Friday, September 30

Clifford Olson, notorious serial killer, dead from cancer

BY SUSAN LAZARUK, THE PROVINCE SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 4:21 PM

Clifford Olson, pictured here in custody in August 1981, tortured and killed eight boys and three girls between the ages of nine and 18. In 1982 he pleaded guilty to 11 first-degree murder charges and worked out a deal with prosecutors to reveal the location of the bodies in exchange for $10,000 each.

Photograph by: Rick Loughran file, PNG

Clifford Olson, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, has died of cancer in a prison hospital in Quebec. He was 71.

The murderer had been in jail since 1982, when he admitted to killing 11 children during a nine month period in 1980-81 after offering them jobs and plying them with drugs and alcohol and physically and sexually assaulting them.

His name triggers revulsion still like few can, not only for the killings but also for his legal applications from behind bars, which ironically had the positive impact of making it tougher for criminals like him to get parole from or pensions in prison and other changes.

Olson, who at his 1982 trial reversed his not guilty plea three days into the trial for the first killing, also admitted he’d killed the others and offered to sell RCMP the information about where the bodies were for $10,000 each.

The $100,000, which went to his ex-wife and son, Clifford Olson III, set off a controversy in which police were accused of accepting “blood money” and the anger lingered for years.

But, as pointed out in a 1993 Saturday Night magazine article, at the time police only knew of four of the murders and hadn’t drawn any connection between them and there was little evidence against Olson.

Seven of the 11 children were listed only as missing and six were presumed to be runaways from broken homes. The concept of a “serial killer” wasn’t well known in the 1980s and there was no realization that someone was stalking and killing young people.

“I’m absolutely convinced it was the best investment the Mounties ever made,” said the writer, Peter Worthington, who in the 1980s had publicly opposed the RCMP’s deal.

The horror over the killings sparked the concept of victims’ rights, now an important part of court proceedings in Canada and elsewhere.

Olson received 11 concurrent life sentences, with the judge recommending he never be granted parole.

But it didn’t stop him from trying.

Olson applied for parole 15 years later under the “faint hope” clause, written into the Criminal Code in 1976 when the death penalty was banned to mitigate the harshness of a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. His application was dismissed in minutes.

The so-called “Olson clause” was this year amended to exclude serial killers after victims’ families and others protested. Killers of more than one person are no longer able to ask for early parole and the chance of an early parole hearing is no longer automatic for even one-time murderers.

Olson, always the unrepentant convict who was well-versed in prisoners’ rights and issued several challenges from behind bars, including unsuccessfully protesting being confined to a small concrete exercise yard as “cruel and unusual punishment,” also bid in 2006 for parole after serving 25 years but failed.

Olson was entitled to re-apply every two years, and each time he resurfaced in the news, it was a fresh reopening of the wounds of his victims’ families, some of whom prepared and read victim impact statements.

The outcry over his repeated attempts — he failed at a third bid last year — led to Ottawa increasing the time between parole hearings for multiple murderers.

Olson, who was born on Jan. 1, 1940, insisted he had a normal, happy childhood with his soldier father who married his mother when he returned from war when Clifford was three.

But Worthington’s article said, “He says he remembers being (sodomized) by an ‘uncle’ when he was four ‘but it was no big deal, the sort of thing all kids go through.’”

Olson, also when just four, filled empty beer bottles with water before recapping them and selling them to family for $1, a huge sum at the time. That, and his later practice of stealing flowers and fruit from neighbours’ yards in Richmond and selling them back to them, earned him his family’s approval.

Worthington wrote that Olson’s mother’s creed was, as he recalls her telling him, “If you do something, don’t get caught.”

He later stole money from his father’s change jar when Clifford Sr. worked as a milkman, graduating to stealing it from the customers and then to crawling through the openings for the milk deliveries to rob houses, according to the magazine.

Olson also told Worthington he shot at Air Canada planes landing at Vancouver’s airport with a .22 rifle, which he considered “just kid stuff.”

A teenage bully, Olson faced his first charge, a break and enter, at 17, when he was listed as having a “dull normal IQ.”

But he later earned marks of ‘80s and ‘90s at the university correspondence courses he took in prison, where he wasn’t considered dangerous but a highly manipulative liar, Worthington wrote.

“While it was noted that Olson had grandiose ideas about himself, he was basically perceived as likable, friendly, nonviolent, and harmless,” he wrote about Olson the convict.

slazaruk@theprovince.com

twitter.com/susanlazaruk

Olson's victims are listed here in the order in which they disappeared:

- Christine Ann Weller, 12, was reported missing Nov. 19, 1980. She was last seen riding a 10-speed bike near her home in Surrey. A man walking his dog in Richmond on Christmas Day, 1980 spotted Weller's body.

- Colleen Daignault, 13, was last seen April 16, 1981, when she left a friend's house in North Delta. She planned to take the bus to her grandmother's house in Surrey. She was never seen alive again.

- Daryn Todd Johnsrude, 16, of Saskatoon was visiting relatives in Coquitlam when he was last seen April 21 heading toward a Coquitlam shopping mall.

- Sandra Lyn Wolfsteiner, 16, of Langley was last seen May 19, hitchhiking on the Fraser Highway. She was observed getting into a grey, two-door vehicle.

- Ada Anita Court, 13, of Burnaby, planned to catch a bus home June 21 after leaving her brother's Coquitlam home, where she had been babysitting her two nieces.

- Simon Partington, 9, went missing July 2 while riding his bicycle to a friend's house near his Surrey home.

- Judy Kozma, 14, of New Westminster, left her home to visit a friend in Richmond on July 9. She was last seen waiting at a bus stop.

- Ray King Jr., 15, told his father July 23 he was going to the Canada Manpower youth employment centre to see if there were any jobs. His bike was found chained to a post behind the Manpower centre in New Westminster, not far from his home.

