepens. The Harper government introduces a controversial slate of crime bills, while the courts hear arguments on the constitutionality of some old laws. And no one seemed to be able to agree on those darn crime statistics.

Postmedia News takes a look back at some of the key crime and law enforcement-related issues and trends to emerge in 2011.

- RCMP: New leader, old problems

Bob Paulson took the helm of Canada's beleaguered national police force in late 2011 with a promise to immediately tackle claims of pervasive harassment in the workplace and to boost female representation in the senior ranks. But with a class-action lawsuit looming, the scandal may deepen in the new year.

One thing is clear: the Harper government couldn't have chosen a leader who is more different than the previous commissioner, William Elliott. Whereas Elliott was a career bureaucrat, the tough-talking Paulson has policing cred, having served in numerous roles within the force from investigating homicides to tackling organized crime to overseeing federal and international policing. He has vowed to bring swift discipline against officers who commit plain and "outrageous" misconduct.

But one area where he disagrees with some critics is the assertion that the force is stretched thin. In an interview with Postmedia News, he said: "My position is the activities we're currently engaged in — contract policing, federal policing, national police services, international policing — that's a model of policing that's the envy of the planet, frankly. So I don't agree with the proposition that has us stretched too thin."

- Controversial bills

The Harper government delivered on a promise to introduce a bundle of crime bills. Some of the more contentious parts of the mega bill were the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes, such as drug trafficking and child-sex offences, and the elimination of pardons for serious and violent repeat offenders.

Critics said the legislation placed too much emphasis on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation and reintegration. The Tories also came under attack for limiting debate on the measures, and some provinces were furious that they were going to be saddled with the costs of having to incarcerate more people. Despite the opposition, the safe streets and communities act cleared the House of Commons and is now going through the Senate.

The Tories also moved swiftly to repeal the requirement to register non-restricted firearms, calling the process wasteful and ineffective. Under the legislation, all records pertaining to long guns would be abolished from the firearms registry. People would still, however, be required to get a licence to purchase or possess firearms, and controls over restricted and prohibited firearms would remain.

Critics, including gun-control groups and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said the long-gun registry promotes accountability and getting rid of it will deprive police of an important investigative tool. Quebec has said it is prepared to go to court to block Ottawa from abolishing the long-gun records. The province says its wants to use data in the federal registry to create its own provincial long-gun registry. The bill has passed first and second reading in the House and is now before a committee.

- Key court cases

A B.C. Supreme Court justice upheld Canada's 120-year-old polygamy laws banning multiple marriages in November, saying that while the laws may infringe on religious freedoms, they help to prevent "very substantial harms" to women and children. Critics argued that the laws violate rights to liberty and privacy and criminalize behaviours between consenting adults.

The court heard evidence from those who have had positive and negative experiences with polygamous relationships. Ultimately, Chief Justice Robert Bauman said women in polygamous relationships are at an "elevated risk" of physical and psychological harm and face higher rates of domestic violence and abuse. Children in polygamous families, he added, face higher infant mortality, and tend to suffer more emotional, behavioural and physical problems.

The Ontario Court of Appeal is expected to rule in the new year on a constitutional challenge to Canada's prostitution laws. While prostitution itself is not illegal, many activities associated with it — including communicating in a public place for the purposes of prostitution, operating a common bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution — are banned.

Three sex workers who launched the challenge say the current laws violate their rights to security and safety because they drive the trade underground. But lawyers arguing to keep the laws say there is no proof that decriminalization will make the sex trade any safer. Plus, prostitutes can leave the business at any time, they say. The case is expected to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

- Duelling crime statistics

Is crime going up or down? An Ottawa think-tank released a report early this year suggesting that Statistics Canada's annual crime data report was seriously flawed because it doesn't take into account unreported crimes and uses flawed methods for tracking violent crimes. The study was written by Scott Newark, an ex-Alberta Crown prosecutor and former Harper government adviser, leading some to suggest politics was driving the study's conclusions.

StatsCan stood by its numbers and its conclusion that violent crime is dropping.

Maclean's magazine's annual list of Canada's "most dangerous cities," which relies on Statistics Canada data, drew criticism from some city and police officials.

The mayor of Victoria, which ranked No. 2, on the list, called the "dangerous city" label "misleading." The mayor of Red Deer, Alta., which ranked No. 4, told the local paper he took the results with a "grain of salt."

For the second year in a row, Prince George, B.C., got the dubious distinction of being No. 1 on the list. Police Supt. Eric Stubbs quibbled with the "dangerous city" label, telling the local paper the city's ranking was based on last year's data — which saw seven homicides — and that there hadn't been a single murder this year.

- Inquiries launched

An inquiry began this year probing the handling of an investigation into women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside from 1997 to 2002.

Commissioner Wally Oppal is looking into why it took authorities until 2002 to arrest serial killer Robert Pickton when they had received tips in preceding years that he was preying on women. Vancouver police and RCMP investigators have been accused of failing to take the missing women's cases seriously.

Pickton was convicted of killing six women but boasted of killing dozens more. A final report is expected by middle of 2012.

Bowing to public pressure, Quebec Premier Jean Charest this fall called for an inquiry into allegations of corruption in the province's construction industry. The inquiry is being headed by Quebec Judge France Charbonneau. The call was made after a civil investigation found that corruption, bid-rigging and illegal financing of political parties was widespread.

Dquan(at)postmedia.com

Twitter.com/dougquan

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Thursday, December 29

Holidays hard for family of Pickton victim

Emotional stress of inquiry wearing down sister-in-law

BY BRYCE FORBES, CALGARY HERALD DECEMBER 29, 2011

Christmas has been especially tough for the Calgary family of homicide victim Cara Ellis this year.

Lori-Ann Ellis recently returned to Calgary after spending two months at the Robert Pickton inquiry in Vancouver. Then, to make matters worse, Cara's mother, Judy Trimble, lost her wallet, which contained one of the last pictures she had of her daughter.

Cara disappeared on Jan. 20, 1997, from downtown Vancouver. Her blood was found on Pickton's shirt and a piece of her rib bone was found at his farm.

"You live in this world of sadness that surrounds this case, and then you are expected to come home and be all happy and cheerful," said Lori-Ann, Cara's sister-in-law.

It hasn't happened.

After spending two months stuck in a courtroom all day and a hotel room at night, Ellis can't stop thinking about the details she's heard about the failure of the Vancouver Police Department and RCMP to act on the case.

"To sit there every day and to have those facts just being thrown in your face over and over, at this point, I'm almost all cried out about it," she said. "There is no more tears left; it's just been so long."

At night, it's been just as hard. "If you were lucky enough to relax, to sleep, it was an unsettling sleep because you would think about all the stuff that had happened," she said. "I'd wander the hotel room and I'll sometimes stand out on the balcony and look at all these homeless people and sex trade workers on the street and think, 'Where are their moms and dads? Where are their lives going to lead? Are they going to end up on a poster?' "

There was some solace in Vancouver, still having a lifeline to her family through e-mails about three times a week and the fact she was able to face the situation with other victims' families.

"Nobody can really understand if you haven't lived through this," she said. "I know some people say they try and there are a lot of people I've made friends with there. The pain of waiting so long for information, only family members truly can feel that."

They have become Lori-Ann's family during her time in Vancouver, spending most of the time away in the courtroom with the other families.

Despite being at home for the holidays, though, she knows it's only a temporary break before she has to face the hearing again, starting Jan. 15.

"It takes a lot of work in the Christmas spirit when you have been with such depressing stuff all the time," she said. "I'm Christian and, for this time of year, it's supposed to be a celebration and it's really hard to get there.

"I consider myself a pretty positive person and I tend to look at the glass as half full, but when I came home, for the first time in a long time, the glass was half empty and I had to work really hard to flip myself over."

Then, her mother-in-law lost her wallet.

This month, Trimble got dropped off at the Mac's convenience store at Memorial Drive and 44th Street S.E. It only took a few minutes for her to realize she was missing the brown, chequebook-sized wallet.

In addition to about $130 and her birth certificate, there was one of only 20 pictures of Cara the family has left.

