Our clients, the families of twenty missing and murdered women, continue to wait patiently to hear direct testimony from the police officers and Crown lawyers who were actually involved in the investigations of Robert William Pickton’s near-fatal stabbing of “STW328” on March 23, 1997 and the disappearances of dozens of other Vancouver women whose remains and DNA were found on the Pickton brothers’ property nearly five years later.  Since time is said to be limited, the families are concerned by the delay in getting to the crucial police and Crown evidence.

Vancouver Police Department spokesman Deputy Chief Doug LePard is in his eighth day on the witness stand, giving testimony that consists almost entirely of hearsay and conjecture.  LePard, a thirty year veteran of the VPD who admittedly had little to do with the case when the families were clamouring to get his department to pay more attention to their relatives’ disappearances, spent four and a half days giving evidence in chief and is currently in the middle of his second day of cross-examination by Darrell Roberts, Q.C.  Mr. Roberts does not represent any clients, but is one of the  four “independent lawyers” appointed by the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, as referenced in the excerpt from Commission’s media release of August 10, 2011 set out below:

August 10, 2011 – Missing Women Commission Appoints Two Independent Lawyers; Two Others to Participate Pro Bono

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry announced today that it has hired two independent lawyers on contract to help ensure that the perspectives of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side community and Aboriginal women are presented at the inquiry, which is scheduled to start on October 11.

The two Vancouver-based lawyers, Mr. Jason Gratl, a past president of the BC Civil Liberties Association, and Ms. Robyn Gervais, who previously represented the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council at the Commission, will not represent specific clients. They will work independently of the Commission with a mandate to serve the public interest at the hearings. They are expected to take guidance from unfunded participant groups and affected organizations and individuals.

The Commission also announced that two prominent Vancouver lawyers, Mr. Bryan Baynham Q.C. and Mr. Darrell Roberts Q.C., will participate pro bono in the inquiry in support of Ms. Gervais.

Commission spokesperson, Chris Freimond, said Commissioner Wally Oppal and his staff are confident that the participation of the four lawyers will contribute significantly to the Commission’s ability to conduct a relevant inquiry leading to findings and recommendations that will make a real difference to the people of British Columbia and Canada.

“The Commission has worked hard to prepare for the hearings and believes that when they begin on October 11, it will become clear that the resources and structure are in place to deal thoroughly with the important issues in a way that satisfies British Columbians,” said Mr. Freimond.

He added that the knowledge and understanding of the Downtown East Side community and Aboriginal women’s issues that Mr. Gratl and Ms. Gervais bring to the inquiry will help ensure that the perspectives of these communities are presented at the hearings. They will also be able to test evidence at the inquiry in an adversarial role, if so required, as will Mr. Baynham and Mr. Roberts, two of Vancouver most senior and respected lawyers.

While it is not known at this stage what the cost of hiring Mr. Gratl and Ms. Gervais will be, the Commission has the budget to fund their services because it has reallocated resources and benefitted from cost savings in its investigations, which did not take as much time as previously anticipated.”

Many people, including this writer, thought the provincial government had its priorities skewed when it decided to spend over a half a billion of our tax dollars putting a new roof on an old underused sports facility, when vulnerable homeless people are living under viaducts just a stone’s throw from the stadium.  With news that the roof is leaking cascades of water the day before its showcase event, the Grey Cup, the stupidity of the government’s decision is even more obvious.

I’m sure that dozens of people will be working overtime to try to patch the leaks so Christy Clark’s Liberals are not further embarrassed…and the hurried repairs will be on our dime too.

Never mind helping the homeless and downtrodden among us-they probably deserve their misfortune (satire alert)-but aren’t there any better places to spend this kind of money?

A family in the First Nations community of Pikangikum, Ontario, from the CBC documentary 8th Fire. (Coleen Rajotte/CBC)

Thousands of aboriginal Canadians still live in uninsulated shacks without plumbing or electrical power.  According to First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, it may be attributable to them being “out of sight, out of mind.”  Whatever the reason we new arrivals treat our first peoples this way, it is unacceptable.