- Louise Marie Chartrand, 17, left her sister Mary's home in Maple Ridge at 6:30 p.m. on July 20 to meet friends for coffee before starting her night shift job as a waitress at Bino's restaurant. She hitchhiked part of the way and stopped in Haney to buy cigarettes. She was never seen again.

- Sigrun Charlotte Ellsabeth Arnd, 18, was visiting Canada as part of a tour group from Germany. She went missing in July.

- Teri Lyn Carson, 15, left her Surrey home to apply for a job at the Guildford Town Centre. She was last seen Aug. 1 having a beer in a hotel on the King George Highway.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Thursday, September 29

Police ask for help after woman reported missing along Highway of Tears

BY ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Chrissy Sharon ALEXANDER, a 41 year old First Nations female in Prince George has not been seen by family or friends in about a week. ALEXANDER is described as being 163 cm (5’4”), 57 kg (126 lbs), with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes with glasses. RCMP are investigating the disappearance.

Photograph by: Handout, RCMP

Prince George RCMP is appealing to the public for help in locating a woman who went missing along the Highway of Tears.

Friends and family reported Chrissy Sharon Alexander, 41, missing on Sept. 27 after not having seen her in about a week.

Alexander is described as being first nations, five-foot four and 126 pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes and glasses.

She usually goes by the name of Chris, and may be in the company of a man known only as “Nelson,” said Cpl. Craig Douglass of the Prince George RCMP in a statement.

The two may be linked to an older, white minivan.

Prince George is located along Highway 16, dubbed the Highway of Tears because dozens of teenage girls and young women have gone missing or were found murdered along it.

Many of the victims were first nations.

Up to 43 victims have gone missing along the highway, ranging in age from 14 to 25, according to North Coast MLA Gary Coons. Most were hitchhiking.

Anyone with information about Alexander, or where she might be, is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300. Those who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-TIPS, online at pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca or text to CRIMES using the keyword “pgtips.”

awoo@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, September 22

Editorial: Missing-women inquiry a sham

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 4:48 PM

It’s hard to get to the bottom of any problem — let alone make changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again — without the needed resources.

Wally Oppal’s inquiry into the Robert Pickton case, and the disappearance of 33 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, lacks those resources. Its credibility and effectiveness are both in doubt. With its formal work due to start Oct. 11, it is time to ask whether it is even worth continuing with the inquiry.

Oppal’s assignment is to look at the reasons 33 women — marginalized, dealing with poverty, addiction or prostitution — could go missing in a five-year period without police recognition that a serial killer might be on the loose, why attempted murder charges were stayed against Pickton in 1998 and why he could kill with impunity for years.

The inquiry was announced on Sept. 9, 2010, more than two years after Pickton was convicted of six murders. Families of the missing women and advocacy groups were pleased that questions would finally be answered.

Its credibility was dealt a serious blow three weeks later, when the provincial government appointed Oppal, a former judge and former attorney general, to lead it. Oppal had been in the provincial cabinet until the 2009 election. He had downplayed the need for an inquiry, and his appointment raised immediate fears that this would not be a truly independent inquiry.

The inquiry’s mandate also limited potential recommendations around regional policing and the role of government policy toward the addicted and impoverished in the crimes.

The inquiry was dealt another hugely damaging blow in May. Oppal had approved legal standing and representation for the victims’ families and 13 groups dealing with sex trade workers, Downtown Eastside residents and aboriginal people, among others. Their participation was needed to make the inquiry effective, he said, and legal representation was required to allow them to participate.

The provincial government said no. The families could have one lawyer. The groups would not have legal representation, despite Oppal’s protests.

The police will have taxpayer-funded lawyers. So will prosecutors and politicians and government employees.

But not those speaking for the victims and the communities from which they came. Already, about half the groups have announced that they will not take part; more may follow. Oppal has attempted to provide some representation within his budget, but the inquiry is now further tainted, with the interests of the powerful clearly coming ahead of those of the powerless.

The process so far, combined with the foot-dragging leading up to the inquiry, suggests the government has no real interest in learning from these deaths, or acting to prevent similar killing sprees in future.

Consider another government’s response to another high-profile serial criminal, Paul Bernardo. Between May 1987 and December 1992, he sexually assaulted 18 women and killed three more in southern Ontario.

Bernardo was convicted in September 1995. That December, the Ontario government ordered a review and appointed Judge Archie Campbell to conduct it. He completed his work within seven months and the report was released inJuly 1996. The Ontario government announced immediately that it would act on his recommendations.

Campbell’s report was damning, and identified issues — like fractured policing — that later allowed Pickton to kill without detection. He cited several cross-jurisdictional cases — including serial killer Clifford Olson — and said the lack of communication and co-operation between law enforcement agencies was a factor in all of them.

Pickton’s victims were ignored, marginalized and abused in life. The government’s shoddy handling of the reluctantly called inquiry continues that abuse. If the government refuses to fund the inquiry adequately, it is unlikely to act on any recommendations.

It’s time to consider abandoning the inquiry. It has become a symbol of the grim reality that the government simply does not care about these victims, or the women who are at risk of a similar fate.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Tuesday, September 20

Pivot Legal withdraws from missing women inquiry

BY ANDY IVENS, THE PROVINCE SEPTEMBER 20, 2011 5:03 PM

Commissioner Wally Oppal returns to his chair after being wrapped in a blanket during a traditional Coast Salish ceremony at the opening of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry at a community forum in the Downtown Eastside in January 2011. Pivot Legal Society said Tuesday it would withdraw from proceedings.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, PNG

The Pivot Legal Society has pulled out of next month’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry over a lack of funding for legal representation of many of the participants.

The commission, headed by former attorney-general Wally Oppal, will examine how serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton’s activities went undetected for five years leading up to his arrest in February 2002, while dozens of disadvantaged women were being reported missing from the Downtown Eastside.

The provincial government, which ordered the inquiry, has failed to adequately fund lawyers for sex worker organizations, women’s groups and Aboriginal groups at the inquiry, Pivot lawyer Doug King said Tuesday.