"I hate to say we don't want the money back because she needs the money," Ellis says, "but she deserves those pictures back to her because they are so rare."

bforbes@calgaryherald.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Holidays+hard+family+Pickton+victim/5922242/story.html

Monday, December 19

Sex workers call for hate crime law, end to violence

Sex workers and supporters lit candles on the steps of a police detachment yesterday, part of a global day of action.

David P. Ball – Posted: Dec 18th, 2011

survival sex trade workers

Survival sex workers and their allies rallied outside the Downtown Eastside (DTES) police station Saturday, calling on police to treat women in the neighbourhood with respect, and to put a stop to violence against people in the sex industry.

· Fighting violence against women in Vancouver's sex industry

· Tensions at Missing Women's inquiry boil over

Attended by roughly 75 people – many of them from the neighbourhood, including some from the sex industry – protesters covered the detachment's steps with candles lit in memory of missing and murdered women, and placed several pairs of high-heel shoes as a symbol of survival sex work. They called for violence against sex workers to be classified a hate crime, as well as more support services for workers -- such as a 24-hour emergency sex worker shelter, an emergency phone line, more programs for people exiting the industry, drug detox beds, and counselling services.

“What I don't understand with the police down here, is if something happens down in the West End, they seem to race down there in a hurry like a dirty shirt,” said one speaker, who identified herself as D.J. “If anything ever happens down here in the Downtown Eastside, they take their sweet time.

“All I can say is shame on them. They've got to start pulling up their socks and start doing their job more... We're sex trade workers, we have the rights to get the help that we need down here, too. We're human just like everyone else.”

Organized by Jen's Kitchen -- a food and outreach service for survival sex trade workers -- the rally was part of worldwide demonstrations for International Day To End Violence Against Sex Trade Workers. The day was marked by events in Ottawa, Toronto and other Canadian cities, as well as around the globe.

Several women at the Vancouver rally carried red umbrellas, a symbol of sex workers' safety. In Canada, key parts of the sex industry are illegal under Section 213 of the Criminal Code – even though it is permitted to buy or sell sexual services, it is illegal to communicate for the purpose of prostitution, to “live on the avails” of prostitution, or be part of a “bawdy house,” for instance. However, sex worker rights advocates say the law endangers sex workers by forcing parts of the trade underground. This was recently the subject of an Ontario Supreme Court case, which resulted in parts of the law being ruled unconstitutional.

“We need (Section) 213 struck down,” said Jennifer Allan, founder of Jen's Kitchen – who described her experience in the sex industry for the Vancouver Observer earlier this month. “When you get charged with it, you basically have a tag that you're involved in the sex industry.

“So even if you make it out of the sex industry, you're always going to be tagged that you were involved in it. When a survival sex worker's able to get the courage to leave the sex industry, and she tries to go get a regular job in the straight world, and her boss finds out she got charged with 213, she usually becomes sexually harassed after that. Her boss figures, if you do it once, you can do it again. Did she really leave prostitution?”

Another speaker -- a victim services counsellor at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre – criticized continuing racism against Native women in the Vancouver Police Department, which she said has led to tragic effects – as evidenced by the ongoing Missing Women Inquiry into the Robert Pickton case. Pickton confessed to killing 49 sex workers from the neighbourhood, but was only charged in the deaths of six.

“I see the toll it takes on my women – our indigenous women – and it saddens me,” said Carol Martin. “People get up and say you care, but how far is that care going to go? How far?

“When our issues are on the forefront, what are you going to do? You're going to listen. You're going to find out who I am ... You're going to make a difference for me, because you care and you're here.”

After the rally, Martin told the Vancouver Observer that in her counselling work with DTES women, she has seen first-hand the impacts of systemic failures.

“I've been working down here for many, many years,” she said. “I see the downfalls, I see the cracks, I see the dead-end solutions to a lot of the problems.

“If you look at the system, it's almost like there's racism and discrimination ingrained in the system.”

Martin added that one of the most important steps towards stopping violence against sex trade workers would be to remove the social stigma attached to the industry's participants.

“If a woman comes to me, I don't judge her and what she does for a living,” she said. “I look at her as a human being.


“As a society, that's the first and foremost thing we have to do, is look at a person as a human being first – somebody who has feelings, someone who has labels attached to them, someone who's living a very tough, hard life... Understand those issues before you start pointing fingers.”
One man who spoke at the rally said that men must be part of stopping violence against women – and must not continue to be silent.

“Yes, I am a man,” said Richard Cunningham, with the DTES Neighbourhood Council. “You know, I'm here not just to end violence against sex workers, but to end violence against all women.
“That has to change – we're talking about human lives... I have to call a spade when I see a spade: it is racial profiling when they don't react. They just say, 'It's just a working woman, a Native woman' – whatever the case may be – 'So what? Too much paperwork.' We all have lives – we are not second-class citizens. We are class citizens like everyone else.”

National news feed from The Canadian Press

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/12/18/sex-workers-call-hate-crime-law-end-violence

Fighting violence against women in Vancouver's sex trade

VANCOUVER WOMEN David P. Ball Dec 6th, 2011

It's been 22 years since the Montreal massacre. We talk violence against women, and ways to end it, with a survival sex work organizer Jennifer Allan.

Missing Women Inquiry: LePard insists detectives, not VPD, 'compromised' Pickton case

CRIME David P. Ball Dec 15th, 2011

Deputy police chief Doug LePard – who authored an internal review into the botched Robert Pickton murder investigation – fended off suggestions of wider police department failures, standing by his...

Tensions at Missing Women's inquiry boil over

NEWS David P. Ball Dec 15th, 2011

B.C.'s missing women's inquiry hearings saw long-time tensions boil over yesterday in a pointed argument between the lawyer for families of Robert Pickton's murder victims, and beleaguered...

Sex workers call for hate crime law, end to violence | The Vancouver Observer

Sex workers call for hate crime law, end to violence | The Vancouver Observer:

'via Blog this'

Saturday, December 17

Mother says she was rebuffed when she tried to report daughter missing

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN  DECEMBER 17, 2011

marion bryce_patricia johnson

The mother of one of the women serial killer Robert Pickton was charged with killing testified Friday at the missing women inquiry that she was rebuffed when she tried to report her daughter missing a decade ago.

"[The clerk] was very nasty on the phone," Marion Bryce recalled of her first contact with the Vancouver police Missing Persons unit on March 5, 2001. "She told me [Patricia] was just out there partying because she was a working girl and that she'd eventually show up," the mother recalled.

Bryce wanted to report her daughter, Patricia Johnson, missing because Patricia hadn't contacted her son on his seventh birthday the day before. She said her daughter had two children, a son and daughter who are now teenagers, and never missed a birthday or any special occasion.

Bryce said she went down to the police station the next day with photos of Patricia, but got the same nasty woman she spoke to on the phone, who again gave her the brush-off.

"She told me to leave [the photos of Patricia] at the front desk," Bryce testified, adding she never got the woman's name.

Bryce called police a number of times to find out if there was any information about her daughter's disappearance, but nobody called her back. "With all these girls going missing, they weren't doing nothing about it," Bryce told inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal. "They weren't doing their job at all."

The inquiry is probing why police didn't catch Pickton sooner; the serial killer wasn't arrested until 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving tips in 1998 and 1999 about the Port Coquitlam pig farmer being responsible for women going missing from the Downtown Eastside. Pickton was charged with Johnson's murder, along with the murders of 19 other women, as part of a second trial that was never held.

Bryce said a detective did interview her in June 2001.

Her last contact with police, she said, was in 2005, when Bryce was shown a bracelet with a ring attached, which had been found at the Pickton farm. The jewelry had belonged to her missing daughter. Police never returned the items, Bryce said.

Tim Dickson, the lawyer representing Vancouver police, offered Bryce an apology Friday for the way she was treated. "That is disturbing," he said.

The inquiry has heard how Sandy Cameron, the civilian who took calls in the VPD's missing persons unit, treated many family members in a rude and dismissive manner when they tried to report their loved ones missing. Cameron was investigated after police received complaints but she wasn't moved out of the job for five years.

