Monday, April 30

Ensuring the safety of vulnerable women

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session A: Preventing Violence Against Sex Trade Workers
Date: Tuesday, May 1
Time: 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room
350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session B: Preventing Violence Against Aboriginal and Rural Women
Date: Tuesday, May 1
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room
350 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session C: Building Strong Police-Community Relationships
Date: Thursday, May 3
Time: 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room
350 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver

Policy Forum 2: Vulnerable and Intimidated Witnesses in the Criminal Justice Process
Date: Thursday, May 3
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room
350 West Georgia Street
Vancouver

Policy Forum 3: Improving Missing Person Practices, Session A: Accepting and Investigating Missing Person Reports
Date: Monday, May 7
Time: 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 3: Improving Missing Person Practices, Session B: Police Relationships with Victims’ Families, the Community, the Public and the Media
Date: Monday, May 7
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 4: Inter-jurisdictional Collaboration and Coordination Among Police
Date: Tuesday, May 8
Time: 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 5:
Enhancing Police Accountability
Date: Tuesday, May 8
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 6: From Report to Substantive Change – Healing, Reconciliation and Implementation
Date: Thursday, May 10
Time: 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: Wosk Centre For Dialogue, Room 320
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Live Streaming at: www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/

Keynote address tonight kicks off Missing Women inquiry public forums

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 30, 2012 11:51 AM

Doreen Binder, a member of the Oregon attorney general's sex assault task force, will present a keynote address tonight as a lead-in to the Missing Women Inquiry's six public forums, which start Tuesday.

Photograph by: Handout, ....

VANCOUVER -- A member of the Oregon attorney general's sex assault task force will present a keynote address tonight as a lead-in to the Missing Women Inquiry's six public forums, which start Tuesday.

Doreen Binder will discuss innovative approaches to protecting vulnerable women at a presentation tonight (April 30) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room.

The lecture is open is to the public and will be streamed live on the Missing Women Inquiry's website (www.missingwomeninquiry.ca).

Binder will discuss such topics as community policing and developing relationships to keep women safe, the importance of holistic programming and cooperation between police and social services, and how to work with women to build trusting communication that helps to meet their needs.

She will also talk about her role in developing Portland's first community court, which opens May 4.

Inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal announced last week that he plans to hear from an additional 13 witnesses at hearings in May, including former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh, former Vancouver mayor Phillip Owen and the former commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP, Gary Bass.

He also he wants to hear from Catherine Galliford, the Mountie who has alleged she experienced sexism and sexual harassment in the RCMP.

Galliford will not be called as a witness in the formal hearings but Oppal would like to hear from her at a policy forum on May 8, which will address issues relating to police accountability.

Galliford, 44, left active duty four years ago and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She is being treated at an Ontario facility.

Her complaint preceded a class-action lawsuit being filed against the RCMP, which alleges women suffered sex harassment within the force over many years.

Formal hearings of the Missing Women inquiry will resume May 9 with the testimony of three officers who worked on the missing omen case, to be followed May 11 with a VPD panel, former Vancouver street nurse Bonnie Fournier and a woman sex worker referred to as "Jane Smith," who apparently survived an attack by serial killer Robert Pickton.

The inquiry is probing why police didn't catch Pickton sooner.

He was arrested in 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving extensive tips about Pickton in 1998 and 1999, including a person who told police that a woman had found Pickton one night butchering a woman's body in his barn at the Pickton family farm in Port Coquitlam.

Vancouver police passed along the tips to Coquitlam RCMP, which was investigating Pickton after a Vancouver sex worker was attacked on the Pickton farm but escaped.

Pickton was charged with the attempted murder of the woman but the charges were dropped a year later because the Crown found the victim, a drug addict, was too strung out to testify days before the trial was to start.

Pickton was convicted of six murders in 2007 but once confided that he killed 49 women.

Police found the remains and DNA of 33 women on Pickton's farm.

nhall@vancouversun.com

Here is the schedule of the public policy forums to be held over the next 10 days:

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session A: Preventing Violence Against Sex Trade Workers

Date: Tuesday, May 1

Time: 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room

350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session B: Preventing Violence Against Aboriginal and Rural Women

Date: Tuesday, May 1

Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room

350 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver

Policy Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session C: Building Strong Police-Community Relationships

Date: Thursday, May 3

Time: 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room

350 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver

Policy Forum 2: Vulnerable and Intimidated Witnesses in the Criminal Justice Process

Date: Thursday, May 3

Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room

350 West Georgia Street

Vancouver

Policy Forum 3: Improving Missing Person Practices, Session A: Accepting and Investigating Missing Person Reports

Date: Monday, May 7

Time: 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420

580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 3: Improving Missing Person Practices, Session B: Police Relationships with Victims' Families, the Community, the Public and the Media

Date: Monday, May 7

Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420

580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 4: Inter-jurisdictional Collaboration and Coordination Among Police

Date: Tuesday, May 8

Time: 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420

580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 5: Enhancing Police Accountability

Date: Tuesday, May 8

Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420

580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Policy Forum 6: From Report to Substantive Change - Healing, Reconciliation and Implementation

Date: Thursday, May 10

Time: 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre For Dialogue, Room 320

580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Edmonton filmmaker depicts reality of prostitution in Who Cares

Documentary premieres at Toronto festival this week

BY JAMIE HALL, EDMONTON JOURNAL.COMAPRIL 30, 2012 12:20 PM

“Shelley,” one of the women profiled in Rosie Dransfeld’s documentary, Who Cares, which will makes its premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival (National Film Board)

EDMONTON - Rosie Dransfeld resisted the urge to film Who Cares during the dead of winter, fearing her documentary would be identified as being “too Edmonton.” In truth, the women who get caught up in the gut-wrenching cycle of addiction, violence and prostitution occupy the globe, not just a corner at 105th Avenue and 95th Street.