“It’s better for us to put our time into something else where we feel like we could be more useful,” King told The Province.

He noted Oppal tried to convince the government to fund about a dozen groups’ lawyers. It finally decided to fund two lawyers to represent all the groups.

“At the end of the day, it’s the attorney-general’s decision, and if they elect not to fund women in the same way that they are electing to fund police officers, there’s nothing we can do about that,” said King.

He criticized the format of the inquiry, which he said is “set up more like a trial . . . than an inquiry. For trials to be fair, in a democracy, their needs to be legal representation on both sides.”

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb issued a statement later Tuesday, saying: “ . . . [It] is our understanding that most of the groups that were granted standing will participate when hearings begin in Vancouver on Oct. 11.

“These include the families of 14 of Robert Pickton’s victims who, along with many other British Columbians, have questions about the Pickton investigation that need answers,” said Vertlieb.

David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said his organization is debating whether to follow Pivot in pulling out of the inquiry.

“We’re talking with a number of groups from the Downtown Eastside — the sex worker groups and Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre among others, getting a sense of where they are — and also we’re talking with our other coalition partner, Amnesty,” said Eby.

“Withdrawing is one of the options we’re looking at.”

Eby objects to what he called the unfairness of the process and possible safety concerns of the witnesses.

“The reason why would withdraw would be concern around the safety of women who would be participating in this inquiry being cross-examined aggressively by police and government lawyers when they don’t have lawyers of their own.

“The unfairness is that every police officer and every government official that testifies will have full legal assistance and representation at the table [while] every sex worker and every homeless woman and every marginalized member of the population will be unrepresented,” said Eby.

He favours a format in which lawyers would not be necessary.

aivens@theprovince.com

twitter.com/andyivens

© Copyright (c) The Province

Saturday, September 17

Intrepid Pens empower one another through literacy

In a community where women are often isolated and marginalized, creative writing group offers friendship, support and solace

BY LAURA KANE, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 17, 2011 4:03 AM

For one woman living in the Downtown Eastside, reading and writing are more than just hobbies. They're the key to survival.

A lifelong reader and writer, Anne-Marie Monks poured her emotions into a journal after a 1987 mugging that sent her life spiralling downhill. Reading a battered book of poetry and Bible verses became her only escape.

After the mugging, which left her in a coma for four months and shattered her hip, she was evicted from her home.

She began living on the streets of Vancouver's most troubled neighbourhood, surrounded by drug addiction, mental illness and the sex trade. The damage to her hip left her hobbling on crutches.

"I had nothing left," she said. "I was really depressed and felt like life wasn't worth living."

It was her journal and her reading that saved her.

"I think it's my lifeline. I couldn't live without books. They take my books away, I would die."

She began advocating for women's rights in the Downtown Eastside and speaking at missing women's marches. She even reunited with her estranged son after he saw her on the news.

Monks said speaking on behalf of other women gave her the courage to carry on.

"All of a sudden, it's not just me. There are other women worse off," she said. "If I can put my little voice out there, if I can make it better for somebody else, why not do it?" Now, the 64-year-old Monks is a core member of Intrepid Pens, a writing and book club for women in the Downtown Eastside. Women meet weekly to discuss literature and share their own writing.

Monks said the group offers her some solace from her "jail cell" in the Portland Hotel. Recently she wrote a poem called I am a rock, about a stone tumbling down a hill.

"A rock is something solid, which I would like to be. It's a survivor," she said. "It rolls down the hill, getting smaller and more banged up, but it still battles on."

TELLING STORIES, CHANGING LIVES

Every member of Intrepid Pens has a story to tell.

There's Ghia Aweida, who spent hours in the Vancouver Public Library to escape her troubles at home. Shurli Chan, who found she could write creatively after working for years as a biochemist. Sandra Pronteau, who went back to school after raising four children.

Sharing those stories can change lives, says Intrepid Pens founder Amanda Grondahl.

"When we write and share our stories, people are stripped bare. In that position, you open up yourself to receive support that might not have come if you hadn't been so vulnerable," she said.

Grondahl was working as a freelance writer and editor when she offered her services to organizations in the Downtown Eastside three years ago. The Downtown Eastside Women's Centre asked her to teach a business-writing seminar, which eventually morphed into a book club.

Intrepid Pens quickly grew from two members to a group of 14 or so regulars. Last month, they moved from the Women's Centre to the W2 Media Café in the Woodward's building.

Members range from age 18 to 86. Some have university educations, while one woman in her 60s was illiterate before joining the club, Grondahl said. In a community that is often marked by isolation, women in the group listen to and support each other, says Grondahl.

"It takes courage to tell your story, but also to listen, to say, 'I know how you feel, I've been there.'" Maggie de Vries knows the danger of isolation in the Downtown Eastside. Her sister Sarah de Vries disappeared in 1998. Robert Pickton was charged with her murder in 2005 after her DNA was found on his farm.

"Part of the reason she died was because of that marginalization, because we as a society aren't able to hear the voices of women like my sister," said de Vries. "Therefore many people can disappear and the powers that be don't take action."

De Vries, a creative writing professor at the University of B.C., published dozens of her sister's poems, diary entries and sketches in her 2003 book Missing Sarah.

"Sharing Sarah's voice was a way of showing people who she was," de Vries said. "We are just filled as a society, especially with street-level sex workers, with stereotypes. I knew that if people could hear Sarah, that would help."

De Vries often reads to book clubs in the Downtown Eastside, including Intrepid Pens. She said the groups empower women through literacy.

"[Reading and writing] are at the heart of how we as humans express the deepest parts of ourselves," she said.

"For women in a marginalized community to have those opportunities, it's potentially life-changing."

Members of Intrepid Pens said meeting de Vries was especially poignant.

"Many in the group knew Sarah," said Shurli Chan, 62. "There's trauma being brought out again and again, but it's become therapeutic for the women."

Intrepid Pens recently became a registered charity. Donations and volunteers are necessary for the group to survive, Grondahl said.