The inquiry will resume Jan. 11 when Alberta RCMP Supt. Bob Williams is expected to begin his testimony about the problems in the RCMP's handling of the investigation.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Friday, December 16

Missing Women Inquiry: LePard insists detectives, not VPD, 'compromised' Pickton case | The Vancouver Observer

Missing Women Inquiry: LePard insists detectives, not VPD, 'compromised' Pickton case | The Vancouver Observer:

'via Blog this'

Mother of Pickton victim was rebuffed when she tried reporting daughter missing

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 16, 2011 2:09 PM

Marion Bryce, the mother of one of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton, testified she was rebuffed when she tried to report her daughter missing a decade ago.

Photograph by: ', PNG

VANCOUVER - The mother of one of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton testified today at the Missing Women inquiry that she was rebuffed when she tried to report her daughter missing a decade ago.

"She was very nasty on the phone," Marion Bryce recalled of her first contact with the Vancouver police Missing Persons unit on March 5, 2001.

Bryce went to the Vancouver police station to report her daughter, Patricia Johnson, missing because she hadn't contacted her son on his seventh birthday the day before.

The mother recalled her daughter had two children, a son and daughter who are now teenagers, and never missed a birthday or any other special occasion.

Bryce said she last heard from her daughter on Mother's Day that year.

But when she tried reporting Patricia missing, the civilian clerk working in the Missing Persons unit was dismissive of Bryce.

"She told me she [Patricia] was just out there partying because she was working girl and that she'd eventually show up," the mother recalled.

Bryce said she returned the next day to the police station with photos of Patricia, hoping to bring them to a detective working in missing persons.

But she got the same nasty woman on the phone, who again gave her the brush-off, she said.

"She told me to leave them [the photos] at the front desk," Bryce testified, adding she never got the woman's name.

The mother believes the photos were never delivered to the missing persons unit.

Bryce called police a number of times to find out if there was any information about her daughter's disappearance.

Months went by and no one from the police department called her back, she said.

"With all these girls going missing, they weren't doing nothing about it," Bryce told inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal.

"They weren't doing their job at all," she said of the Vancouver police.

"Nobody called me, nobody cared," Bryce testified about the months after she first reported Patricia missing. "They weren't doing anything for any of the girls."

The inquiry is probing why police didn't catch Pickton sooner -- the serial killer wasn't arrested until 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving tips in 1998 and 1999 about Pickton being responsible for the women going missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Pickton was charged with Johnson's murder, along with the murders of 19 other women, as part of a second trial that was never held.

Shown a copy of a missing person report for Patricia dated May 31, 2001, Bryce said the missing report was finally taken when she went to visit Vancouver police with another daughter.

The mother said she finally went to visit police with another daughter.

She said a detective did come to interview her in June 2001. After that, other detectives came to see her at various times.

Her last contact with police, she said, was in 2005, when Bryce was shown a bracelet with a ring attached, which had been found at the Pickton farm. She told police the jewelry had belonged to her missing daughter.

Police never returned the items, Bryce said.

Tim Dickson, the lawyer representing the Vancouver police department at the inquiry, offered Bryce an apology Friday for the way she was treated by the civilian woman in the missing persons unit.

"That is disturbing," he said. "It is totally contrary to the department and its employees."

The inquiry has heard how Sandy Cameron, the civilian woman who took calls in the VPD's missing persons unit, treated many family members in a rude and dismissive manner when they first tried to report their loved ones missing.

Cameron was investigated after police received complaints but she wasn't moved out of the job for five years.

Pickton, now 62, was arrested on Feb. 5, 2002, when police began searching the Pickton family farm in Port Coquitlam.

The forensic search, the largest in Canadian history, took 18 months and Pickton was eventually charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder.

The trial judge decided to divide the charges into two trials, with the first trial dealing with six murders, which Pickton was convicted of in 2007 after a year-long trial.

The Crown decided not to proceed on the second trial after Pickton exhausted all appeals.

The remains and DNA of 33 women were found on Pickton's farm. He confessed to an undercover officer that he killed 49 women.

The inquiry has adjourned until Jan. 11, when Alberta RCMP Supt. Bob Williams is expected to begin his testimony about a report he prepared that analyzed the problems inherent in the RCMP's handling of the Pickton investigation.

The Vancouver police passed along tips about Pickton, whom VPD investigators considered a prime suspect, to the Coquitlam RCMP because the killer lived in Port Coquitlam and killed the women on the farm.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Born December 2, 1976, was last seen near Main and Hastings, in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada on February 27,2001.

Marion Bryce, mother of Patricia Johnson will be heard from at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry today, Friday Dec 16, 2011 at 10 AM PST.

patricia rose johnson

More on Patricia Johnson

http://www.missingpeople.net/patricia_rose_johnson.htm

Thursday, December 15

'Early adopters' of serial-killer theory were criticized, Pickton inquiry told

ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER – From Friday’s Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Dec 15, 2011

Two Vancouver police officers who have been accused of compromising the missing women investigation were among the first to recognize that a serial killer was preying on women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Pickton inquiry has heard.

However, Deputy Chief Doug LePard, who reviewed the Vancouver investigation of the missing women, did not commend Doug Fell and Mark Wolthers as “early adopters” of the serial killer theory, the inquiry was told on Thursday.

Instead, the officers were castigated for their work while they were members of the missing women review team, including for concentrating almost exclusively on a suspect who was not Robert Pickton and for not sharing vital information about Mr. Pickton in April, 2000, with other investigators on their team.

The officers’ lawyer, Kevin Woodall, suggested at the missing women inquiry on Thursday that a response to a memo they sent to police chief Terry Blythe pointing out problems in the missing women investigation was the first time that they were criticized in a written report.

In cross examination that was at times extremely testy, Deputy Chief LePard confirmed that reports critical of the two officers came after the memo to the then police chief.

But he dismissed the suggestion that there were no issues with the officers’ work before the critical reports were written. Writing a complaint about someone in the workplace is “a significant thing to do,” Deputy Chief LePard said. “So those things were being handled, to extent that they were being handled, verbally,” he said.

Mr. Woodall suggested that if people were annoyed or bothered by what the two officers were doing before their complaint to the police chief, no one considered it serious enough to merit a report.

Deputy Chief LePard said he “completely disagreed” with Mr. Woodall. “People will try to put up with a fair amount and be reluctant to put something in writing,” he said. “That does not mean it is not occurring. … I don’t agree people did not consider it serious. I do agree they did not document it,” Deputy Chief LePard said.

In an internal review of the Vancouver Police Department’s missing women investigation released last year, Deputy Chief LePard stated that every other member of the unit provided detailed criticism of the two officers’ conduct.

They described the officers as loud and abusive, refusing to share information, inserting themselves into investigations assigned to others and failing to complete investigations of assigned tips, Deputy Chief LePard wrote in his review.

The inquiry has heard that the two officers were convinced early on that a sex offender known to police was responsible for the missing women. The sex offender, who was not identified, was later convicted of sex crimes against women from the Downtown Eastside.

Mr. Woodall pressed Deputy Chief LePard on why he did not commend the two officers for recognizing at an early stage of the investigation that the missing women were victims of a serial killer. If he had approached the review of the investigation in a more even-handed manner, he would have commended them for being “early adopters,” he said.

“I’m not sure how important it was that I compliment them for being early adopters. There were many people that believed in the serial killer theory,” Deputy Chief LePard said.

“I agree with you now, they certainly were early adopters. [They had an] absolute belief in the serial killer theory and an absolute belief that Suspect 1390 was the killer,” he said, referring to the sex offender by a pseudonym used in Deputy Chief LePard’s review.

Earlier, Deputy Chief LePard said he did not see any documents written contemporaneously to events where the officers were alleged to have done anything that compromised the Pickton investigation, which was the responsibility of the RCMP. The officers compromised the work of Vancouver police by making it more difficult for the missing women investigative team to do its job, he said.

Deputy Chief LePard confirmed that the two officers were cleared of charges of misconduct after an internal investigation and he saw no documents that alleged misconduct against the officers that were written contemporaneously with events. The officers were members of the missing women review team from May 1, 1999, to June 1, 2000.