“Shelley” took Dransfeld’s cameras there last summer to show the first corner she claimed as her own when she started as a teenage prostitute. Now 39, she’s a crystal meth addict who takes care of everyone but herself when she’s clean. Shelley is one of three women profiled by Dransfeld in Who Cares, produced by the National Film Board. The film will make its world première Wednesday in Toronto at Hot Docs, North America’s largest and most prestigious documentary film festival. The festival screens upwards of 170 international films annually, and last year drew a record crowd of 150,000.

Dransfeld says she’s thrilled about her film’s inclusion in Hot Docs, especially given the relentless subject matter.

“It’s a hard film to watch,” she concedes. “There are beautiful moments, but in the end it’s very sobering.”

Indeed. “Courtney,” a former prostitute and heroin addict, struggles to stay clean and off the street. In the film, she talks about using water from a toilet in a hotel washroom to shoot up. She also recounts a near-death encounter with a john, describing the look in his eyes seconds before he produced a knife and plunged it into her body. “It’s almost like he went from man to beast,” she says. “It was terrifying.”

“Nancy,” meanwhile, explains away her bruises to a bartender at the Reno Pub as clumsy accidents, not the work of an angry pimp. The bar, which has since closed, is where the women go for brief respites, swapping stories from the street.

It’s a powerful film that depicts a gruesome reality, with moments of heartbreaking sadness. Shelley recalls listening to the robins as she stood on her corner years before, when her hands traced the movements of her pregnant belly. Her daughter — she named her Robin — died shortly after birth.

“It’s really sad when you’re selfish in your own stuff,” she says in the film, her face wet with tears. “Because if I wasn’t selfish, I wouldn’t have killed her with my own drugs. I had to face what I did to her.”

Dransfeld is a master of cinema verite, a genre best described as unscripted drama but with real people instead of actors. She has amassed an award-winning body of work during her career. Broke, a glimpse into the daily goings on of an Edmonton pawnshop, won a Gemini in 2010 for best social-political documentary. And in 2008, The Dog Walker, about a brain-injured man’s journey of healing walking dogs, earned two Alberta Film and Television Awards, or Rosies, as they’re known, one for best documentary over 30 minutes and another for best non-fiction director.

Dransfeld has enormous empathy for the women in her latest film, whom she calls the most vulnerable in society, and the most judged. While johns get off with a day of john school as punishment, prostitutes are often hit with jail time and heavy fines they end up paying off with the money they make on the street.

“These streets are a war zone, in my eyes,” says Dransfeld, her eyes flashing with anger. “There are thousands of prostitutes, and they are abused on a daily basis. There is no protection for them.”

At no time was that more apparent in the film than during ride-alongs with Project Kare investigators. The task force was established in 2003 to look into cases of missing and murdered sex-trade workers but has evolved over time. Now, its mandate includes collecting DNA samples from prostitutes for an ever-growing database. The film shows investigators approaching prostitutes on the streets, prefacing their request with an explanation that goes something like this: “In the tragic event that you become a victim of a homicide, this allows us to be able to identify your human remains.”

Most agree without hesitation.

Dransfeld says officers are keenly aware that what they’re doing doesn’t make the women any safer. It does, however, give them the ability to provide closure to families, and a fighting chance of finding the bad guys.

“They are frustrated,” she says. “They can’t say it openly, but you will sense it in the film.”

Dransfeld’s projects often involve showing audiences a world they know nothing about — or decide not to — to create levels of understanding and humanity.

“My hope for this film is that it touches people’s hearts, and their consciences, and makes them aware these women need protection, not judgment.”

jhall@edmontonjournal.com

twitter.com/@jamiejeanhall

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

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Repost: two new films concerning violence against women

Every year, there are many worthy films being released about violence against women. These are just two that came to our attention. If you want others mentioned on ROSE, please write.

Screening at Hot Docs in Toronto, Ontario, and DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, BC

WHO CARES?

Rosie Dransfeld, Canada, 2012
76 mins

Prostitutes in Canada are classified as “a high risk of homicide group.” As a result, sex trade workers in Edmonton are cooperating with local police and volunteering samples of their own DNA. The goal is to create a database that will expedite the identification of bodies of murdered and missing women. Structured around the RCMP’s Project KARE, woman after woman enters the mobile police unit’s SUV. Once inside, she is asked to provide a sample of hair and some next-of-kin information. Aware that her next date might be her last, she usually obliges. The officer explains that she’s doing a good thing; her family will have some closure with a positive identification. The level of despair in their exchange is palpable. Rosie Dransfeld’s remarkable street-level documentary demands that viewers check their apathy at the door and start caring about the precarious existence of sex trade workers in this country. –TW

Wednesday May 9 | 7:00 PM | Vancity Theatre
http://www.doxafestival.ca/festival/films/who_cares

http://www.hotdocs.ca//film/title/who_cares

SEX CRIMES UNIT

Lisa F. Jackson, USA, 2010
86 minsg

One of the first of its kind, the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office changed the way that rape was prosecuted in the US. Lisa F. Jackson’s revelatory documentary is on the ground and in the trenches with the men and women whose job it is to prosecute and convict rapists. –DW

Tuesday May 8 | 6:00 PM | Pacific Cinémathèque
http://www.doxafestival.ca/festival/films/sex_crimes

Contact ROSE at rememberoursisterseverywhere@gmail.com

Visit Remember Our Sisters Everywhere at: http://www.rememberoursisterseverywhere.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Friday, April 27

Mistrust of police highest in B.C., poll finds

Criminologist blames debacles such as Dziekanski Tasering, Pickton investigation for 'black eye'

BY PETER O'NEIL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 26, 2012

Canadians' faith in their police has plunged by more than half in the past 15 years, and British Columbians have by far the least confidence in local and provincial policing, according to a new poll.

The survey of just over 1,000 Canadians done in late March by Angus Reid Public Opinion found that roughly four of 10 Canadians have confidence in the RCMP, municipal forces, and the provincial police forces in Ontario and Quebec.

That compares with more than 80 per cent of Canadians who expressed confidence in police in 1997, when pollster Angus Reid first posed the question.

The national figures have been dragged down by respondents in B.C., where the Mounties have experienced a string of public relations disasters in recent years.