The group's new space at W2 includes a printing press, which members hope to use to publish a collection of their work. Now, their writing is published on the Intrepid Pens blog.

But in the meantime, Intrepid Pens members continue to meet every Saturday and learn a little bit more about themselves each time.

"That's the extraordinary thing about it," said Chan. "It even surprises me some of the things that just come out. 'Oh, is that what I wrote? Thank you, Amanda.'"

WRITING BY THE WOMEN OF INTREPID PENS

You Are Here

Where ever you have been in the past, All memories still intact brings us all to where we are at Not yet to pass.

Yesterday has but past us away and tomorrow has not appeared over the horizon to as today is God's gift to where we are at[: ] The present.

- Debbie Louise James, who died Aug. 31, 2011 at age 46.

Read more women's writing at http://intrepidpensreadingandwritingsociety.wordpress.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, September 14

Amber Alert system needed along Highway of Tears, commission told

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 4:04 AM

An Amber Alert system should be used to notify northern communities when a woman goes missing along the Highway of Tears, a missing women inquiry forum was told Tuesday.

"Reports should be taken more seriously," Michelle Angus told inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal at a community forum in Terrace.

"I've known four or five people who have gone missing," she recalled, adding there needs to be some sort of Amber Alert, a system now used to notify the public of a child abduction.

The commissioner heard from several speakers about the success of finding Kienan Hebert, a three-year-old boy who went missing from his home in Sparwood last week, after an Amber Alert was issued by police.

Robin Austin, NDP MLA for Skeena, said he gave a ride to a young first-nations woman a couple of days ago and there was a news report on the car radio about the Sparwood boy being found.

"The young woman said, 'I guess that Amber Alert worked and he's safe because he's white,'" the MLA recalled.

Rightly or wrongly, that's the view of many first-nations people, Austin said.

The women who have disappeared along Highway 16 were largely marginalized people, similar to those who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, he said.

"Maybe if they were wealthy white women from North Vancouver, Robert Pickton would have been picked up much sooner," Austin said.

Shanelle Alexander suggested having better bus service along Highway 16 so people don't have to hitchhike home after the last bus leaves at 4: 30 p.m.

She also said there is information about the missing women that needs to be brought forward so it can be investigated.

"Many people have information on these missing women but they are being threatened," Alexander said.

One speaker suggested firstnations drug gangs are using women as "mules" to transport drugs.

Chief Coun. Don Roberts of Kitsumkalum said he believes all the girls and women reported missing have been murdered. He suggested more cameras should be installed along the highway to catch the "monster," who seems to act when people drop their guard.

"We're having meetings, meetings, meetings - no action," he said.

Highway 16 has been dubbed the Highway of Tears because so many teen girls and young women have gone missing or were found murdered along the highway, which runs from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

The public forums have heard some shocking allegations, including from one woman who complained that she was raped at gunpoint by an RCMP officer. She said the officer was never charged and it was dealt with internally.

Another man, who identified himself as Carl, claimed he saw a man chop off a woman's head with a machete. He said he could help police solve 22 murders.

RCMP Chief Supt. Wayne Rideout said Tuesday that an investigator had been in contact with Carl for some time. He also said police are going to look at the woman's rape allegation.

"That's something we'll take a look at. We have to investigate it and investigate the validity of it," Rideout said.

If the complaint deserves to be investigated, it will be assigned to an outside agency, he added.

Rideout, in charge of criminal operations for contract policing in B.C., said senior Mounties attending the forums are listening to the public views about the RCMP.

He said investigators are also speaking to those who raise complaints or have tips about cases.

"There's a tremendous amount of work being done and a lot of work to be done," Rideout said.

B.C. Civil Liberties executive director David Eby told the forum in Terrace that his agency may boycott the inquiry owing to concerns about lack of government funding for participating groups. The inquiry begins formal hearings in Vancouver on Oct. 11.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

A sad irony: women missing from Missing Women's Inquiry

VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 4:04 AM

When the province announced last September that it would hold an inquiry into the conduct of the investigations into Vancouver's missing women, it was heralded as a victory for those who had often suffered in silence.

In particular, many groups representing aboriginals, women, prostitutes and low-income people felt that the inquiry would finally provide a voice to those whose voicelessness contributed to their being victimized by serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton.

But what a difference a year makes. As the "study" portion of the Missing Women Inquiry begins this week, the mood is considerably more sombre than celebratory. The inquiry frequently made news before it even began, yet little of the news has been encouraging.

Commissioner Wally Oppal has been under attack from the day he was appointed. But the most serious problems began after Oppal recommended that the province fund the participation of the families of Pickton's victims and 12 groups that advocate primarily on behalf of women, aboriginals and street sex workers.

While the province did agree to fund the victims' families, its steadfast refusal to support the other groups led a number to withdraw from participation in the inquiry.

It also led Oppal to write a tersely worded letter, and to leave an even more tersely worded message on thenprovincial attorney-general Barry Penner's answering machine.

While such communication between an inquiry commissioner and an attorney-general really isn't all that unusual, news of the letter and phone message did lead to critics questioning Oppal's judgment. This is all tremendously unfortunate since it merely serves to distract from the importance of the inquiry.

After all, the inquiry is not supposed to be about the commissioner. It's supposed to be about the investigations, and why various police forces failed for so long to apprehend Pickton. And to answer this question, the participation of a variety of groups is necessary.

It is, of course, up to the commissioner to decide which groups should take part. The government then typically funds the groups, but in this case the province resisted, suggesting that there might be duplication if the groups have similar interests.

This is contrary to Oppal's opinion, since he had already successfully requested that groups with similar interests form coalitions, and had decided those 12 groups deserve funding.

And as a number of former commissioners recently wrote, it is virtually unheard of for a government to overturn a commissioner's decision on standing.