© Copyright 2011 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/two-officers-among-first-to-adopt-serial-killer-theory-pickton-inquiry-told/article2273241/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2273241

Tensions at Missing Women's Inquiry Commissioner boil over

B.C.'s missing women's inquiry hearings saw a pointed argument between the lawyer for families of Robert Pickton's murder victims, and beleaguered commissioner Wally Oppal – leaving several of the families enraged and the inquiry increasingly in question.

David P. Ball

Posted: Dec 15th, 2011

cara ellis

Cara Ellis photo sourced from Missing People website.


B.C.'s missing women's inquiry
hearings saw long-time tensions boil over yesterday in a pointed argument between the lawyer for families of Robert Pickton's murder victims, and beleaguered commissioner Wally Oppal – leaving several of the families enraged and the inquiry increasingly in question.
Oppal's reluctance to allow new witnesses to be called – amidst concern for the inquiry's length, as it has already been extended to April 30 – was met by Cameron Ward, the lawyer for 25 families. He criticized the entire process, a frustration shared by several victims' families with whom the Vancouver Observer spoke.

“Frankly, I'm getting really sick of getting re-victimized by this system,” said Lori-Ann Ellis, whose 26-year old sister-in-law, Cara, was murdered by Pickton, although charges stemming from her death were among the 20 stayed by the Crown. 
“It's very tilted towards people in power – police, the RCMP, court lawyers. Anyone who's dealing with sex trade workers and impoverished people isn't getting a fair time in there.”

Another family member expressed deep dissatisfaction with Oppal, whose appointment was widely criticized by victims' families.

Longtime tensions spilling over in court

From day one of the inquiry, some families and friends have held drum circles blocking the Georgia and Granville intersection, laying down quilts in memory of the missing women. But concerns are now spilling over into the courtroom.
The Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry, which is in its final week of meetings until January, was established to investigate why police took years to investigate serial killer Robert William Pickton, who admitted to murdering up to 49 Downtown Eastside women – but was only charged with the second-degree murders of six.

When the Vancouver Observer asked Ellis what motivates her, she said she is motivated by a commitment she made to seek justice for her sister-in-law. Cara Ellis, 26 when she died, was close to her two brothers and her half-brother, even after years of absence. She had run away at age 13, Ellis said, but when she returned “she hugged them with all of herself, it was like the gap never existed.

“Every day I wake up and think, 'What do I need to do today to bring her justice and help her rest in peace?'” Ellis said, recalling how she returned to her Calgary home after the Pickton case with only a small bone fragment to remember Cara by.

“I brought a little piece of her bone home, but I think I need to bring her dignity back.”

Interruptions and denials

What was supposed to be a procedural day escalated into a heated exchange, after Oppal challenged Ward's request for three new witnesses to testify – all of whom had direct connection to the police's botched Pickton investigation – because of concern the trial would go on too long and the witnesses would only repeat existing police information. In response, Ward said if police's account of themselves were accepted wholesale, there would be no point in the inquiry at all -- and alleged that victims' families were increasingly frustrated, a fact Oppal denied outright.
“I'm going to tell you right now, Mr. Commissioner: my clients, the families of 25 missing and murdered women, have been watching this proceeding – are following it – and they are extremely unhappy with the way it is being conducted,” Ward told Oppal. “They and their advocate are getting the same treatment today in this inquiry room as they got when they took their concerns (about Robert Pickton) to the authorities back in the years before 2002.
“They are not being listened to, they are not being respected, and they are not being appreciated.”
Cutting Ward off, commissioner Oppal countered the lawyer's claims of falling support from the families of Pickton victims and rebuked him.
“Let me interrupt you there, Mr. Ward,” Oppal warned. “First of all, your clients have been treated with respect.
“The families came here, we heard about the pain and suffering they've gone through, we listened carefully to the way they were treated by the authorities, in fact they were treated with so much respect that nobody cross-examined them – in fact the lawyers got up and apologized to them. The fact is, we are most grateful for them to come forward and they have been heard for the first time... For you to stand up here and say that they've been disrespected is wrong, and you know this as an officer of the court.”

A "cruel, mean, vindictive bully"

Another murdered woman's family reacted with fury to Oppal's claim that they had been treated fairly, and accused the commissioner of lying in asserting that the families had not been cross-examined.
“The way they treated me on the stand was totally ludicrous,” said Lynn Frey, whose 25-year-old daughter Marnie, was one of the six murders Pickton was charged with. Marnie had a daughter, Brittney, who is now 19.

“When I was on the stand, I was the first family member up there – they weren't supposed to cross-exam us but they did – they made me feel I was a victim all over again.
“Wally (Oppal)'s saying we're happy, he's never even talked to us families. He's full of shit. There's not one family member who's happy.”

Ellis agreed, and accused Oppal and the inquiry of bullying the families -- a particular betrayal since he had assured concerned families early in the inqury it would be a fair and impartial hearing.

“For him to say that is just a bald-faced lie, or he's just inattentive to what's happening in the room,” she said. “It was untrue – I was cross-examined by Vancouver Police Department lawyers, who tried to put words in my mouth I didn't say.
“When this inquiry is over, in the mind of the families, (Oppal) will be known as a cruel, mean, vindictive bully.

"We already dealt with Pickton, who's a bully – do we have to go through that again when our lawyers can't even get a word in without getting interrupted? The very words he used today show a lack of respect for the families; he, as well as the system, is again victimizing us.”

The heated courtroom exchange came after Ward put forward a list of new witnesses to testify at the inquiry in the new year. Three of the list's most prominent names on the list include Bill Hiscox (a former Pickton employee who offered to help police in 1998, but was turned down), Bill Ritchie (Pickton's lawyer, who pushed the Crown to stay its 1997 charges against Pickton), and a woman referred to by the alias “Jane Smith” (a sex worker who claims Pickton confessed his killings to her in 2000 but who said she was ignored by the police).
Oppal argued that the witnesses would be “repetitious” -- and furnish no new evidence not already revealed in deputy police chief Doug LePard's testimony. LePard takes the witness stand again today, his last day on the stand, after testifying last month that the investigation was hampered by police attitudes in Vancouver's missing-women unit – where officers referred to sex trade workers as “whores” and “hookers” -- but that there was no systemic bias across the Vancouver police.

UN inquiry request shot down
The Oppal-Ward spat came as the United Nations acknowledged receiving a request from Canadian Indigenous groups for an inquiry into the country's missing and murdered Aboriginal women – which the Native Women's Alliance of Canada (NWAC) has listed at nearly 600 women. However, the federal government said today that no UN inquiry will take place.
Since the inquiry started in October, all but one of the community groups and national organizations have pulled out of the hearings in protest over their legitimacy and fairness – particularly the provincial government's refusal to fund legal counsel for the organzations, which include Amnesty International, the Assembly of First Nations and the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Only the Vancouver Area Drug Users Network remains in the federal courtroom where the inquiry is unfolding, and their representative expressed frustration with the process.
Asked what the families would like to see at the Missing Women's Inquiry, Frey responded without hesitating:
“I want our lawyers to be treated with respect,” she said.

“I want them to get the cops who were there (involved in the investigation at the time) – I don't care where they've gone – get them there. (We want) the truth of what really happened ...I want to be told exactly what happened and why these women weren't found on the farm.”

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/12/15/tensions-missing-womens-inquiry-commissioner-boil-over?page=0,1

Tensions boil over at Missing Women Inquiry

Tensions have grown for months, with dozens of groups boycotting proceedings as unfair. Now more families speak out. Today, deputy police chief LePard takes the stand for the last time -- but will anything come of the inquiry?

David P. Ball Posted: Dec 15th, 2011

B.C.'s missing women's inquiry hearings saw long-time tensions boil over yesterday in a pointed argument between the lawyer for families of Robert Pickton's murder victims, and beleaguered commissioner Wally Oppal – leaving several of the families enraged and the inquiry increasingly in question.

Oppal's reluctance to allow new witnesses to be called – amidst concern for the inquiry's length, as it has already been extended to April 30 – was met with Cameron Ward, lawyer for 25 families, criticizing of the entire process, a frustration shared by several victims' families with whom the Vancouver Observer spoke – in fact, from Day One of the inquiry, some families and friends have held drum circles blocking the Georgia and Granville intersection, laying down quilts in memory of the missing women. But concerns are now spilling over into the courtroom.