Just 27 per cent of B.C. residents have faith in the RCMP, while only 28 per cent have confidence in their municipal police forces. Both figures are the lowest in the country.

Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd cited a string of RCMP failures in B.C. - the bungling over several years of the Robert Pickton serial murder investigation, the 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski after Tasering, and more recent sexual harassment allegations by female Mounties against their male counterparts - for the collapse in public faith in police.

"Revelations about the con-duct of police officers, especially in British Columbia, have given the RCMP a black eye," Boyd said.

He pointed out that new RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, who wasn't available for an interview Wednesday, has "made it very clear he's upset with this, and feels the force needs to reinvigorate and respond to these very serious concerns."

Boyd said the RCMP's troubles may have influenced the rating of other municipal and regional forces across Canada.

Nationally, municipal police forces have the confidence of 39 per cent of Canadians, while the provincial police forces in Ontario and Quebec have the backing of 44 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, of respondents in those provinces.

Criminologist Boyd said the poll suggests public disagreement with elements of the Harper government's recent omnibus crime legislation, which includes minimum sentences for non-violent offences like drug trafficking involving possession of as few as six marijuana plants.

"Polls are not necessarily telling us that the get-tough agenda on crime is what Canadians want."

The poll, done in March, also

Government blog to gather public insight on crime prevention looked at broader public attitudes toward justice issues in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

The poll also found that 74 per cent of Americans, 68 per cent of Canadians and 56 per cent of Brits welcome the concept of using alternative penalties - such as fines, probation and community service - rather than prison for non-violent offences.

This view may reflect the pessimistic view of the corrections system.

Only about one in five of the respondents in all three countries feel their prison system is effective in helping inmates become law-abiding citizens.

The online poll involved 1,005 Canadians, 1,011 Americans and 2,015 Brits. The error mar-gin was 2.2 percentage points for Britain, and 3.1 per cent for Canada and the U.S.

Among the results:

. The poll found that just eight per cent of Canadians and Americans, and 12 per cent of Brits, feel that crime, violence and gangs represented the biggest problem in their communities.

Respondents in the U.S. and Britain - countries hit far harder by the 2008 global recession - were far more likely than Canadians to cite bread-and-butter issues, with 71 per cent of Americans and 67 per cent of Brits naming either "unemployment" or "the economy" as their top concerns.

Just 44 per cent of Canadians mentioned those two issues.

Canadians were vastly more concerned about health care and the state of hospitals, with 31 per cent citing health com-pared to 13 per cent of Brits and just seven per cent of Americans.

. Roughly half of Canadians and Brits felt that there was "no change" or a "decrease" in community crime, compared to 39 per cent in Canada and 35 per cent in Britain who said they sense an increase. In the U.S., 45 per cent said there was a crime jump.

. Just 27 per cent of Canadians said they fear being a crime victim, compared with 35 per cent of Americans and 39 per cent of Brits.

. Roughly the same number of respondents (13 per cent of Canadians, 12 per cent of Americans) said they'd been a victim of a crime in the past two years that involved the police. In Britain it was 18 per cent.

. While most respondents in all three countries favour alter-native penalties for non-violent offenders, that view crumbles on three of four issues specified by the pollster.

Roughly four out of five Canadians (78 per cent) don't think Canadians should go to jail for possessing pot for personal use, compared to 74 per cent of Americans and 70 per cent of Brits. (In fact, very few Canadians convicted of soft drug pos-session serve time, according to Boyd.)

But support for alternative punishments is vastly lower in Canada for those convicted of credit card fraud (37 per cent), drunk driving (31 per cent) and arson (21 per cent). The numbers also plunge for American and British respondents.

. Canadians have slightly higher faith in the justice sys-tem, with 61 per cent believing courts do a good job determining guilt compared to 56 per cent of Brits and 55 per cent of Americans.

And 38 per cent of Canadians say the system treats everyone fairly, compared to 35 per cent in Britain and 28 per cent in the U.S.

Yet the poll also sent mixed signals, with just 19 per cent of Canadians expressing confidence in criminal courts and 31 per cent in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Albertans were by far the most skeptical of Canada's highest court, with just 16 per cent expressing confidence. Quebec was highest at 42 per cent.

Regional comparisons must be viewed with caution, how-ever, as the margin of error is higher due to smaller sample sizes.

In Alberta it's nine percentage points, in B.C. it's eight, in Quebec six and Ontario five.

poneil@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/poneilinottawa

Blog: vancouversun.com/oneil

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Reposted from Cameron Ward’s blog: Families’ witnesses rejected

MWCI: Families’ witnesses rejected

April 27, 2012 in Missing Women Commision of Inquiry, News, Opinion

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry has issued Practice Management Directive No. 5, setting a schedule for the next (and last) few weeks of hearings.  In doing so, it has refused to hear from many of the witnesses our clients, the families of 25 murdered women, requested over four months ago.  The Commission is refusing to hear evidence from Ross Caldwell, Lynn Ellingsen, David Pickton, Brian Oger, Bev Hyacinthe, Peter Ritchie, Peder Gulbransen, VPD members Darcy Sarra, Brian Honeybourne, Gord Spencer, Phil Little and RCMP members Dave Strachan, Nathan Wells and Robert Paulson.  The Commission has also inexplicably dropped RCMP Sgt Daryl Pollock from its own witness list.

However, the Commission has added some new witnesses, apparently at the behest of the VPD and RCMP.  They are Dorothy McKee, Frank Henley, Doug Fell, Mark Wolthers, Kenny Holmberg and Jim McKnight.

Excerpts from our written submission for additional witnesses, dated December 23, 2011, are set out below:

…..

PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO THE WITNESS LIST

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS

Submitted to Commission Counsel December 23, 2011

These submissions are made on behalf of the families of Dianne Rock, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey, Cynthia Dawn Feliks, Cara Ellis, Mona Wilson, Helen May Hallmark, Dawn Crey, Angela Hazel Williams, Jacqueline Murdock, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury, Elsie Sebastian, Heather Bottomley, Andrea Borhaven, Tiffany Drew, Angela Jardine, Stephanie Lane, Tanya Holyk, Olivia Williams, Debra Jones, Janet Henry, Maria Laura Laliberte, Serena Abotsway, and Diana Melnick (the “Families”), many of which have lobbied for more than a decade to have the opportunity to participate in this Commission of Inquiry. These submissions are made in response to the request of Commissioner Oppal following the hearing on December 14, 2011, on the understanding that they will assist Commission Counsel with the task of generating a formal “witness list” for the balance of this Inquiry.

This Inquiry, like others before it, was established by government to exemplify the essential features of public inquiries identified by Prof. Ratushny: independence; effectiveness; a mandate; investigative powers that enable it to follow the evidence where it may lead and transparency or openness.

            Ratushny, The Conduct of Public Inquiries, Irwin Law, 2009, pp. 16-20

The Families submit they are entitled to a thorough public inquiry that will strive to provide them with a meaningful answer to the following critical question: how was it that over a five year period, scores of women disappeared within a few blocks of the VPD headquarters and were murdered within a few kilometers of the Coquitlam RCMP detachment, without the police detecting and stopping the crimes?

It is clear that illegal activities on the Pickton brothers’ properties came to the attention of the RCMP in 1996, when the City took legal action to attempt to shut Piggy’s Palace, and that over the next five years more information came to them that should have prompted more significant action on their part. The decision to stay serious charges against Willy Pickton after his near fatal attack on Anderson on March 23, 1997 was a significant event, significant enough to form the basis of one of the terms of reference for this Inquiry. From the families’ perspective, the criminal justice system failed to work as it should have, enabling Pickton to continue murdering women for nearly five more years, even as the police received credible information that he was responsible for more crimes. How could this happen?

We submit that the Commission was convened to answer this important question and that it has an obligation to investigate these matters independently and openly, following the evidence wherever it might lead.

Commission Counsel has prepared a witness list that we feel is incomplete. Our analysis and these submissions are based on a review of the records that have been made available to date. We accept that, as the hearing unfolds, the attendance of some of the witnesses on the Commission Counsel’s current list may become unnecessary and that more people may surface as having material evidence to offer.

We accept that most, but not all, of the key police officers from both the Vancouver Police Department and the Coquitlam RCMP have been included on Commission Counsel’s current witness list, and agree that, at least from our current vantage point, this Commission should hear from all of the witnesses on that list.

The witnesses we hereby propose should be added to the list are primarily non-police witnesses, whose evidence may complement or contradict the anticipated evidence from police witnesses. We submit that if this Commission is to properly achieve its mandate it must hear all sides of the “story”, not merely the police version. As any criminal lawyer or judge would be aware, there is often a substantial difference between police and civilian accounts of an event. It would be extremely presumptuous, and probably inaccurate, to make findings of fact concerning any transaction between police and civilians without hearing the civilians’ version of the event.

On December 6, 2011 we delivered a Schedule to all counsel including the names of our proposed additions to the witness list. The following is a slightly revised version of a current list of witnesses we propose to be added to Commission Counsel’s list, with our submissions supporting these additions.

ROSS CALDWELL

Mr. Caldwell was reportedly the second person to provide significant information to police about Pickton. In mid-July, 1999, Mr. Caldwell provided information to Det. Cst. Chernoff of the VPD that Lynn Ellingson had told him that she had been witness to Pickton hanging a women in the barn on the Picktons’ property and stripping flesh off her legs. Further, Pickton had told Mr. Caldwell personally that he could dispose of a body “without a trace” if needed.

At the end of July, 1999, Caldwell told Chernoff and Lepine that he had observed handcuffs and a semi-automatic rifle in Pickton’s trailer and a “special” freezer in Pickton’s barn, from which he had been served a strange meat he came to believe was human. He further advised that Pickton had regular cock fighting events in the barn. This information became the catalyst for an in-depth investigation into Pickton.

In early August, 1999, Mr. Caldwell advised Chernoff and Lepine that Ellingson was extorting Pickton by threatening to go to police with her information. Caldwell apparently agreed to be an “agent” for police to further the investigation.

On August 5, 1999, Mr. Caldwell was brought into the Coquitlam detachment for an interview. The interview did not go well, allegedly because of Mr. Caldwell’s “lack of sleep and substance abuse”, as noted in DC LePard’s report [p. 26].

DC Evans writes in her report that August, 1999 was a “critical time for both the VPD and Coquitlam RCMP. The investigation did not proceed because investigators could not corroborate what Mr. Caldwell was saying to the satisfaction of all…” [p. 8-4].

Ultimately, Corporal Henley and Det. Ballantyne of the Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit and members the VPD’s Major Crime Section negatively assessed Caldwell’s credibility, effectively derailing the missing women investigation [LePard p. 41].

DC LePard writes: “Detective Constable Mark Chernoff and Detective Ron Lepine demonstrated great skill and dedication in their work with informant Caldwell.”

We will be hearing the evidence of Det. Cst. Chernoff, and possibly Det. Lepine; and we submit that Mr. Caldwell should be called as a witness to give his version of events during the early stages of the missing women investigation.

LYNN ELLINGSEN

Ms. Ellingsen lived on Pickton’s property in 1999 and was witness to the incident involving a woman hanging in Pickton’s barn. She would eventually become the source of the information provided to police by informants Caldwell, Best, and Menard.

RCMP Corp. Henley and VPD Det. Ballentyne interviewed Ms. Ellingsen for the first time on August 10, 1999, and accepted her denial of the information brought to police by the informants, and concluded that the informants must have been lying. In his report, DC LePard writes that Ms. Ellingsen’s denial was “utterly lacking in credibility – she did not simply deny seeing the body, but denied telling anyone the story of seeing the body, and this flew in the face of direct evidence from three witnesses.” [p. 26]

On August 26, 1999 Det. Lepine and Cst. Yurkiw attempted a second interview of Ellingsen. DC Evans writes: “Henley and Ballentyne did not give the investigation or the interview of Ellingsen the time and effort that it required” [p. 8-23]. The interview lasted only 12 minutes.