Certainly, the government has a responsibility to spend taxpayers' money wisely, particularly in these difficult economic times. Yet its unwillingness to spend an estimated $1.5 million on funding for the affected groups seems odd given that it already spent some $100 million on the Pickton investigation.

It seems odder still given that the police and the Crown will be fully funded at the inquiry.

If this imbalance doesn't trouble the provincial government then this should: By failing to provide funding, and by having these groups decide not to participate in the inquiry, the province is risking once again silencing marginalized women.

We say all of this with awareness that this editorial board opposed the inquiry in the first place, preferring as we did that the money be directed toward helping women on the street. But the provincial government made a decision to hold an inquiry - to give voice to the voiceless - and it must now make good on that decision or scrap the inquiry altogether.

After all, the saddest irony, which is now becoming a reality, is a Missing Women Inquiry with the women missing.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Monday, September 12

MISSING WOMEN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

Missing Women

Opinion: Denial of justice at the Missing Women Commission more than a shame to the country

The refusal of the BC government to provide representation to groups granted standing at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry is more than a national shame. It’s part of Canada’s internationally known pattern of international human rights violations against women and indigenous people.

COMMENTS (0)

Chief Ian Campbell and his daughter Cascade Campbell, 8, look at a poster of missing women before the opening of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry at a community forum in the Downtown Eastside in January.

Livestream: Missing Women Commission launches community forums

The first public forums by the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry into the police investigation of women reported missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside open today.

COMMENTS (1)

Missing Women Commission launches community forums

The first public forums by the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry into the police investigation of women reported missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside open today.

COMMENTS (0)

'A shame to the country as a whole'

As the Missing Women Inquiry prepares to start community forums Monday in northern B.C., a prominent group of experts has sent a letter to B.C.'s attorneygeneral expressing shock and concern about the government's refusal to fund all participants.

COMMENTS (0)

Peel police officers' role in Pickton probe criticized

Three Peel regional police officers who are advising the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry should be removed because their presence undermines the inquiry's independence, two watchdog groups said Thursday.

COMMENTS (0)

Missing Women inquiry announces four lawyers to represent first nations women and Downtown Eastside community

Lawyers will not represent specific clients at the inquiry but will be expected to take guidance from unfunded participant groups and affected organizations and individuals.

COMMENTS (0)

'Compromise' may see 4 lawyers hired

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry is looking to hire four lawyers to represent the interests of first nations women and residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

COMMENTS (0)

Wally Oppal

B.C. to help with legal fees of families of missing and murdered women

The B.C. government will provide funding to assist with the legal fees of families of murdered and missing women appearing before the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Attorney General Barry Penner has announced.

COMMENTS (0)

Commission grants full standing to 10 groups

Can cross-examine witnesses, will have access to documents

COMMENTS (0)

Pickton

Missing Women Inquiry wants to hear from northern B.C. residents

The Missing Women inquiry is appealing for residents of northern B.C. communities to make submissions at forums scheduled for mid June.

COMMENTS (0)

Wally Oppal

Missing women commission grants standing to 18 groups including victims' families

A detective who suspected early on that a serial killer was at work in the Downtown Eastside, several first nations groups and the families of many of Robert Pickton's victims will be given the opportunity to participate in the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Commissioner Wally Oppal announced Tuesday morning.

COMMENTS (0)

Commission grants full standing to 10 groups

A former Vancouver police detective, several first nations groups and the families of many of Robert Pickton's victims have been granted full-participation status in the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, commissioner Wally Oppal announced Tuesday.

Northern B.C. women risk lives by hitchhiking, probe told

ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER – From Tuesday’s Globe and mail
Published Monday, Sept. 12, 2011

Women in northern B.C. put their lives in danger by hitchhiking because they have no other way to travel across the region, the missing women inquiry was told during a hearing in Prince Rupert.

Women are hitching to school every morning from the community of Hazelton because the bus service does not leave early enough to bring them to their classes on time, said a woman who identified herself by her Indian name of Rainbow.

“[The women] have to decide, do I put my life in jeopardy to get an education today,” she said on Monday.

She said she has not taken night classes in Prince Rupert because she does not feel comfortable walking across town after dark. The only way she can go to school is to go before it is dark, she said.

“Transportation is a lot of the reason that women’s lives are in jeopardy ... there are no resources out there to help women,” she said. “You either walk or you hitchhike to where you are going. It is just not fair.”

Commissioner Wally Oppal held the first of seven sessions in northern B.C. on Monday to hear from northerners about women who have gone missing along Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, a stretch dubbed the Highway of Tears.

The missing women inquiry is focused mostly on reviewing aspects of the police investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton and how police responded to reports of women who disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. However, Mr. Oppal was also asked to recommend changes related to the conduct of police investigations into the cases of women who have vanished or been murdered across B.C.

The hearings in the north are informal, without sworn testimony, cross examination or legal representation. Formal hearings are to begin Oct. 11.

Several prominent first nations and women’s groups are boycotting the northern hearings. First nations groups have said the government should have appointed a separate inquiry into the Highway of Tears cases. They also said they could not prepare for the hearings without provincial funding.

However, 12 people from Prince Rupert, including two New Democratic MLAs, made presentations to the inquiry.

The RCMP have identified 18 women who have gone missing along the Highway of Tears. Several were later found dead. First nations say more than 40 women have disappeared, most of them young aboriginal women who were hitching along the highway.

A high-profile symposium on the missing women in northern B.C. was held in 2006. Mr. Oppal was told that most of the recommendations – including regular bus service along Highway 16 – were not implemented. Funding to monitor progress on the symposium recommendations and to carry them out dried up in 2007.

“I wonder if this committee is getting dizzy,” said Darlene Wolf, whose sister was murdered in the early 1970s in Alberta. “It feels like we are going in circles.”

The inquiry heard tearful presentations from Vickie Hill, the daughter of a woman who went missing and was murdered outside Prince Rupert in 1978, and Molly Dickson, the mother of a woman who disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown eastside earlier this year. Mr. Oppal also heard from a woman who said she was beaten up by a police officer and another who said she was raped by an officer.