“Frankly I'm getting really sick of getting re-victimized by this system,” said Lori-Ann Ellis, whose 26-year old sister-in-law, Cara, was murdered by Pickton, although charges stemming from her death were among the 20 stayed by the Crown. “There's no even playing field in there for anybody.

“It's very tilted towards people in power – police, the RCMP, court lawyers. Anyone who's dealing with sex trade workers and impoverished people isn't getting a fair time in there.”

The Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry, which is in its final week of meetings until January, was established to investigate why police took years to investigate serial killer Robert William Pickton, who admitted to killing up to 49 Downtown Eastside women – but was only charged with the second-degree murders of six.

When the Vancouver Observer askd Ellis what motivates her, she said it was because of a commitment she made to seek justice for her sister-in-law. Cara Ellis, 26 when she died, was close to her two brothers and her half-brother, even after years of absence; she had run away at age 13, Ellis said, but when she returned “she hugged them with all of herself – it was like the gap never existed.

“Every day I wake up and think, 'What do I need to do today to bring her justice and help her rest in peace?'” Ellis said, recalling how she returned to her Calgary home after the Pickton case with only a small bone fragment to remember Cara by. “I brought a little piece of her bone home, but I think I need to bring her dignity back.”

What was supposed to be a procedural day escalated into a heated exchange, after Oppal challenged Ward's request for three new witnesses to testify – all of whom had direct connection to the police's botched Pickton investigation – because of concern the trial would go on too long and the witnesses would only repeat existing police information. In response, Ward said if police's account of themselves were accepted wholesale, there would be no point in the inquiry at all -- and alleged that victims' families were increasingly frustrated, a fact Oppal denied outright.

“I'm going to tell you right now, Mr. Commissioner: my clients, the families of 25 missing and murdered women, have been watching this proceeding – are following it – and they are extremely unhappy with the way it is being conducted,” Ward told Oppal. “They and their advocate are getting the same treatment today in this inquiry room as they got when they took their concerns (about Robert Pickton) to the authorities back in the years before 2002.

“They are not being listened to, they are not being respected, and they are not being appreciated.”

Cutting Ward off, commissioner Oppal countered the lawyer's claims of falling support from the families of Pickton victims and rebuked him.

“Let me interrupt you there, Mr. Ward,” Oppal warned. “First of all, your clients have been treated with respect.

“The families came here, we heard about the pain and suffering they've gone through, we listened carefully to the way they were treated by the authorities, in fact they were treated with so much respect that nobody cross-examined them – in fact the lawyers got up and apologized to them.

The fact is, we are most grateful for them to come forward and they have been heard for the first time... For you to stand up here and say that they've been disrespected is wrong, and you know this as an officer of the court.”

Ellis reacted with fury to Oppal's claim that the families had been treated fairly, and accused the commissioner of lying in asserting that the families had not been cross-examined.

“For him to say that is just a bald-faced lie, or he's just inattentive to what's happening in the room,” she said. “It was untrue – I was cross-examined by Vancouver Police Department lawyers, who tried to put words in my mouth I didn't say.

“When this inquiry is over, in the mind of the families, (Oppal) will be known as a cruel, mean vindictive bully. We already dealt with Pickton who's a bully – do we have to go through that again when our lawyers can't even get a word in without getting interrupted? The very words he used today show a lack of respect for the families; he, as well as the system, is again victimizing us.”

The Vancouver Observer talked to another of the victims' families, who also denied Oppal's claims that “nobody cross-examined” family members.
“The way they treated me on the stand was totally ludicrous,” said Lynn Frey, who's daughter Marnie, 25, was one of the six murders Pickton was charged with – Marnie had a daughter, Brittney, who is now 19. “When I was on the stand, I was the first family member up there – they weren't supposed to cross-exam us but they did – they made me feel I was a victim all over again.

“Wally (Oppal)'s saying we're happy, he's never even talked to us families. He's full of shit. There's not one family member who's happy.”

The heated courtroom exchange came after Ward put forward a list of new witnesses to testify at the inquiry in the new year. Three of the list's most prominent names on the list include Bill Hiscox (a former Pickton employee who offered to help police in 1998, but was turned down), Bill Ritchie (Pickton's lawyer, who pushed the Crown to stay its 1997 charges against Pickton), and a woman referred to by the alias “Jane Smith” (a sex worker who claims Pickton confessed his killings to her in 2000 but who said she was ignored by the police).

Oppal argued that the witnesses would be “repetitious” -- and furnish no new evidence not already revealed in deputy police chief Doug LePard's testimony. LePard takes the witness stand again today, his last day on the stand, after testifying last month that the investigation was hampered by police attitudes in Vancouver's missing-women unit – where officers referred to sex trade workers as “whores” and “hookers” -- but that there was no systemic bias across the Vancouver police.

The Oppal-Ward spat came as the United Nations acknowledged receiving a request from Canadian Indigenous groups for an inquiry into the country's missing and murdered Aboriginal women – which the Native Women's Alliance of Canada (NWAC) has listed at nearly 600 women. However, the federal government said today that no UN inquiry will take place.

Since the inquiry started in October, all but one of the community groups and national organizations have pulled out of the hearings in protest over their legitimacy and fairness – particularly the provincial government's refusal to fund legal counsel for the organzations, which include Amnesty International, the Assembly of First Nations and the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Only the Vancouver Area Drug Users Network remains in the federal courtroom where the inquiry is unfolding, and their representative expressed frustration with the process.

Asked what the families would like to see at the Missing Women's Inquiry, Frey responded without hesitating:

“I want our lawyers to be treated with respect,” she said. “I want them to get the cops who were there (involved in the investigation at the time) – I don't care where they've gone – get them there. (We want) the truth of what really happened; we're not even finding out what really happened. I want to be told exactly what happened and why these women weren't found on the farm.”

National news feed from The Canadian Press

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/12/15/tensions-boil-over-missing-women-inquiry

Keep Calm and Carry on

MWCI: Keep Calm and Carry On

December 14, 2011 in Missing Women Commision of Inquiry, News

We were directed to make oral submissions today to the Commissioner concerning our desire to seek the addition of witnesses to the Commission’s abbreviated witness list.  Lawyers for other participants had made similar requests, but it appears that their overtures were summarily acceded to and we were the only counsel required to explain why we felt that other people probably had material evidence to offer to assist the Commission in its mandate.  We did not get very far.

As we endeavoured to explain why Bill Hiscox should be called as a witness, the morning’s hearing disintegrated.  Hiscox was repeatedly referred to in VPD Deputy Chief LePard’s internal review report and his name has been mentioned no fewer than 212 times in LePard’s oral testimony so far.  (LePard is still on the stand and is scheduled to appear for his twelfth day tomorrow).

Hiscox, as those following this matter may be aware, was the man who came forward in July of 1998, telephoning Wayne Leng and Crimestoppers to report that a pig farmer in Port Coquitlam named Willy Pickton was probably responsible for Sarah deVries’ disappearance as well as the disappearance and murders of the other missing Vancouver women, that he was a “sicko” and that he had slashed the throat of a Vancouver woman the year before.  He spent months in contact with VPD Det. Cst. Lori Shenher but was unable, despite all of his efforts, to get police to stop Pickton’s murderous spree.

Of course, after Pickton was serendipitously arrested in February of 2002, it turned out that everything that Hiscox had told police nearly four years earlier had been true.  Pickton was convicted of six murders in 2007 and, although 20 more first degree murder charges against him were stayed by the Crown, he is suspected of being responsible for as many as 49 murders.  Many of them were committed after Hiscox went to police with his information.

…..