Director Robert Redford recently took a few moments out of his busy schedule to chat with me after filming some scenes in my offices.  I’m really looking forward to seeing his new movie The Company You Keep, a thriller based on Neil Gordon’s novel, since it features some of my favourite actors.  Besides Mr. Redford himself, who is playing Albany lawyer Jim Grant, the star-studded cast includes Anna Kendrick, Shia LaBeouf, Stanley Tucci, Brit Marling, Brendan Gleeson, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Sam Elliott, Chris Cooper, Stephen Root, Julie Christie, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins and Lochlyn Munro.

It must be hard to live one’s adult life constrained by the trappings of celebrity, as Mr. Redford has done, but in our brief meeting he struck me as a truly pleasant and likeable gentleman.  Of course, his impressive professional record as an actor, director and outspoken activist speaks for itself, but it’s nice to get the sense that the man himself may even surpass his sterling reputation.  I hope that the film succeeds beyond his and team’s expectations.

As another week of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry ends and we still haven’t heard from any police officer involved in the investigations of the disappearances, it may be useful to revisit the purpose of public inquiries.  As Supreme Court of Canada Justice Peter Cory put it, “One of the primary functions of public inquiries is fact-finding.  They are often convened in the wake of public shock, horror, disillusionment or scepticism, in order to uncover ‘the truth’…”

My former administrative law professor, Ed Ratushny, emphasizes the importance of the public nature of the hearings in his book, “The Conduct of Public Inquiries: Law, Policy and Practice” at p. 18: “Another feature that enhances public confidence is the transparency of the proceedings.  Most inquiries receive detailed coverage in the media, some are televised, and most now have websites with access to the hearings.  The process of conducting open and public hearings is an important component of restoring public confidence.”

The openness and transparency is an essential element of the process that distinguishes inquiries from civil or criminal trials.  There aren’t any, nor should there be, constraints on the participants in explaining issues to the media.  The media plays the very important role of telling the public what is going on in the inquiry convened for their benefit.

Professor Ratushny also writes, “a commissioner also has broad investigative powers to compel the testimony of witnesses and the production of documents.  The commissioner is not a passive observer, as in a trial, but may ‘go where the evidence leads'”.

This Commission’s first two terms of reference are:

“(a) to conduct hearings, in or near the City of Vancouver, to inquire into and make findings of fact respecting the conduct of the missing women investigations;

(b) consistent with the British Columbia (Attorney General) v. Davies, 2009 BCCA 337, to inquire into and make findings of fact respecting the decision of the Criminal Justice Branch on January 27, 1998, to enter a stay of proceedings on charges against Robert William Pickton of attempted murder, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and aggravated assault;”

Our clients, the families of twenty women who were likely murdered by convicted serial killer Robert William Pickton, are vitally interested in these issues.  They consider the Crown’s 1998 decision to be of crucial importance, because the dropping of those charges allowed Pickton to remain at large for the next four years, killing more women at will.

Here we are near the end of November and there is not yet any indication as to when the police or Crown personnel who actually had the responsibilities for the issues set out in the terms of reference will take the stand.  We’re told that, for reasons that are unclear, the hearings will have to conclude by April 30, 2012.  For the last seven days, we heard evidence from VPD spokesman Doug LePard and after that we are apparently going to hear testimony from two more police reviewers, Inspector Williams and Deputy Chief Evans.  These two police officers weren’t involved in the missing women cases, but just looked at the filesand talked to a few investigators after the fact.

With the clock ticking, there is a real risk in this proceeding that the police review reports, those of LePard, Williams and Evans, will receive much more weight and credence than they deserve.  The families of the victims need this inquiry to fulfil its purpose of conducting a thorough, rigorous and uncompromising search for the truth.  It is high time that the police officers and Crown lawyers involved in these matters started explaining what they were thinking and doing.