Grainne Barthe, a counsellor with the North Coast Transportation Society, urged the government to appoint a separate inquiry into the Highway of Tears. “Is this just government saving money, a two-for-one deal,” she said.

Mr. Oppal opened and closed the hearing with an appeal to northerners to make submissions during the sessions this week in northern B.C. “The purpose of the inquiry is to listen to the voices of the community,” he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/northern-bc-women-risk-lives-by-hitchhiking-probe-told/article2162278/

Missing Women forum begins with prayer from first nations elder

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUNSEPTEMBER 12, 2011 6:15 PM

The Highway of Tears.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

The Missing Women Inquiry’s first community forum in northern B.C. heard some heart-wrenching stories Monday in Prince Rupert.

One woman described being raped at gunpoint by an RCMP officer who was never charged.

Another woman recalled how she was beaten by a police officer and charged with being drunk in a public place, but the charges were later dropped when she tried to get the videotape from the police.

Vickie Hill told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal how her mother disappeared in 1978 along Highway 16 — known as the Highway of Tears because of dozens of teenage girls and young women have gone missing or were found murdered along the road, which runs from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

“I was six months old when I lost her,” she recalled, adding the case remains unsolved after more than 33 years.

“I want you to know that this has been going on for a long time,” she told the forum, the first in a series looking into the systemic problems of police investigating multiple homicides in a number of jurisdictions.

Molly Dickson said her daughter Angeline went missing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but when she tried to report it to her local RCMP, they told her they couldn’t help.

She said the Salvation Army eventually helped her contact an officer in North Vancouver, where her daughter lived when she disappeared.

One man, identified only as Jacob, suggested the problems that must be tackled are the poverty and addiction that make so many women vulnerable. He also blasted “the native gangs that use our people as mules.”

Marlene Smith, who has worked for 13 years as an RCMP victim-services worker, credited the RCMP for treating her with respect and sensitivity when she was driving a cab and was hijacked at knifepoint by a man who wanted her to drive him to Terrace one night.

Oppal explained that the inquiry is not just probing the problems of the police investigation of serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton, who preyed on women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but also of tragic events taking place along Highway 16 and across B.C.

“It is my utmost hope that these horrific crimes are resolved,” he said.

“When you lose a child, it rips the heart out of a community,” MLA Gary Coons told Oppal. He said up to 43 victims have gone missing along the highway, ranging in age from 14 to 25. Most were hitchhiking.

A Highway of Tears symposium five years ago recommended a public-transportation network be established to increase public safety, but nothing happened, Coons said.

The community forums will continue Tuesday in Terrace and Kitwanga, and are being live-streamed on The Vancouver Sun’s website.

nhall@vancouversun.com

Here is the inquiry's schedule for the next few days:

- 5th Street, Prince Rupert

Terrace - Kitsumkalum Community Forum

Tuesday September 13, 2011

8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Kitsumkalum Hall

3514 West Kalum Road, Terrace

Gitanyow Community Forum

Tuesday September 13, 2011

3:00pm to 5:00 pm

Gitanyow Independent School

3389 Third Ave, Kitwanga

Terrace - Nisga'a Community Forum

Tuesday September 13, 2011

7:30 pm to 9:00 pm

Nisga'a Community Room

101 - 4441 Lakelse Ave, Terrace

Moricetown Community Forum

Wednesday September 14, 2011

1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Moricetown Multiplex

205 Beaver Rd, Smithers

Smithers Community Forum

Wednesday September 14, 2011

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

3955 3rd Avenue, Smithers

Hazelton Community Forum

Thursday September 15, 2011

9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Gitanmaax Hall

1965 Hwy 62, Hazelton

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, September 8

Experts decry lack of funding for groups at Missing Women inquiry

BY NEAL HALL, POSTMEDIA NEWS SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Missing Women inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal at a community forum in Vancouvers' Downtown Eastside on Jan. 19, 2011.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, PNG files

VANCOUVER — As the Missing Women inquiry prepares to start community forums Monday in northern British Columbia, a prominent group of experts has sent a letter to B.C.'s attorney general expressing shock and concern about the government's refusal to fund all participants.

"We can identify no other case in Canada where a government, having appointed a commission of inquiry, then, in effect, overturned a commissioner's decision on standing by refusing funding for participation.

"It is illogical, and it damages irreparably the ability of the commissioner to do the very work that was assigned to him," said the letter signed by University of Toronto law professor Kent Roach, and endorsed by almost a dozen other prominent lawyers and academics.

The authors have been commission counsel or advisers at a number of public inquiries, including the inquiry into the bombing of Air India Flight 182, the Maher Arar Inquiry, the Ipperwash Inquiry into the killing of Dudley George, the Walkerton Inquiry, the inquiry on the blood system in Canada, the inquiry into allegations of conflict of interest concerning the Honourable Sinclair M. Stevens and the inquiry concerning the Kingston Prison for Women.

"The refusal of funding in this case is also especially egregious because the groups granted standing represent some of the most disadvantaged women in Canada, including aboriginal women, women living in poverty, women with drug addictions and women engaged in prostitution," the letter said.

"These are women whose voices are rarely heard in legal fora. They are women who are regularly, and in the facts at issue in the Inquiry, repeatedly, preyed upon, violated and murdered. To render them voiceless when it is their lives and safety which are the subject of the Inquiry, is unprincipled, as well as legally unsound."

The letter concludes: "If the Inquiry cannot be a credible and fair one because of former attorney general (Barry) Penner's damaging decision not to provide funding, this will be a further tragedy for women in B.C. and a shame to the country as a whole.

"Your government should be willing in 2011 to permit a full, public examination of whether, and if so, in what ways, there have been police and Crown failures to protect women and prevent violence against them, and one in which the most marginalized women, and the organizations that represent them, can participate effectively and enjoy the respect and support that they are owed."