This public inquiry was established on September 27, 2010.  We have yet to hear testimony from a police officer who was involved in the investigations.

posted by Cameron Ward

LINK: A. Cameron Ward http://www.cameronward.com/2011/12/mwci-keep-calm-and-carry-on/

Canada’s most dangerous city: Prince George

Gang wars, drug abuse and a serial killer guaranteed Prince George, B.C., the top spot

by Patricia Treble and Ken MacQueen on Thursday, December 15, 2011 5:58am

Most days, after Doug Leslie is back from work at the molybdenum mine in tiny Fraser Lake, B.C., he sits at his computer and writes a chatty little note to his 15-year-old daughter Loren. It’s a catch-up on the day, and maybe a bleat about those times he pulls the night shift, or about the cold of a northern B.C. winter, or about how quickly days fly by now that he shoulders the destiny Loren has inspired. “Loren, can you do anything about this weather?” he asked her recently. “It’s snowing and I hate winter, it’s cold and damp, and you are not here to warm up the room.” Invariably, he tells Loren how much he misses her, before signing off, “Love Dad.”

The notes grew increasingly plaintive as Nov. 27 approached. The pills weren’t helping him sleep, and the gulf separating father from daughter seemed impossibly wide, although he’d like to believe she reads every one of his messages. “That has been my sanity,” he says of his missives to a daughter who will forever be 15. Nov. 27 was the first anniversary of her murder.

Her alleged killer, 21-year-old Cody Alan Legebokoff, is in custody in nearby Prince George. He faces charges for the first-degree murders of Loren and three other women: Jill Stuchenko and Cynthia Maas, both 35, and Natasha Montgomery, 23.

The murders capped a grim 2010 for Prince George. For the second year in a row, it has the highest—that is to say, worst—score in Maclean’s fourth annual national crime rankings, 114 per cent above the national average. The result is no surprise to RCMP Supt. Eric Stubbs, who heads the detachment there. The year was marked by outbreaks of gang and drug-related crime. Added to that was an uncharacteristic string of nine murders in and around the community of just 74,000 people. Three homicides are alleged to have been committed by Legebokoff that year. Most of the rest are accounted for by organized crime and the drug trade, says Stubbs.

The rankings are based on our analysis of Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI), commissioned byMaclean’s to measure criminal activity in Canada’s 100 largest cities and police districts. Overall, the news is good. Canada’s crime score has fallen almost 23 per cent since the year 2000. Even Prince George, after a murderous year, recorded a crime score 11 per cent lower than a decade ago. The severity index is a relatively new tool StatsCan has created. It uses police reports of a broad spectrum of offences to rank their relative seriousness. More weight is allotted to the worst offences, such as murders, robberies and serious assaults, based on the length of the sentences served. Using StatsCan’s tally of seven murders in 2010, Prince George had the highest per-capita murder rate in Canada—486 per cent above the national average. It also tops the overall, violent and non-violent crime score rankings, among the 100 cities.

Maclean’s also tracked crime trends by commissioning a run of six indicator offences: homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, breaking and entering and auto theft. It shows Prince George residents endured far more than their share. The rate of breaking and entering was 89 per cent above the national average, the second highest in Canada. Vehicle theft was 104 per cent above the national average, eighth highest. Robbery: 57 per cent above average, 14th highest. Sexual assault: 84 per cent above average, fourth highest. Only the rate of aggravated assault was below the national average.

Turf wars over the drug trade, and related addiction issues, account for a significant share of the crime, says Stubbs. Prince George draws a large transient population. As well, gangs have shifted some operations to the B.C. Interior after a concerted effort by police in the Lower Mainland to disrupt the organized drug trade. Still, Stubbs says anti-gang initiatives have had a significant impact, and the work of a new Downtown Enforcement Unit has made the central core safer and more welcoming. “It’s an excellent community and a safe community to live in, if you’re not in that world of drugs, alcohol and violence,” Stubbs says.

But it is the four murders allegedly committed over 13 months by Legebokoff that many find inexplicable. The burly, good-looking son of a prosperous, respected family grew up in Fort St. James, outside Prince George. By most accounts, he had an unremarkable upbringing, playing hockey, snowboarding and hunting. Yet, if police allegations are proven in court, he began a killing spree at age 19 with the murder of Stuchenko in October 2009. Three other murders followed the next year. He was arrested the night of Loren’s murder after an alert RCMP member stopped his pickup as he pulled out of a logging road in a remote area northwest of Prince George. Loren’s body was found that night in the woods. Legebokoff was charged with the other three murders after a 10-month RCMP investigation.

Prince George and area has endured much sorrow and crime. It sits on Highway 16, better known as the Highway of Tears. It’s a long stretch of road cutting through resource towns and wilderness between Alberta and Prince Rupert, B.C., on the Pacific coast. Eighteen women, most of them hitchhikers, vanished or were murdered between 1969 and 2006. (Forensics and his age eliminated Legebokoff as a suspect in any of those unsolved cases.)

Sharon Hurd, who works at the Phoenix Transition Society, a local women’s shelter, says the city remains a dangerous place, especially for vulnerable women. “The viciousness of the retaliation by the gangs up here has everybody absolutely terrified,” she says. “I’m not the least bit relieved, I’m just wondering how quickly they’re going to get the next [killer].”

Loren’s parents draw some comfort from the belief that her murder was the “catalyst,” as Doug puts it, leading to her alleged killer’s arrest, and perhaps saving other lives. He has launched the Loren Donn Leslie Foundation to raise awareness about Internet predation (Loren may have met Legebokoff online) and other risks facing young people. The foundation, he says, is his destiny. A vigil and fundraiser was held on the anniversary of her death. “[E]veryone was awesome and things went really well,” he wrote Loren on the foundation website. “You would have loved it.”

Prince George, too, is moving on. For whatever reason—vigilant policing, circumstance, and, Stubbs concedes, some luck—at this time the city hasn’t recorded a single murder in 2011. “I’m knocking on all the wood I can find,” Stubbs said.

Tags: Cody Alan Legebokoff, Crime, Crime Rankings, Crime Severity Index, Most Dangerous Cities, Prince George

LINK: http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/12/15/crime-most-dangerous-cities/

Wednesday, December 14

Ambrose Denies UN Has Launched Inquiry Into Murdered, Missing Women's Cases in Canada -- Yet

But Smithers woman hopes for international attention to Highway of Tears cases

John Crawford

12/14/2011


There's some question about whether a United Nations committee will conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of aboriginal women and girls across Canada.

Yesterday, the Native Women's Association of Canada said the U-N Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will launch such an inquiry, but in the House of Commons yesterday, Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose said while the U-N has written to the government about the issue, there is no inquiry at this point.  She says the U-N will discuss the idea further in February.

But Brenda Wilson of Smithers, whose sister Ramona was one of the Highway of Tears victims, says such international attention would be very good news, "because for the last 17 years, since my sister was murdered in Smithers, our family has been rallying to bring forth this issue of murdered and missing women and girls in the north."

The U-N committee investigates discrimination against women and conducted a similar inquiry in Mexico five years ago.

[reported by Karin Koppitz, and The Canadian Press]

http://www.cjfw.ca/News/Story.aspx?ID=1586048

'Canada failed to take any action'

Brother of possible Pickton victim says UN probe needs to address aboriginal females' rights

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN; WITH FILES FROM POSTMEDIA NEWS DECEMBER 14, 2011

The brother of a woman believed to have been murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton welcomes a United Nations committee's plan to probe the allegation that 600 aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing over the last 20 years.

"You would think both Ottawa and its national police force, the RCMP, would have taken action on these deaths and disappearances years ago," Ernie Crey said Tuesday.

"Now the inquiry has been announced, Canada will be expected to cooperate with the committee's investigation. Canada failed to take any action, so I am not surprised the UN, through its Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stepped to the plate."

Crey is the older brother of Dawn Crey, who vanished from Vancouver's Downtown East-side in November 2000. Her DNA was found at the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam, but Pickton was never charged with the murder.

The proposed UN investigation was announced by the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action. The UN committee is formed by 23 independent experts of women's issues. However, the investigation still needs federal consent.

"The response of law enforcement and other government officials has been slow, often dismissive of reports made by family members of missing women, uncoordinated and generally inadequate," NWAC president Jeanette Corbiere Lavell said in statement.

"FAFIA and NWAC requested this inquiry because violence against aboriginal women and girls is a national tragedy that demands immediate and concerted action."

