The recent disaster at Johnson’s Landing, near Kaslo, BC, is reminiscent of a landslide that occurred at Mara, BC on July 11, 1997, almost fifteen years to the day before the Johnson’s Landing event.  Fortunately, no lives were lost in the Hummingbird Creek debris torrent, which destroyed five homes, although one nearby resident died of a heart attack.  A subsequent published report into the 1997 slide  concluded that it “originated as a debris avalanche below a forest road culvert.  Drainage area above the culvert had been artificially tripled.  It appears that concentrated runoff from the road culvert was a major contributing factor in initiating the debris avalanche.”  The authors concluded, “this study reemphasizes the need to carefully examine management of watersheds with high downstream consequences”.

The residents who lost their homes were unable to obtain adequate remedial action from the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) and commenced civil litigation against the province and the forest company involved in the road construction and clearcut logging.  The cases were settled before trial.

While it is too early to come to any conclusions about the cause of this terrible event, it is imperative that all potentially hazardous sites be monitored carefully and that all full impartial investigation be conducted into this tragedy.

“The LePard and Evans reports tragically seem to have been used as a guide to this Commission. They are suspiciously similar…”  — Vanessa Christie, counsel for Terry Blythe and John Unger, June 6, 2012

……

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry received the report of Vancouver Police Department’s Deputy Chief Doug LePard as its very first exhibit.  Thereafter, the Commission’s Executive Director, a non-lawyer named John Boddie who was once LePard’s supervisor during Boddie’s 16 year tenure with the VPD, apparently worked with LePard and Peel Deputy Chief Constable Evans to assist them with managing the evidence presented to the public inquiry.  The Commission, directed by Boddie, apparently used LePard’s report as a template for the evidence it received.  This document, 408 pages in length, does not contain the phrase “Hells Angels”  at all and mentions the phrase “Piggy’s Palace” but once (at page 117).

Before the Commission hearings began, it was well known, and indeed well-publicized, that David and Willy Pickton hosted wild parties at Piggy’s Palace, 2552 Burns Rd., Port Coquitlam, that were attended by members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and drug-addicted sex trade workers from the downtown eastside of Vancouver.  It was also well known, and well-publicized, that from 1996 onwards the CFSEU and OCABC (Organized Crime Agency of BC and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, respectively) conducted major investigations into the Hells Angels’ activities throughout the Lower Mainland that included the use of wiretaps, surveillance and undercover agents.

During these extensive operations, what did the OCABC and CFSEU investigators learn about the activities that were occurring at Piggy’s Palace and at the two residential properties around the corner, one occupied by the Hells Angels, and the other, across the street at 953 Dominion Ave., occupied by the Pickton brothers?   The OCABC and CFSEU records weren’t produced to the Commission and Peter Ditchfield, the supervisor of one of the major investigative efforts (Project Nova) who in 1999 declined a request to provide resources to investigate Willy Pickton, was not called as a witness.

Has the nexus between the Pickton brothers, organized crime and the police investigations thereof been studiously avoided by the expensive public inquiry struck to “to inquire into and make findings of fact respecting the conduct of the missing women investigations”?

Just asking….

Cameron Ward of our firm was presented with the Reg Robson Award at the British Columbia Civil Liberties’ 50^th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, June 2^nd.  The award, named after longtime BCCLA President and civil liberties activist, the late Reg Robson, recognizes “someone who has demonstrated a substantial and long-lasting contribution to the cause of civil liberties in British Columbia and Canada.”

Mr. Ward was honoured to be named, along with Robyn Gervais, as a co-recipient of this year’s award.  According to the BCCLA’s publication for the event:

“Cameron Ward’s career has been defined by a commitment to rights and freedoms for all.  Milestones include: representing students who protested APEC at UBC; at the public inquiry into the policing tactics used at that event; the “riot” at the Hyatt where police…charged into a crowd of demonstrators; and culminating in his own case, Ward v. City of Vancouver, where he established that people can be awarded monetary damages by Courts if their Charter rights are violated.  Cameron’s life work has created a beacon of hope for those treated badly by authorities.  Cameron’s work with families like the family of Rodney Jackson, Jeff Berg, Kyle Tait and so many others helped raise public awareness of the need to end police self-investigation in B.C.  He is currently acting for family members at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.  For his unwavering commitment to justice for Canada’s downtrodden, Cameron will receive his Reg Robson Award.”

The BCCLA also conferred honours on Jamie Haller (Youth Activism), Susan Musgrave (Art), Joseph Arvay, Q.C. (Legal Advocacy) and Dr. John Dixon (Lifetime Achievement).  Its 50^th Anniversary Gala was an outstanding success, and included presentations by former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, Clayton Ruby, Q.C., and Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank.

According to Tim Dickson, counsel for the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Police Board, the RCMP’s handling of the investigation into Robert William Pickton after July of 1998, when he was a known murder suspect, was “a chronicle of inaction”. 

While this is hardly in dispute, the real question, the question that should have been answered in these hearings, is why?  Why did the RCMP allow their investigation to languish?

Just one example of the inadequate state of the evidence: on the last day of the Commission hearings, May 24, 2012, former RCMP S/Sgt. Keith Davidson testified about a meeting held on February 14, 2000 involving him and his colleagues Cst. John Cater, Cpl. Marg Kingsbury, Cpl. Nicole St. Mars, Cpl. Scott Filer and Cpl. Dave McCartney.  These members were tasked with various responsibilities; McCartney, for instance, was to obtain an authorization to intercept communications and to get a search warrant for Pickton’s property.  Nothing was apparently done…and 14 more women died between the date of that meeting, February 14, 2000, and February 5, 2002 when Pickton’s property was in fact searched by Cst. Nathan Wells.  Why didn’t Cpl. McCartney get the authorization and the search warrant two years before Cst. Wells did?

The Commission didn’t call Cpl. McCartney to the stand.  Nor did it call the other attendees at the meeting – Cater, Kingsbury, St. Mars or Filer – because of time constraints.

Minister of Justice Shirley Bond has responded to the disclosure of a video depicting Paul Boyd’s last moments by referring the matter to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team for further review.  Boyd, 39, a mentally disturbed local animator, was shot in the head by VPD Cst. Lee Chipperfield while crawling, mortally wounded and unarmed, across Granville Street nearly five years ago.  Local journalist Ian Mulgrew has penned an opinion piece in today’s Vancouver Sun questioning, in Mr. Mulgrew’s inimitable style, whether the use of lethal force was reasonable.

The answer to that question appears obvious.  We have a different question, though.  Why not hand the case to Richard Rosenthal, the chief civilian director of BC’s new Independent Investigations Office, whose appointment was announced with much fanfare last December?  What better test for the new investigator, who has been on the public payroll for almost six months, than this highly charged and controversial case?  For those of us watching how the long-overdue civilian investigative office is going to perform, this case would have afforded a golden opportunity to test Mr. Rosanthal’s mettle.