They say a lawyer must be able to think on his/her feet and have a thick skin.  I had to call on both resources first thing this morning when, quite unexpectedly, Commissioner Oppal took me to task in the public hearing over a few questions I had posed to witnesses back on Octber 18 and 19.  At the time, no one, including Commission Counsel Art Vertlieb, Q.C., had objected to the questions, so it was rather a surprise to be confronted and questioned about a few moments of testimony that occurred two weeks ago.

I did my best to defend my conduct, and my success, or failure on that front can be ascertained from a review of the transcript of this morning’s proceedings.  I certainly respect Commissioner Oppal’s opinions and have no difficulty with him fairly expressing them.  I will continue to strive to represent the interests of my clients, the families of 18 of the missing and murdered women, in a way that is entirely consistent with my professional responsibilities.

The morning continued fairly uneventfully with Mr. Gratl’s submissions on his application for protection of vulnerable witnesses.

The federal government’s application for a publication ban may be heard later today.

2:40 p.m. update:  The Commission has adjourned for the day, without any formal indication of what may occur tomorrow.  Presumably, the federal government’s application for a publication ban will be on the agenda.  We continue to prepare material in support of our anticipated application for full disclosure of relevant records, and for a brief adjournment to enable us to digest the documents in the event we are successful.  It seems like that may come on for hearing after the testimony of VPD Deputy Chief Lepard, who takes the stand Monday.

At 6:29 p.m. today, Commission Counsel suddenly advised us that tomorrow we “should be ready to deal with the issue of protection of confidential information brought forward by Ms. Tobias (counsel for the Government of Canada) who is seeking a ruling on the matter.”

It is not clear to us whether the media has been adequately informed of the Government’s “application”, which is described in a letter dated October 31, 2011 and delivered to us yesterday.

The application, if granted, would ban the publication of a great deal of evidence anticipated to be tendered at the “public” inquiry into the conduct of the missing women investigations.  Interested members of the media, or their counsel, should be able  to obtain copies of the “application” from Commission Counsel.

As the media have had questions about our application tentatively set for Thursday, November 3, 2011, which was characterized as an application for an adjournment, we should clarify that we are applying for both further and better document disclosure and an adjournment for a reasonable period in order us to prepare to cross-examine D/C LePard and the other police witnesses who are apparently scheduled to testify during the week of November 7, 2011.

Counsel have been told to expect the receipt of a report from Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans, who has been reviewing the police files for about a year, by today, October 31, 2011.  The report is expected to a critical analysis of the missing women investigation, similar to the subject matter of D/C LePard’s anticipated testimony, but we have not yet seen it.

Susan Davis, an advocate for sex trade workers who herself worked on Vancouver streets between 1990-1993, testified that a client raped her at knifepoint in the early 90’s.  She managed to escape and got the licence plate number of her attacker’s vehicle.  She phoned 911 and was told to wait for a Vancouver Police Department to attend on a specified corner.  Ms. Davis waited for an hour but no police attended.  She tried twice more over the next three weeks to report the crime but again, Vancouver police failed to respond.  Years later, when Robert William Pickton’s photograph in the media appeared, identifying him as a suspect in as many as 49 murders of sex trade workers, Ms. Davis said to herself, “that’s the guy”.

Ms. Davis described the harsh life of street sex trade workers.  She said there is a general sense of distrust of the police on the part of sex trade workers but noted that she has had four regular clients who were members of the VPD and RCMP.  Her testimony continues.

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that Attorney General/Solicitor General Shirley Bond will announce today that the Missing Women Commisssion of Inquiry will have its term extended for another six months, presumably to June 30, 2012.

We have not received any confirmation of this yet and continue to struggle with the uncertainty surrounding the proceedings.  For instance, late yesterday Commission Counsel Art Vertlieb announced that next week’s scheduled witnesses –  RCMP C/Supt. Robert Morrison, Supt. Jim Gresham, C/Supt. Janice Armstrong , Mr. Max Xiao,  VPD  Superintendent Jeff Sim and Police Board representative Elizabeth Watson – would actually not be attending the hearings next week and may be coming at some later date.  That news caught us by complete surprise, as we had been busily preparing to cross-examine them on their evidence.

We’ve been told that the long-awaited report of Peel Deputy Chief Evans (who has been working with the files for a year) will be delivered by Monday.   Next week’s hearing schedule, at  least at this moment, is said to include testimony from Susan Davis and Elaine Allan, to be followed by an application for an order protecting vulnerable witnesses and some sort of hearing to deal with the RCMP and VPD lawyers’ concerns about publication of “sensitive” information.

We look forward to attempting to address these evidentiary issues in the hearings.  At this point, it appears to us that the RCMP and VPD are trying to keep the tightest possible lid on the evidence that might lead the public, and our clients, to the truth.  If this inquiry is to fulfill its mandate, the lid will have to be pried off to expose the entire story, however messy it may be, to the Commission’s scrutiny.