The groups say first nations women in Canada are 3.5 times more likely to be victims of violence than their nonaboriginal counterparts and five times more likely to die from violence.

The committee was lobbied by the groups twice this year - in January and again in September, after the NWAC decided to boycott the Missing Women inquiry in B.C. - before reaching its decision.

NDP MP Linda Duncan said after question period Tuesday the federal government must give consent before representatives from the UN inquiry could come to Canada for their work and that the NDP has "called on the government to cooperate fully so this independent review can proceed expeditiously."

Earlier in the House of Commons, Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose said "at this stage we have received a letter from the committee at the United Nations and we are responding to that. It will be discussing this issue in February, but at this point there is no inquiry."

Ambrose said in the federal government's response to the UN, "we will make sure it is aware we have launched the murdered and missing aboriginal women's strategy that has a number of components that deal with all of the issues we believe is necessary to deal with the systemic issues of not only racism, but poverty affecting aboriginal women."

NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel said the announcement further highlights the need for more serious action at the federal level.

The NDP noted the inquiry is only the second of its kind from the United Nations committee, with the first taking place in Mexico.

"Mexican women's groups say the committee's intervention helped to spur government action and we hope to see the same result in Canada," Sharon McIvor of FAFIA said in a statement.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canada+failed+take+action/5858255/story.html

Brother of Pickton victim welcomes possibility of UN missing-women probe

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 14, 2011 5:17 AM

(L-R) Lindsay Mossman, Susan Martin and Richie Allen hold up pictures of aboriginal women who were victims of violence. They were among the dozens of people turned out for a candle lit vigil for National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, at Minto Park in Ottawa on Dec. 06, 2011.

Photograph by: David Kawai, The Ottawa Citizen

VANCOUVER — The brother of a woman believed to have been murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton welcomes a United Nations committee’s plan to probe the allegation that 600 aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing over the last 20 years.

“You would think both Ottawa and its national police force, the RCMP, would have taken action on these deaths and disappearances years ago,” Ernie Crey said Tuesday.

“Now the inquiry has been announced, Canada will be expected to cooperate with the committee’s investigation. Canada failed to take any action, so I am not surprised the UN, through its Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stepped to the plate.”

Crey is the older brother of Dawn Crey, who vanished from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in November 2000. Her DNA was found at the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam, but Pickton was never charged with the murder.

The proposed UN investigation, which would need federal consent to proceed, was announced by the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action. The UN committee is formed by 23 independent experts of women’s issues.

“The response of law enforcement and other government officials has been slow, often dismissive of reports made by family members of missing women, uncoordinated and generally inadequate,” NWAC president Jeanette Corbiere Lavell said in statement.

“FAFIA and NWAC requested this inquiry because violence against aboriginal women and girls is a national tragedy that demands immediate and concerted action.”

The groups say first-nations women in Canada are 3.5 times more likely to be victims of violence than their non-aboriginal counterparts and five times more likely to die from violence.

The committee was lobbied by the groups twice this year — in January and again in September, after the NWAC decided to boycott the Missing Women inquiry in B.C. — before reaching its decision.

NDP MP Linda Duncan said after question period Tuesday the federal government must give consent before representatives from the UN inquiry could come to Canada for their work and that the NDP has “called on the government to cooperate fully so this independent review can proceed expeditiously.”

Earlier in the House of Commons, Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose said “at this stage we have received a letter from the committee at the United Nations and we are responding to that. It will be discussing this issue in February, but at this point there is no inquiry.”

Ambrose said in the federal government’s response to the UN, “we will make sure it is aware we have launched the murdered and missing aboriginal women’s strategy that has a number of components that deal with all of the issues we believe is necessary to deal with the systemic issues of not only racism, but poverty affecting aboriginal women.”

NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel said the announcement further highlights the need for more serious action at the federal level.

The NDP noted the inquiry is only the second of its kind from the United Nations committee, with the first taking place in Mexico.

“Mexican women’s groups say the committee’s intervention helped to spur government action and we hope to see the same result in Canada,” Sharon McIvor of FAFIA said in a statement.

nhall@vancouversun.com

with files from Postmedia News

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Brother+Pickton+victim+welcomes+probe+missing+murdered+first+nations/5853370/story.html

Code of conduct

NORTH SHORE NEWS DECEMBER 14, 2011 2:20 AM

IF you haven't been taking notes, it's hard to recall the sheer number of black eyes the RCMP has gotten over the past year or two - or even the past couple of weeks.

There were the high-profile deaths of Ian Bush and Robert Dziekanski; there was the bungling of the Robert Pickton file; there was the inadvertent release of hundreds of crime scene and victim images left on a digital camera "hidden" on a suspect's property.

Then came the harassment claims. Four officers have come forward alleging that they were victims of constant bullying and sexual harassment, and that their leadership was completely indifferent.

Out of this Lord-of-the-Flies culture rise newly minted Commissioner Bob Paulson and, in B.C., Assistant Commissioner Craig Callens. Both men have publicly vowed to crack down on misconduct of this kind. Theirs is a huge task.

It's a good development that a disinterested civilian, an American no less, will investigate deaths and serious injuries in B.C. involving Mounties, hopefully ending decades of wagoncircling and obfuscation.

But professional misconduct will still be handled through the same channels, and it will be up to Paulson and Callens to make those channels actually work for once. Frankly, examples must be made.

But to wash out so many stains from the iconic red serge, the prime task must be to make new officers expect and demand a new culture. These are the women and men who will eventually turn a secret society back into a public service.

© Copyright (c) North Shore News

http://www.nsnews.com/Code+conduct/5858003/story.html

Tuesday, December 13

UN experts to examine Canada's 'tragedy' of 600 murdered or missing women

BY SUSAN LAZARUK, THE PROVINCE DECEMBER 13, 2011 2:20 PM

Photos and names of missing women are displayed during a protest in front of federal court where the Missing Women Commission Inquiry is underway.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG

The United Nations is holding an inquiry into the hundreds of murdered and missing aboriginal women and will send representatives to Canada to inerview victims’ families and government officials, two Canadian women’s groups announced Tuesday.

But Canada’s minister for the status of the women said in Parliament Tuesday that the inquiry has not been called.

“At this stage we’ve received a letter from the committee at the United Nations, and we’re responding to that,” Rona Ambrose said during Question Period. “They (committee members) will be discussing this issue in February, but at this point, there is no inquiry.”

Her statement was in response to a question from NDP MP Linda Duncan, who accused the government of “doing nothing” to address violence against aboriginal women and children.

“Now the UN has to step in to do the government’s job,” said Duncan.

Ambrose told the House Ottawa has launched a strategy to deal with the underlying issues of racism and poverty affecting aboriginal women, including a new RCMP centre for missing persons and a national website for public tips to help locate missing women.

Ambrose wasn’t available for comment and her spokeswoman referred questions about the UN committee’s letter to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

The Province is currently waiting for his call.

The two women’s groups issued a press release Tuesday detailing that the UN was holding the inquiry into a documented list of more than 600 aboriginal women and girlswho have been murdered or disappeared over the past 20 years.

The groups’ spokeswomen said it was just a matter of time before the UN investigated the issue.

“We know that it’s happening and we’re ecstatic that it’s happening,” said Merritt-based Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Allicance for International Action.

Claudette Dumont-Smith of the Native Women’s Association of Canada said: “We have heard from very reliable sources that this will be happening.”

The groups requested the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, made up of 23 independent experts from around the world, investigate what the groups believe to be “very serious violations” of the UN’s convention on the elimination of discrimination against women.

McIvor and Dumont-Smith said the letter sent to the federal government is the next step in having the committee come to Canada to interview victims’ families, government officials and non-government organizations.

They said Canada will be expected to co-operate with the committee’s investigation.

McIvor said the list of 600 women is growing every day, adding that the number indicates an aboriginal women or girl is killed or has gone missing on average once every two weeks or less for the past 20 years.

“If anything, that number is low,” she said.

NWAC said it has documented all 600 disappearances and murders but can’t release a list of names or the ratio of murders to disappearances.