On August 31, 1999 Ms. Ellingsen failed to show up for a polygraph test. DC Evans concludes that more should have been done in response to her failure to show up. [p. 8-30]

Ellingsen would later become a key witness at Pickton’s murder trial.

DAVID PICKTON

David Pickton lived at 953 Dominion Ave. with his brother Willy throughout the entire time period defined by the terms of reference. He was well known to police, and was considered a person of interest during the missing women investigations. He co-owned the Picktons’ properties on Dominion Ave. and Burns Rd. which were known by the police to be hives of illegal activity, including cockfighting, illicit alcohol and drug use, prostitution and petty theft.

Willy Pickton apparently deferred to his brother on their dealings with the police. For example, it was David Pickton who persuaded investigators to wait until the rainy season before conducting interviews.

On October 22, 2001, Dave Pickton apparently spoke with police who attended Robert Pickton’s trailer following a 9-1-1 hangup. Few details are known about this incident [Nancy Plasman interview].

Despite all this unlawful activity at the Picktons’ properties,  and despite the RCMP’s frequent attendances at there, possibly as many as 49 murders were perpetrated. Women’s remains and DNA were found on land that David Pickton occupied with his brother. The families believe David Pickton could shed a great deal of light on the questions that are central to this Commission’s mandate and terms of reference. A proper inquiry must include testimony from this central character, to answer these questions.

Pickton should be able to assist this Commission if compelled to answer the following questions:

  1. When, where, and how many times was he interviewed by police?
  2. What dealings did he have with members of the RCMP and who were they?
  3. What was the nature of his and his brother’s relationship with Bev Hyacinthe, the civilian employee who worked at the RCMP’s Coquitlam detachment?
  4. What did he know about the women’s murders and the disposal of their remains on his property?
  5. If he knew that as many as 49 women’s bodies were being disposed of on property he owned, did he report that to the police?
  6. Was he aware, and if so, when did he first become aware that the police were conducting surveillance on the Pickton property?
  7. What does he recall about the RCMP search of the Pickton property and its investigation following the Anderson incident in 1997?
  8. What does he know about the decision to stay his brother’s charges?
  9. What does he recall about the police attendance at the farm on October 22, 2001, following the 9-1-1 hangup?
  10. What does he recall about the conversation with RCMP Cst. Yurkiw on September 22, 1999, in which he allegedly told police to come back in the rainy season?
  11. Did off duty police officers, politicians or other high-profile members of the community attend events at the infamous Piggy’s Palace?

We submit that David Pickton is certainly a necessary witness and that the Commission must obtain his sworn answers to these and other questions if it is to comply with its mandate.

BRIAN OGER

Brian Oger was a civilian employee with Project Evenhanded during the relevant time period. During the course of his assigned work in data entry, Mr. Oger made insightful observations about the ongoing missing women investigations. He was sufficiently troubled by what he observed that he was stimulated to write a 15-page report entitled “The Serial Killer Theory: A Report on the Downtown East-side Missing Prostitutes”, while still employed with Project Evenhanded.

While his report was written for the purpose of internal discussion, it made its way up the chain of command faster than anticipated, and Oger soon became the subject of reprimand and criticism by some members of both police departments.

In his essay, Oger questioned the strategy underlying the ongoing missing women investigations, and tried to raise awareness about the continued disappearences of women, and the possibility of a serial killer.

While Deputy Chief LePard makes almost no mention of Oger’s essay in his report, DC Jennifer Evans describes Oger’s essay as “one of the most compelling documents reviewed” in the course of her work for this Commission [page 8-35].

Mr. Oger has provided us with an insightful review of the missing women investigations at an instant in time and from his unique perspective. His motives to write this report, and the response he got to his report, ought to be heard by this Commission. His report offers a unique perspective on the conduct of the missing women investigations from a non-police “insider”, and must be properly before this Commission.

BEV HYACINTHE

Bev Hyacinthe was a civilian employee at the Coquitlam RCMP Detachment during the terms of reference. She was employed as a telecoms operator.

Ms. Hyacinthe knew the Picktons personally and provided information to Mike Connor in September, 1998 and August, 1999 that assisted in the missing women investigations, including information about the character of Lisa Yelds, and the cock fighting that took place on the farm.

Ms. Hyacinthe apparently told Connor that Pickton was aware the police were conducting surveillance on him. Evans notes in her report at p. 8-97 that Connor forgot to include this piece of information in his Continuation Report.

On February 1, 2002 – just days before Pickton’s arrest – Ms. Hyacinthe was interviewed by Bill Fordy. She provided him with significant information about the Picktons. In her interview she mentions that her son had found bloody clothing in Willy Pickton’s truck.

After Pickton’s arrest in 2002, Ms. Hyacinthe told investigators that she had seen Pickton hanging around with Dawn Crey at Piggy’s Palace at a New Years Eve party in 1999. Apparently she read in the paper a couple of weeks later that Dawn Crey had been reported missing.

Ms. Hyancinthe ought to be called to this Inquiry to answer the following questions, among others:

  1. What more did she know about the Picktons that would have assisted the missing women investigations?
  2. How much more information did she provide to the RCMP about the Picktons’ activities?
  3. What does she know about why the RCMP did not follow up on their investigative leads before February 4, 2002?
  4. Did she report her sighting of of Dawn Crey on New Years Eve, 1999, to investigators, and if not, why not?
  5. Did police ever discuss with her the possibility of her becoming a police agent?

PETER RITCHIE

After the March 23, 1997 incident, Willy Pickton first retained Crossin & Scouten, the law firm that was acting for him and his siblings in the civil litigation surrounding Piggy’s Palace. About a week later, he hired lawyer Peter Ritchie, who attended  with his client when he was booked and fingerprinted. In January, 1998, the Crown stayed all five serious charges against Pickton. The Crown file was subsequently destroyed.

Mr. Ritchie may have been involved in the decision to stay the charges and would have communicated with the Crown about the decision. Any communications between Mr. Ritchie and the Crown would not be privileged and would likely be recorded on Mr. Ritchie’s file, if it exists. Mr. Ritchie was obliged to retain the file for at least six years, meaning it would have been in his possession when his client was arrested for murder in 2002.

