We have been advised that when the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry resumes its hearings on December 14th, the Commissioner will consider applications from those participants seeking to add witnesses to the Commission’s list.

The Commission has circulated a pared-down witness list of 31 police officers and 17 other witnesses, for a total of 48 witnesses in all.  As counsel for the families of twenty of the missing and murdered women, we will be making an application for at least 21 additional witnesses to be added to the Commission’s current list.  It is not yet clear whether other participants will be making similar applications.

The Commission’s formation was announced by then Attorney General Mike de Jong on September 27, 2010.  Evidentiary hearings began on October 11, 2011 and the Commission has heard from 15 witnesses over 26 hearing days since then.  The Commission has not yet heard from any of the police officers or other law enforcement personnel directly involved in the matters that are the subject of the inquiry.  Hearings are on hiatus at the moment, with VPD Deputy Chief LePard still on the stand under cross-examination.  We have been told that the Commission will sit for three more days this month (December 14-16) before adjourning until January 11, 2012.

Richard Rosenthal, who until recently was Denver’s Independent Monitor, has been appointed as the new civilian director of the IIO.  He was the subject of an article written by Joel Warner and published earlier this year in Denver Westworld News.  We welcome Mr. Rosenthal to our province and wish him well in his challenging new endeavour.

CKNW News is reporting that the provincial government is poised to announce the appointment of the civilian director of the Independent Investigation Office, the new body created to investigate incidents of death or serious injury involving police.  The creation of the IIO was one of the recommendations made by William Davies, Q.C., the respected former judge appointed as Commissioner of the Frank Paul Inquiry.  

Frank Paul died of hypothermia in a Vancouver alley in December of 1998 after he was dragged out of the Vancouver Jail, inert and soaking wet, by police, who dumped him in the industrial laneway where his body was spotted a few hours later by a passer by who was looking for a lost cat.  The Vancouver Police Department conducted a “neutral investigation” into his death, the Criminal Justice Branch reviewed the case five times, but no charges were ever laid against those who caused the death.

The IIO is a welcome development, but it probably comes too late for the families of Frank Paul, Ian Bush, Jeff Berg, Kevin St. Arnaud, Robert Dziekanski, Kyle Tait, Majencio Camaso, Orion Hutchinson, Benny Matson, Roman Andreichikov, Paul Boyd, Alvin Wright  and the other BC. residents who have recently died at the hands of police.  The criminal justice system failed these families, for nobody faced charges in any of these homicides.  In my opinion, the new head of the IIO, whoever he or she may be, should make it a priority to review each and every one of these cases.

The IIO will be as effective as the people who run it.  Here’s hoping that the new IIO leader is a principled, independent and strong-willed individual who has a keen sense of social justice and is committed to making a real dfference.

’cause tomorrow may never come…

Deputy Chief Doug LePard of the Vancouver Police Department embarks on his tenth day of testimony today.  A thirty year veteran of the VPD, LePard apparently had next to nothing to do with the investigations that are the subject of this inquiry, but has played the role of VPD spokesman on the matter since last summer. 

The families of the victims continue to wait patiently for a chance to question Crown Counsel and police about why Robert William Pickton was not prosecuted for attempted murder and other serious charges in 1998.  The incident of March 23, 1997, when Pickton nearly killed a Vancouver woman in his Port Coquitlam trailer, was a crucial and pivotal event.  The Crown’s decision to stay the serious charges allowed Pickton remained free to kill dozens of women over the years that followed, including many of our clients’ loved ones, and may have cost taxpayers up to $200 million in later investigative and legal costs.

The families also want to question those who can explain why the VPD and RCMP failed to apprehend Pickton when they apparently had him squarely in their sights as early as August, 1998.

Pickton was eventually charged with 27 murders after a “serendipitous” 2002 search of the Port Coquitlam property he and his brother lived on turned up evidence of the missing women’s remains and possessions.  He was later convicted of killing six women, one charge was dismissed for lack of evidence, and the Attorney General decided to stay 20 other murder charges against him.  We understand that the provincial government committed to a proper, thorough, and independent public inquiry into this tragedy, not a rehashing of police reviews of the case.

For example, here’s what the Canadian Press reported on September 9, 2010:

“The province’s attorney general announced Thursday that hearings will examine how police handled reports of sex workers disappearing from Vancouver’s poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside, many of whom ended up dead on Pickton’s farm in nearby Port Coquitlam.

Pickton’s arrest and subsequent year-long trial received intense international attention, but Attorney General Mike de Jong said there is much we still don’t know.

‘This is a situation in which upwards of 50 human beings went missing. We believe many, if not all, of those individuals were murdered,’ de Jong told reporters following a provincial cabinet meeting in Victoria.

‘There are still lingering questions about the nature of these investigations, questions about whether more could have been done sooner, are we in a position to learn from the investigations and mistakes that may have been made.’

The inquiry will have the power to compel testimony from witnesses and will make recommendations to prevent the horrific tragedy from repeating itself.

De Jong said he wants to know how dozens of women could disappear for years before authorities determined the disappearances could be the work of a single killer.

‘How did this happen?” said de Jong.

‘How is it that human beings, members of our society, whatever their socioeconomic circumstances, could go missing in the manner that they did without it seeing a full appreciation of the magnitude of what it seems was taking place until some years had passed?’

Pickton was arrested in 2002, setting off a massive search of his sprawling farm where investigators found the remains or DNA of 33 women. He was charged in the deaths of 27 women and eventually convicted of six counts of second-degree murder.

His convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in July and prosecutors have said they don’t intend to pursue any further criminal charges, including the 20 further murder charges he had been facing.

Lillian Beaudoin’s sister Diane Rock was among the victims covered in those 20 charges.

‘I just want justice,” Beaudoin said in an interview Thursday. ‘And if justice means digging this far deep into it and finding out why the police made all the mistakes that they made and how this could have been prevented (that’s) one of my main concerns.'”

Dianne Rock, murdered in late 2001