“This is out of respect to the families who we’ve worked with, as well as to honour the memory of our aboriginal women and girls who remain missing, or sadly, who have been found murdered,” said Irene Goodwin.

McIvor said the government and police aren’t doing enough to protect aboriginal women and girls, who are vulnerable to attack and abuse because “agencies turn a blind eye” toward them because they’re native.

For instance, she said, the missing woman case that got the most attention of the three dozen missing mostly native women in Northern B.C. over the years was Nicole Hoar, a white treeplanter.

NWAC said Canadian aboriginal women “experience rates of violence 3.5 times higher than non-aboriginal women and young aboriginal women are five times more likely to die of violence.”

The committee looked at similar violations in Mexico five years ago and members were invited to the country to interview victim’s families, government officials and non-government organizations.

Its report spelled out the steps that Mexico should take regarding the individual cases and the systemic discrimination underlying the violations.

Mexican women’s groups say the report helped to spur government action.

“We hope to see the same result here in Canada,” said McIvor.

slazaruk@theprovince.com

twitter.com/susanlazaruk

© Copyright (c) The Province

http://www.theprovince.com/news/experts+examine+Canada+tragedy+murdered+missing+women/5853219/story.html?cid=megadrop_story

Monday, December 12

Missing Women inquiry to sit three days this week

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 12, 2011 12:06 PM

Serial killer Robert Pickton.

Photograph by: File, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER -- The Missing Women inquiry plans to sit three days this week and hear from two witnesses.

The inquiry, which is probing why it took so long to catch serial killer Robert Pickton, will reconvene Wednesday to hear applications by lawyers to sort out the remaining witnesses to be called when the inquiry resumes full-time on Jan. 16.

It will also sit Thursday for the continued cross-examination of Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard, who has testified for 11 days.

The inquiry is expected to finish the cross-exam of LePard and begin hearing the testimony Friday of Marion Bryce, the mother of Patricia Johnson, who was last seen in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 2001.

Pickton was charged with Johnson's murder, along with the murders of 19 other women, as part of a second trial that was never held.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six murders of women who disappeared in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. After the serial killer exhausted all appeals, the Crown decided not to proceed on the second trial, which disappointed the victims' families.

In 2006, the trial judge decided to divide Pickton's 26 murder counts into two trials, ruling that one large trial would be too much of a burden for a jury.

The remains and DNA of 33 women were found on Pickton's farm in Port Coquitlam after he was arrested on Feb. 5, 2002.

Pickton, 62, confided to an undercover officer that he killed 49 women and planned to killed more.

Vancouver police received tips as early as 1998 that suggested Pickton was responsible for the women going missing in Vancouver.

Vancouver police passed along the tips to Coquitlam RCMP, which had Pickton under investigation since a March 1997 knife attack of a Vancouver prostitute, who slashed Pickton with a kitchen knife, ran from Pickton's farm onto the road and flagged down a passing car, which took her to hospital. She survived the attack.

Pickton had been charged with unlawful confinement and attempted murder of the woman but the charges were later dropped by the Crown.

The reasons the Crown stayed the charges will be examined next year at the inquiry.

The inquiry will also hold policy forums starting May 1 to hear submissions from organizations and individuals about recommending changes to how police conduct investigations of missing women and suspected multiple homicides in B.C., including homicide investigations involving more than one police jurisdiction.

For more information about the policy forums, contact policy researcher Elizabeth Welch at (604) 681-4470 or by e-mail: ewelch@missingwomeninquiry.ca

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Saturday, December 10

Apology rejected by Wellander at Pickton inquiry

By EDDIE CHAU QMI Agency

December 10, 2011

clip_image001

WELLAND — It's an anniversary that Rene and Lilliane Beaudoin did not want to commemorate.

It had been 10 years since Lilliane's sister, Diane (Marin) Rock, had gone missing in British Columbia. And a call from the Vancouver Police Department to the Beaudoin family home would forever change their lives.

"We were notified that Diane had been murdered and (Robert) Pickton was charged," said Rene, recalling the events of April 1, 2002, the day the family received the news.

"It broke my heart that I had to tell my wife of 40 years that her sister was dead."

Rock, 34 at the time, had moved to B.C. from Welland a decade prior to her disappearance to start a new life as a specialist working with developmentally delayed adults. Rock was reported missing in October 2001.

The last decade has been hard on the Beaudoins. On the 10th anniversary of Rock's death, the Welland couple found themselves in B.C. as part of an inquiry organized by the Missing Women Commission to investigate the delay by Vancouver Police Department and RCMP to catch Pickton. The killer was arrested in 2002 but the authorities had received tips about the notorious pig farmer since 1998.

Pickton, 62, is serving a life sentence for the murder of six women: Sereena Abotsway, Mona Lee Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Papin.

Pickton was originally charged with 20 more murders, including Rock's, but the charges were stayed in 2010.

The killer's DNA had linked Pickton to the death of 33 women. It's believed he has killed up to 50 people.

Rene recently returned from a six-week stint in Vancouver where he supported his wife who recounted her pain on the stand during the inquiry. Police officials offered an apology to Lilliane during the inquiry.

"She wouldn't accept it. I knew she wouldn't," said Rene, noting Lilliane stayed longer in Vancouver to watch the inquiry. "She has attended every day. Knowing Diane will never come back will hang with my wife for the rest of her life."

Rene described the inquiry as emotionally draining as he and the families of the victims learned about the "flaws" behind the investigation. Rene said the inquiry revealed that Pickton was the No. 1 suspect in 1999 for the rash of murders and the Port Coquitlam farmer was under surveillance.

"Pickton was one of 500 suspects before 1998," Rene said. "After 1999 he was the No. 1 suspect."

Rene said there was a breakdown in communication between the RCMP and Vancouver police. He said there had been many times that Pickton could have been arrested based on evidence, but Vancouver deputy chief Doug LePard, the lead investigator on the case at the time, admitted he didn't want Pickton to be aware he was being watched.

Rock was the second last of the victims to be reported missing. DNA evidence and some of Rock's possessions were found on Pictkon's farm.

Despite the emotional stress caused by the inquiry, Rene said there was a united bond between the victims' families in attendance. The families would often meet to talk about the inquiry.

"We bonded big time," he said.

Rene hopes to be back in B.C. to attend the inquiry after it reconvenes, after the holiday break, on Jan. 15, 2012.

Article ID# 3400790

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3400790

Friday, December 9

Behind the Line

behind the line

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/behindtheline/

Behind the Line

To serve and protect." It's the motto of numerous police forces, and the declaration of duty which underpins the decision made by so many Canadians to take on a career in law enforcement. 

It's the same sentiment which motivated four young women to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Four women who would later find themselves sexually harassed and allegedly assaulted by the same superior officer -- and the targets of smear campaigns and other abuse -- all because they finally summoned the courage to come forward and report it.

Now, for the first time, the fifth estate presents their untold stories. In "Behind the Line," Gillian Findlay speaks directly with two of the women, and exposes the shocking allegations of how all four felt victimized twice -- first by their male superior, and then by the very police service they had sworn to uphold and defend.

"You wrestle with it for a while, but the bottom line is that you're a police officer and you're paid to do what's moral and right. And how do you go to work every day and interview women who have been sexually assaulted, and not have the strength to do it yourself?" is how one of the women describes the dilemma she grappled with for so long.

"Because I knew. I knew what the cost was going to be." 

"Behind the Line" also features an exclusive interview with newly-appointed RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, who has vowed to deal with the issue of sexual harassment in the RCMP.

CBC: The Fifth Estate http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/behindtheline/

Thursday, December 8

RCMP commissioner targets 'outrageous conduct'

Female officer who raised harassment allegations praises Paulson's first steps

CBC News  Posted: Dec 8, 2011

bob paulson-1

The RCMP's new boss says dealing with sexual harassment allegations within the force involves "changing behaviours."

Bob Paulson says senior leaders in the force have held a two-day meeting about recent allegations and set up a process to track how complaints are being handled.

Paulson, officially sworn in Thursday as the RCMP's 23rd commissioner, said there will be "no presumption of innocence" in disciplinary proceedings involving abuse.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/12/08/pol-new-rcmp-commissioner-swearing-in.html