It is respectfully submitted that the Commission must hear from both sides involved in the file if it is to discharge its fact-finding obligation with respect to the stay decision.

PEDER GULBRANSEN

In August, 1999, Mr. Gulbransen was the Crown Counsel assigned to the Pickton investigation. Around that time, Mr. Gulbransen advised Cpl. Connor that he would require a warrant in order to conduct video/electronic surveillance of Pickton’s property. No warrants were obtained.

In 2002, Mr. Gulbransen was involved in advising Cpl. Conner with respect to the search warrant for Pickton’s trailer.

It is submitted that Crown Counsel’s handling of the RCMP’ requests for a warrant is an integral part of the factual matrix. It may be that questions of privilege arise, but they can be addressed when the witness is to testify. Our position is that communications between Crown and police are not privileged from disclosure at this Commission.

We turn now to submissions on a short list of police officers who we feel have relevant and unique evidence to bring to this Commission, and who should be added to the witness list.

VPD Det. Cst. DARCY SARRA

On October 18, 2002, Chief Constable Jamie Graham distributed an email to all VPD sworn and civilian staff with the subject line “Preparation Regarding Pickton Civil Litigation” . This document has been disclosed to us on the Concordance database as VPD-001-000834. In this email, the Chief Constable identifies Sarra as being the officer tasked with “gathering all documents that might relate to this matter.”

As the Commission is well aware, the families of 25 murdered and missing women, our clients, remain concerned about the adequacy of disclosure by the VPD in this Inquiry. We submit that Det. Cst. Sarra should be called to testify regarding the adequacy of disclosure by the VPD and obstacles faced in collecting all relevant materials.

Sarra is in a unique position to describe what actions were taken to ensure all relevant documents were collected and preserved. Sarra might be aware of documents that were known to have existed but which could not be located. Sarra might be able to provide evidence of what steps were employed to ensure that critical documents were not destroyed.

VPD Sgt. BRIAN HONEYBOURNE

Sgt. Honeybourne was seconded to the Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit during the relevant time period. He appears to have been the only member of that Unit to have attended the February 10, 1999 meeting with the Missing Women Review Team, at which it was determined that no assistance of that Unit would be provided. The Unsolved Homicide Unit refused to get involved in the missing women investigation at that time as there were “no bodies”, and Sgt. Honeybourne may be in the best position to explain that decision.

Sgt. Honeybourne also attended the September 16, 1999 meeting at which media strategy was discussed and tempers erupted over an alleged leak and the press release proposed by Rossmo.

For unknown reasons, neither DC LePard nor DC Evans interviewed Sgt. Honeybourne in the preparation of their reports. As such, we have very little information directly from Sgt. Honeybourne, further supporting his addition to the witness list.

Sgt. Honeybourne alone is in the best position to answer the following questions:

  1. Why did the Provincial Homicide Unit refuse assistance to the missing women investigations in February, 1999, despite the request for assistance made by Connor, Shenher and other missing women investigators?
  2. If the refusal was made on the basis of a “lack of bodies” – from where did this requirement come? Was this a matter of policy?

VPD Insp. GORD SPENCER

In April, 2000, Insp. Spencer replaced A/Insp. Dureau as the head of the VPD’s Major Crimes Section. At that time Spencer was overseeing the Home Invasion Task Force and the Missing Women investigation.

In November, 2000, Insp. Spencer recieved a memo from Sgt. Field requesting a third Sergeant on the missing women investigation. Sgt. Field wrote:

“The Missing Women Investigation is probably a year behind in reaching a conclusion due to lack of adequate supervision and manpower. We have had a high burnout factor from the limited staff that worked on this project. We also may have a killer out there that has gone undetected for a year or longer. Liability is a concern that is often overlooked but has huge implications” [Evans page 8-153].

On January 21, 2001 Sgt. Field wrote a memo to Insp. Spencer noting that the Missing Women file had suffered from “lack of a full time assigned supervisor, lack of staffing to follow up leads on suspects . . . ” among other concerns [page 8-156].

Given these desperate requests for resources, why were more staff and resources not made available by Insp. Spencer? Did he request any additional resources from higher up the command chain?

VPD Det. PHIL LITTLE

Det. Little was assigned the role of suspect review and prioritization with the JFO in February, 2001, and ought to be in a position to provide evidence with respect to the prioritization of Pickton during the relevant time period. Det. Little created a ranking system and ranked “persons of interest” during the Project Evenhanded phase of the investigation. Det. Little is uniquely positioned to explain how suspects were prioritized, what factors were considered and how these factors were weighed.

Det. Little’s notes indicate that Pickton was not always considered to be the top-priority suspect and that Pickton was lower on draft lists than in the final lists. The VPD has withheld all information about other suspects under consideration during the time period defined by the Terms of Reference. Det. Little ought to be best positioned to explain why, in the face of incredible evidence implicating him, Pickton was not always the top priority suspect, without infringing the privilege the police department has asserted over the documents.

RCMP Cst. DAVE STRACHAN

Cst. Strachan was a member of the RCMP Serious Crimes Section in 1997 when the “Anderson” incident occurred, and his evidence would primarily be relevant to article 4 (b) of the Commission’s Terms of Reference.

Cst. Strachan conducted the search of Pickton’s trailer following the “Anderson” incident, and ought to be able to provide relevant evidence with respect to that search.

Cst. Strachan was also one of two officers who interviewed VIC97 after the attack. He ought to be able to provide evidence with respect to her description of the event and his assessment of her credibility.

This evidence is directly relevant to article 4 (b) of the Commission’s Terms of Reference, and ought to assist with the Commission’s mandate.

RCMP Cst. NATHAN WELLS

On February 5, 2002, Coquitlam RCMP Constable Wells executed a search warrant on the Pickton trailer for an unrelated criminal offence. He was apparently acting on a tip. He was a very junior member who presumably may have sought assistance from his colleagues. Questions for him include:

  1. What did he learn about the Picktons?
  2. Was he influenced in seeking a warrant by any knowledge of the missing women’s investigations?
  3. How easy (or how difficult) was the warrant to obtain?