When the B.C. government refused to provide funding to more than a dozen groups, some dropped out and other decided to boycott the inquiry.

In response, Missing Women Inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal appointed two independent counsel to represent aboriginal women and women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Another two senior Vancouver lawyers offered to represent unfunded groups without charge.

The letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Shirley Bond says the makeshift measure does not address the imbalance between well-funded groups such as police and the Crown and those without their own counsel.

"Rather, it is a reflection of existing inequities," the letter added. "The refusal of the attorney general to fund parties to the inquiry will result in an unfair and discriminatory hearing process."

The Missing Women inquiry's mandate is to probe why it took so long to catch serial killer Robert Pickton, who was arrested and charged with murder on Feb. 5, 2002, and why the Crown decided to drop attempted murder charges against Pickton in 1998.

Pickton was charged with attempted murder in 1997 after he slashed a woman with a knife and she fled naked into the street from his farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. where he often butchered pigs.

The commission's terms of reference also allow it to gather information and make recommendations on the conduct of investigations of missing women and suspected multiple murders throughout B.C.

The inquiry will begin seven community forums starting Monday, Sept. 12, in Prince Rupert to hear from those living along Highway 16, which runs to Prince George.

It is believed dozens of teenage girls and young women have disappeared over the years along the so-called Highway of Tears.

The inquiry will begin formal hearings in Vancouver on Oct. 11.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, September 6

Police conduct aided a serial killer - they must be held responsible


By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
September 6, 2011 2:12 AM
 
B.C.'s most infamous serial killer, Willie Pickton, has been on my mind.
I turned on the television over the weekend and there was The Pig Farm, a movie about his heinous crimes.

There are books about how he preyed on women and how both the Vancouver police department and the RCMP screwed up.

It's been a decade since he was arrested.

Yet barely a fortnight ago, the Attorney-General's office was suggesting missing women inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal might have to be replaced for daring to disparage police and prosecutors while pleading for legal funding for needy groups.

I'm still scratching my head.

Where did former attorney general Barry Penner or any lawyer for the police get off trying to block this inquiry with such ridiculous allegations against Oppal?

Pickton wasn't an ordinary murderer: He boasted of slaughtering dozens of women. Dozens!

And it still hasn't sunk in that police conduct aided him - not only that investigators made mistakes, but their incompetence was so huge it abetted the killings.

It is so unseemly I don't have words for it.

It is so overwhelmingly horrendous that the legal system has been tying itself in knots to keep the truth from becoming public.

I had to talk with some of the families whose loved ones died at the hands of this semi-literate butcher.

Dad Rick Frey was angry, too. "Oppal [who was attorney-general during the Pickton prosecution] turned a blind eye and I'm going to give him a blast [when I testify at his inquiry] and tell him what I think of him, too," said the plain-speaking fisherman, father of Marnie Frey, one of the six women Pickton was actually convicted of murdering.

"Where were the people so concerned about conflict of interest when the cops were being unfair to us?"

The Freys were among those who futilely demanded police investigate more thoroughly back in 1997, before the wholesale slaughter began.

Oppal, who stayed 20 remaining murder charges after Pickton was convicted on six, is no hero to the families and everyone has waited too long to learn the truth, Frey added.

During Pickton's rampage, the VPD all but told them to get lost.

"I want answers," Frey insisted with all the indignation his pain and experience entitle him to, "and why should we wait longer?"

Lori-Ann Ellis, whose sister-inlaw Cara Ellis vanished in January 1997, one of the alleged victims in the scores of outstanding cases, is equally frustrated.

"I think we have larger issues that should be addressed," she said.

"The funding being denied groups whose information is vital to the truth coming out in this inquiry is an embarrassment."

She can't believe that at this late, late date anyone is trying to derail the process.

A decade ago, the very cops now moaning about Oppal dismissed the families as
worry warts. Now they maintain the public already knows all it needs to - forget it, they say, we've looked after the problem.

What crap.

Wayne Leng was the man who started a poster campaign back in the last century. He was in love with Sarah deVries, who disappeared April 14, 1998. He believed a serial killer was loose and plastered the streets, set up a 1-800 tip line, created a website and interested NBC's America's Most Wanted in the story.

The VPD all but charged him for interfering with their non investigation. Guess what? He was right. A serial killer was loose: Robert William Pickton.

Leng is as angry as the rest of us who will not let the police sweep their indifference and their incompetence under the rug on this one.
"It's disconcerting and troublesome," he said. "It's a mess. But we have to keep Oppal.
He's all we've got. Someone has to be held accountable for the terrible screw-up that has taken place here."

No kidding.

For too long, we have been told no one in our institutions is responsible for anything - whether it is for the death of an immigrant from Poland at Vancouver International Airport or the Stanley Cup riot. Well, it's time we changed that.

There are people who didn't do their jobs here and women died; people who are as responsible for the deaths as Pickton.

We should know their names, we should denounce them and we should condemn the appalling apathy and indifference that led to this ungodly tragedy.

That's what public inquiries are for. Let's get on with this one.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Police+conduct+aided+serial+killer+they+must+held+responsible/5356602/story.html

Monday, September 5

Opinion: Police conduct aided serial killer Willie Pickton— they must be held responsible

BY IAN MULGREW, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 5, 2011 9:05 PM

Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew

Photograph by: Staff, PNG

B.C.’s most infamous serial killer, Willie Pickton, has been on my mind.

I turned on the television over the weekend and there was The Pig Farm, a movie about his heinous crimes.

There are books about how he preyed on women and how both the Vancouver police department and the RCMP screwed up.

It’s been a decade since he was arrested.

Yet barely a fortnight ago, the Attorney-General’s office was suggesting missing women inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal might have to be replaced for daring to disparage police and prosecutors while pleading for legal funding for needy groups.

I’m still scratching my head.

Where did former attorney-general Barry Penner or any lawyer for the police get off trying to block this inquiry with such ridiculous allegations against Oppal?

