“We don’t do anything by ambush here…” – Commissioner Oppal, October 27, 2011, Transcript, p. 134

The fourth week of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry hearings ended oddly, with Commission Counsel Art Vertlieb, Q.C. opening the day by unexpectedly reading correspondence between him and I into the record for forty minutes.  The object of the exercise was unclear, but he established that I had been seeking full disclosure of documents and a witness list since early this year.  (At this point, we still have neither).  I responded by wondering out loud why Jennifer Evans of Ontario was given access to all the files last December, while I, the lawyer for the families of this missing and murdered women, wasn’t able to see them for another six months.  Mr. Vertlieb didn’t really have an answer to that question, saying, “I don’t know when she was given access to the documents” and “maybe different considerations applied” to her.  All very puzzling.

The hearing ended at about noon.  Next week, the first police witness, Vancouver Deputy Chief Doug LePard, is scheduled to testify.