The last question is the critical one. If the warrant was easy to get, that fact is material to addressing why the RCMP did not act much earlier.

RCMP Sgt. (now Commissioner) ROBERT PAULSON

As a member of the RCMP’s Southwest Major Crime group, then Sgt. Paulson was extensively involved in the missing women’s investigations. (His name appears hundreds of times, perhaps up to about one thousand times, in the documents loaded into the Concordance database for use by the Commission) More recently, of course, he has been appointed Commissioner.

According to DC Evans, in March of 2000, Sgt. Paulson and Sgt. Davidson “approached Chief Superintendent Bass with a proposal to create a coordinated effort to review the unsolved homicides and the Missing Women”. [pp. 8-32, 33]  Despite these efforts, it was about another year before a the JFO was formed.

Commissioner Paulson has a unique perspective from which to testify about the stumbling blocks encountered in the investigations and, as new Commissioner, to provide evidence on how the RCMP will address similar issues in the future.

ALL OF WHICH IS RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

A. Cameron Ward”                                    

Counsel for the families of Dianne Rock, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey, Cynthia Dawn Feliks, Cara Ellis, Mona Wilson, Helen May Hallmark, Dawn Crey, Angela Hazel Williams, Jacqueline Murdock, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury, Elsie Sebastian, Heather Bottomley, Andrea Borhaven, Tiffany Drew, Angela Jardine, Stephanie Lane, Tanya Holyk, Olivia Williams, Debra Jones, Janet Henry, Maria Laura Laliberte, Serena Abotsway, and Diana Melnick

posted by Cameron Ward

Thursday, April 26

Three former VPD officers offer personal apologies at Missing women inquiry

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 26, 2012 3:24 PM

commissioner_wally oppal

VANCOUVER - Three former senior Vancouver police officers concluded their testimony today at the Missing Women inquiry by offering their personal apologies to the families of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton for not solving the case sooner.

And two former VPD deputy chiefs testified today that they never saw a May 1999 memo from former Detective-Inspector Kim Rossmo that said the missing women were likely victims of a serial killer.

"I want to apologize from myself to the families for not being able to resolve this horrible issue before more women were murdered," said former homicide section sergeant Geramy Powell, whose last name was Field back in 1998 when she began working on the case.

She became choked up before adding: "I feel very, very sorry for not being able to act stronger, sooner."

Powell also told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal that there needs to be more treatment available for drug addiction and the mental health problems in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"There doesn't seem to be any long-term treatment facilities available when they're needed," she testified.

"The federal, provincial and city governments need to get that going," Powell added.

"We need to get all levels of government working together," added Powell's former boss, former major crime section inspector Fred Biddlecombe.

He said there needs to be better services for people in the Downtown Eastside at night, when they are needed.

"Like many others, I too wish that this investigation had come to a successful conclusion much sooner than it did," Biddlecombe said.

"Obviously I apologize to all the families for not ceasing this activity sooner as far as Mr. Pickton is concerned," former VPD major crime inspector Dan Dureau said.

He suggested the Vancouver police needs to work more closely with the DTES community to eliminate the traditional distrust residents have of police.

He also echoed Powell's recommendation of tackling the root problems of drug addiction, mental health and poor housing conditions.

"These have to be solved first," Dureau said.

Powell testified earlier that she requested more resources for the investigation but her requests seemed to fall on deaf ears because no further manpower was initially provided.

The three officers were testifying as part of a panel at the inquiry, which is probing why Pickton wasn't caught until 2002.

The inquiry has heard that Powell supervised the initial missing women investigation by Det.-Const. Lori Shenher, who began receiving tips in 1998 about Pickton being responsible for the dozens of women who had gone missing - mainly drug-addicted sex workers who worked the streets in Canada's most poverty-stricken neighbourhood.

The inquiry also heard from a panel of two retired Vancouver police deputy chiefs - John Unger and Brian McGuinness.

Both testified they never saw a statistical analysis report in May 1999 done by Rossmo, who had a PhD in criminology and headed the VPD geographic profiling section, which specialized in identifying serial crime.

Rossmo's report concluded the most likely explanation for the growing number of missing women was "a single murderer or partner murderers."

Both Unger and McGuinness said Rossmo's report was not discussed at meetings of the chief and deputy chiefs.

"The concern was what was happening to these women and we just didn't know that," McGuinness recalled.

"We had all these missing women and we didn't know why," he recalled.

"I think we did recognize there was a serial killer, but not at this point in time," Unger said, speaking of the period in early 1999, when Vancouver police believed women had stopped disappearing.

""What changed?" Inquiry lawyer Art Vertlieb asked.

"We had more information relative to the women reported missing and that helped us form the opinion that we did have a serial killer," Unger said.

By the time the VPD realized that a serial killer was actively preying on women, he said, the force first former a review team, which began compiling a list of potential suspects.

He recalled that Gord Spencer, the inspector who took over the major crime section after Biddlecombe retired in 2000, decided the VPD needed to form a joint forces operation with the RCMP.

"I know we had a huge number of suspects but we didn't have the wherewithal to go after all those suspects," Unger said.

"We needed some assistance to expand our geographical area," he said.

Unger said he contacted Gary Bass, the commanding officer of the RCMP, who is expected to testify later at the inquiry.

The joint-forces investigation didn't get going until early 2001 and spent much of its time reviewing suspects and transferring information to a new computer system.

Unger also took issue with a suggestion by Vertlieb that the deputy chief once said "They're just a bunch of hookers" when discussing the missing women.

"It's distressing because it's a complete fabrication," Unger said.

He was told Shenher recalled Unger once used the term "f---ing whores" during a meeting.

"I never said that," Unger said.

He said he used to use the term "working girls" until 1994, when he was told the proper terminology was "STWs - sex trade workers."

Unger, 66, retired in 2003 after serving almost 32 years in the force.

He said he had an excellent working relationship with the RCMP.