Pickton wasn’t an ordinary murderer: He boasted of slaughtering dozens of women. Dozens!

And it still hasn’t sunk in that police conduct aided him — not only that investigators made mistakes, but their incompetence was so huge it abetted the killings.

It is so unseemly I don’t have words for it.

It is so overwhelmingly horrendous that the legal system has been tying itself in knots to keep the truth from becoming public.

I had to talk with some of the families whose loved ones died at the hands of this semi-literate butcher.

Dad Rick Frey was angry, too.

“Oppal [who was attorney-general during the Pickton prosecution] turned a blind eye and I’m going to give him a blast [when I testify at his inquiry] and tell him what I think of him, too,” said the plain-speaking fisherman, father of Marnie Frey, one of the six women Pickton was actually convicted of murdering.

“Where were the people so concerned about conflict of interest when the cops were being unfair to us?”

The Freys were among those who futilely demanded police investigate more thoroughly back in 1997, before the wholesale slaughter began.

Oppal, who stayed 20 remaining murder charges after Pickton was convicted on six, is no hero to the families and everyone has waited too long to learn the truth, Frey added.

During Pickton’s rampage, the VPD all but told them to get lost.

“I want answers,” Frey insisted with all the indignation his pain and experience entitle him to, “and why should we wait longer?”

Lori-Ann Ellis, whose sister-in-law Cara Ellis vanished in January 1997, one of the alleged victims in the scores of outstanding cases, is equally frustrated.

“I think we have larger issues that should be addressed,” she said.

“The funding being denied groups whose information is vital to the truth coming out in this inquiry is an embarrassment.”

She can’t believe that at this late, late date anyone is trying to derail the process.

A decade ago, the very cops now moaning about Oppal dismissed the families as worrywarts. Now they maintain the public already knows all it needs to — forget it, they say, we’ve looked after the problem.

What crap.

Wayne Leng was the man who started a poster campaign back in the last century. He was in love with Sarah deVries, who disappeared April 14, 1998. He believed a serial killer was loose and plastered the streets, set up a 1-800 tip line, created a website and interested NBC’s America’s Most Wanted in the story.

The VPD all but charged him for interfering with their non-investigation.

Guess what? He was right. A serial killer was loose: Robert William Pickton.

Leng is as angry as the rest of us who will not let the police sweep their indifference and their incompetence under the rug on this one.

“It’s disconcerting and troublesome,” he said. “It’s a mess. But we have to keep Oppal. He’s all we’ve got. Someone has to be held accountable for the terrible screw-up that has taken place here.”

No kidding.

For too long, we have been told no one in our institutions is responsible for anything – whether it is for the death of an immigrant from Poland at Vancouver International Airport or the Stanley Cup riot. Well, it’s time we changed that.

There are people who didn’t do their jobs here and women died; people who are as responsible for the deaths as Pickton.

We should know their names, we should denounce them and we should condemn the appalling apathy and indifference that led to this ungodly tragedy.

That’s what public inquiries are for. Let’s get on with this one.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, September 1

Time for Wally to go before things get messier

BY MICHAEL SMYTH, THE PROVINCE SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 3:01 AM

Wally Oppal, head of the public inquiry into the Pickton serial killings, has been accused of being biased about the case.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann - PNG, The Province

Wally Oppal is under increasing pressure to resign as head of the public inquiry into the Willy Pickton serial killings.

That's if the government doesn't fire him first over controversial comments Oppal made on the case that triggered accusations of bias.

Oppal appears to be digging in and standing his ground, at least for now. But this one could get uglier, and I don't think he can survive as commissioner.

It all started with a public letter Oppal issued in June, demanding the B.C. government pay for more lawyers at his inquiry. The letter contained an allegation that the Crown's failure to proceed with charges against Pickton in 1997 - when he was arrested for stabbing a prostitute - caused the deaths of more missing women.

Then Oppal left a voice mail for then-attorney-general Barry Penner, alleging that police ignored complaints about women disappearing from the streets.

The comments understandably angered the cops and the Crown, who think Oppal has already decided they screwed up the worst serialmurder case in Canadian history - all before Oppal has heard a single scrap of evidence at his inquiry.

I'm told Penner believed Oppal should have been fired back in July. The government appointed Oppal to head the public inquiry and could just as easily rescind the appointment.

But Premier Christy Clark, I'm told, has typically wavered on the point. She's worried the government would be seen as protecting the Crown and the police if they sacked Oppal.

Clark also likes Oppal, as many people do. Oppal's personal charm has helped him wriggle out of trouble before when his legendary motormouth got him in trouble.

But, this time, Wally may have gone too far. The government sent a letter to Oppal in July, pointing out his comments left him wide open to accusations of bias.

Oppal responded with a defiant letter of his own - sent to the government by his commission's lead counsel, Art Vertlieb - that angered the government even more.

The government and Oppal both refuse to release the letters publicly. But I'm told the government believes Vertlieb's letter contains even more evidence of bias.

Here's the thing to keep in mind: Oppal could very well be right that the cops and Crown dropped the ball on the Pickton case. There's already plenty of evidence that the case was a monumental screw-up by authorities.

But Oppal's comments are a brutal blunder for a former judge and attorney-general to make - and he knows it himself. That's why he issued a public statement on Monday insisting he hasn't prejudged the case.

But other loose-tongued commissioners have made similar mistakes - and paid the price.

John Gomery, head of the inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal, was famously sued for bias by former prime minister Jean Chretien. Chretien won, and Gomery's findings against him were struck down.

The head of the public inquiry into Canada's involvement in Somalia was also successfully sued for bias.

The government is well aware of these precedents and has an alarming legal opinion about Oppal's comments. Many in the government are hoping Oppal resigns.

But Oppal is a stubborn fellow. And he's a making a tonne of money on this shindig - $1,500 a day as commissioner. He may dig in and fight - but I personally think he should resign now, before things get even messier.

msmyth@theprovince.com twitter.com/MikeSmythNews

© Copyright (c) The Province