Saturday, December 4

Briefs: Pickton report author lauded, site of Komagata Maru memorial pondered

DECEMBER 4, 2010 10:02 AM

Vancouver Police Department deputy Chief Doug LePard, author of the Missing Women’s Report involving the Pickton murders, has received an award for his efforts to reduce violence against women.

LePard’s actions were lauded by the Ending Violence Association of B.C., a non-profit organization that provides service to more than 200 anti-violence programs across B.C.

LePard helped set up and led the VPD’s domestic violence and criminal harassment unit in 1996, which has doubled the number of successful prosecutions for such cases.

KOMAGATA MARU MEMORIAL SITE CONSIDERED

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is seeking the public’s comments on two possible sites for a monument to the passengers of the Komagata Maru, the ship bearing mostly East Indian immigrants that was denied entry into Vancouver in 1914.

The sites under consideration are in Harbour Green Park and in Stanley Park near Brockton Oval.

Comments must be mailed to the park board or emailed to pbcomment@vancouvercity.ca by no later than Jan. 3, 2011.

Friday, December 3

University of Calgary December 6th Memorial Ceremony - Remember Our Sisters Everywhere

Native group spreading false info: cabinet ministers - Winnipeg Free Press

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 2/12/2010 1:00 AM |

OTTAWA -- Two federal cabinet ministers Wednesday accused the Native Women's Association of Canada of spreading false information about the government's $10-million Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women Initiative.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose released a joint letter to the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, expressing concern about "inaccurate media reports" citing NWAC's reaction to the announcement.

"These criticisms have been most disconcerting as we spoke to you prior to the announcement to explain details of this initiative," the ministers wrote.

The $10-million plan, announced last month, was promised in the government's last budget after it denied an extension of funding for NWAC's Sisters in Spirit project. SIS, a five-year, $5-million government-funded research project, developed a database of more than 500 aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada in the last several decades.

The project drew attention to just how widespread the problem of violence against aboriginal women is in this country, and uncovered numerous problems of police and governments not taking the issue seriously.

NWAC's main objection to the new $10-million plan is that Sisters in Spirit is completely shut out. NWAC received $500,000 to launch a new project focusing on awareness projects.

But that funding specifically prohibits research and domestic advocacy, which means no more collection of cases for the database and no more lobbying the government.

Find this article at:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/native-group-spreading-false-info-cabinet-ministers-111180279.html

Thursday, December 2

View Vancouver Missing - 14109 - E-GuestBooks.com

Wednesday, December 1

J-Source.ca -- The Canadian Journalism Project

"Serial killers don't sue you." Stevie Cameron on writing about Pickton

November 30, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

When investigative journalist Stevie Cameron stepped into a BC courthouse to cover the trail of convicted serial killer Robert Pickton in 2003, she didn’t know much about court reporting. Eight years and two books later, Cameron talks about how she kept a level head amidst a gruesome reality. Heather Linda Young reports.

When investigative journalist Stevie Cameron stepped into a British Columbia courthouse in 2003, she didn’t know much about court reporting, and she didn’t know much about the trial she was covering. “I approached the Pickton [case] knowing nothing about it, really,” she said.

But what she did know was she would be covering a great story.

In the four years that followed, she heard all kinds of gruesome details – some of which the general public will never know – about how the now-convicted murderer Robert William Pickton took dozens of women to his pig farm and killed them. In court, the stepmother of one of the victims almost fainted when she heard what had happened to the women. It wasn’t an easy trial to cover. Despite the unpleasantness, Cameron never considered stepping away from the story.

She penned two books about the horror she saw: the first, The Pickton File, was published in 2007 and focused on Cameron’s experiences rather than the details of the trial. Once the publication ban was lifted in August, she published her second book about Pickton, called On The Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women.

Cameron spoke about the book and how she put it together to a crowd of about a hundred people last week at the University of Western Ontario. The talk was this year’s Clissold lecture hosted by the school’s Master of Arts in journalism program. You can also watch a video from earlier this year where Cameron talks about the trail (and read an excerpt from On The Farm)

For about an hour, Cameron discussed the trial, her interaction with interview subjects and her process in writing the book.

While On the Farm focuses on Pickton, who was charged with 27 counts of murder but convicted of just six, Cameron also introduces us to all 65 of the women whose remains were identified on his property.

“I wanted to have a story about every woman on the list,” she said. “I wanted readers to know and care about these women.”

To do that, she had to be organized, she said.

Cameron, who has written for the Ottawa Citizen, the Globe and Mail andMaclean’s, spent four months getting ready after her publisher asked her to write the book. She methodically searched for every newspaper story about the case. She followed up with every name mentioned in every article – those of both victims and interviewees – to find out who the victims were and how to contact people who might know something about them. From there, she made a list of what she knew about the women and tried to fit every detail into a digital timeline.

“Chronologies solve mysteries,” she explained afterward in a J-sourceinterview.

Any time she read a story, conducted an interview or heard testimony in court, she added all the names, dates and clips into a set of binders. By the end of the trial, she had 40 three-inch binders full of details, hundreds of thousands of clips, and 800 pages of chronology.

She was also the only individual to buy transcripts of the preliminary hearing -- for between $30,000 and $40,000, a fee she and her husband took on -- and she copied the information into her own records. Although this information was under publication ban until this year, Cameron says it was the most valuable. The defence eliminated witnesses during this time, so she heard a lot of information that would never be told at the actual trial.

She gave herself a month to plan the structure. Once that was done, the writing was easy, she said.

“Writing a book is a wonderful thing to do,” Cameron said. She wanted to write this book as if it was a crime novel that just happened to be true. And she stressed that she didn’t do it by herself; she gave a great deal of credit to her editors, agents and publisher. But, she said, sometimes it felt lonely.

“Because at some point, you have to stop doing interviews. You just have to put your butt on a chair and type.”

Cameron, who has written a number of books about white-collar criminals, told the audience that writing about Pickton was a nice change. She said that like most people, she has always been fascinated with serial killers.

Plus, she added, “serial killers don’t sue you.”

And although Pickton was convicted of six counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to life in jail, Cameron said it wasn’t enough. She expressed disappointment that the other charges were stayed, that DNA evidence was found for other women and no charges were placed and that some missing women were never found.

“It created an aristocracy of victims,” she said.

The good news, she said, is that there are still “very good people who work so hard to see justice for these girls.” She praised everyone involved in the case, including Crown prosecutors, sheriffs, people on the missing women’s task force, victim services workers, and the 104 forensic anthropology students that helped dig through 383,000 cubic yards of soil on the property.

“And then there was me,” she said, “the very lucky journalist who had the great privilege of telling this story. It was, for me, what every journalist hopes for. It was the story of a lifetime.”
"The Canadian Journalism Project (CJP) and its websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), are projects of The Canadian Journalism Foundation in collaboration with leading journalism schools and organizations across Canada. This article has been reprinted with permission from the CJP and author Heather Linda Young."J-Source.ca -- The Canadian Journalism Project