He said he worked on integrated Vancouver police-RCMP investigations.

McGuinness, who had been a VPD deputy chief in 1994, retired in 2004.

Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard, in his report on the failures of the police investigations, suggested VPD management failed to take ownership of the missing women investigation, were initially in denial about a serial killer and didn't devote sufficient resources soon enough.

Unger said he would have liked Pickton to have been caught sooner but felt Vancouver police acted appropriately.

Unger and McGuinness are expected to continue their testimony Friday.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Process Management Directive #5

Further to my previous Process Management Directives issued on January 11, January 24, February 21 and April 16, 2012, this is Process Management Directive #5.

  1. The principles I set out in my previous four Directives have guided me through the last six weeks of hearings. I have heard from an additional 30 witnesses including:

    (a) representatives of victims’ family members:

    • Lila Purcell (aunt of Tanya Holyk)
    • Daphne Pierre (sister of Jacqueline Murdock)
    • Sandra Gagnon (sister of Janet Henry)
    • Marilyn Kraft (step-mother of Cindy Feliks)
    • Bonnie Fowler (sister of Georgina Papin)
    • Lisa Bigjohn (sister of Mona Wilson)
    • Christopher Joseph (brother of Olivia Williams)
    • Maggie de Vries (sister of Sarah de Vries)

    (b) members of the Downtown Eastside Community:

    • Jamie Lee Hamilton
    • Wayne Leng

    (c) representatives of the Vancouver Police Native Liaison Society:

    • Morris Bates
    • Freda Ens
    • George Lawson
    • Jay Johns

    (d) officers from VPD’s District 2 (which includes the Downtown Eastside)

    • Cst. Dave Dickson
    • Insp. Gary Greer
    • Staff Sgt. Doug MacKay Dunn
    • Insp. Chris Beach

    (e) individuals involved in the missing person report processing process

    • Sandy Cameron
    • Rae-Lynn Dicks

    (f) officers and supervisors at the VPD and RCMP

    • Sgt. Dwight Dammann
    • Staff Sgt. Murray Lunn
    • Cpl. Mike Hall
    • Superintendent Ric Hall
    • Chief Constable Terry Blythe

    (g) individuals involved in the Criminal Justice’s Branch decision of the stay of proceedings in 1998

    • Randi Connor
    • Richard Romano
    • Roxana Smith
    • Andrew MacDonald

    (h) evidence from Dr. Horley about DNA processing.

  2. As I stated in Process Management Directive #2 the purpose for calling these witnesses was primarily to inform the development of recommendations in three core categories:

    • the difficult interface between the policing authorities and the marginalized community of these victims;
    • inter-jurisdictional difficulties between different police forces; and
    • shortcomings in organizational systems.

  3. Many of the witnesses I have heard from since issuing Process Management Directive #3 have been in panel format. I am pleased with this approach and believe that it is meeting my objectives as described in Process Management Directive #3.
  4. The study commission has undertaken and is planning research and consultation activities to further the development of recommendations. A number of reports and discussion papers have been circulated and are available on the Commission’s website. Information about upcoming forums is also available.
  5. As we near the end of my fact finding mandate, I believe I have heard much of the information I stated I required in Process Management Directive #3. However, in Process Management Directive #4, I asked participant counsel to provide me with a list of witnesses and will-say statements outlining how their evidence would, at this stage, further the efforts of the Commission. These requests were to include any outstanding witness requests. I thank those participants who made submissions.
  6. I have considered those submissions and I am directing Commission Counsel to provide me with evidence from the following witnesses that were proposed by participants, in addition to those set out in the attached hearing schedule:

    • Bonnie Fournier
    • “Jane Smith”
    • Maggie Fidler
    • Donna Jardine
    • Dorothy McKee
    • Frank Henley
    • Doug Fell
    • Mark Wolthers
    • Ujjal Dosanjh
    • Phillip Owen
    • Gary Bass
    • Kenny Holmberg
    • Jim McKnight

  7. I do not need to hear from the following individuals suggested by participants:

    • Ross Caldwell
    • Lynn Ellingsen
    • Keith Davidson
    • Bruce Chambers
    • Anne Drennan
    • Catherine Galliford
    • Bev Hyacinth
    • Peter Ritchie
    • Peder Gulbransen
    • Gord Spencer
    • Unnamed expert to provide “opinion evidence dealing with the capacity of and circumstances under which persons who are users of various types of illicit drugs”
    • Brian Honeybourne

    I will provide reasons related to these individuals at a later date.

  8. I would like to hear from Ms. Galliford at the Study Commission forum on May 8, 2012, that is addressing issues relating to police accountability. If any other individual listed above wishes to attend the study sessions to provide information related to recommendations I invite them to contact Melina Buckley, Policy Counsel.
  9. Attached is a schedule for the remaining hearing days. I trust that all participants will make the necessary arrangements to work according to this schedule.

May 2012 Hearings Calendar

Copyright © Missing Women Commission of Inquiry 2012

Wednesday, April 25

Police spokeswomen will not be asked to testify in missing women inquiry

cpl catherine galliford

JAMES KELLER

VANCOUVER – The Canadian Press
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Two women who served as the public faces of the Vancouver police and the RCMP during the forces’ investigations of missing sex workers and Robert Pickton won’t be called to testify at the public inquiry into the case.

One of the women, RCMP Corporal Catherine Galliford, made headlines last year with explosive allegations of widespread sexual harassment within the national police force. At the time, Cpl. Galliford said she was eager to testify about why she believed the Mounties’ failed to catch Mr. Pickton.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

The other, Constable Anne Drennan of the Vancouver police, is best known for repeatedly telling the public in the late 1990s that there was no evidence a serial killer was targeting sex workers, even though investigators believed that’s exactly what was happening.

Commissioner Wally Oppal issued a written statement Wednesday that listed Cpl. Galliford and Constable Drennan among a dozen witnesses who won’t be asked to testify, despite requests from participants that they be called. Mr. Oppal said he would explain his reasons at a later date.

Commission lawyer Art Vertlieb declined to comment on why Cpl. Galliford and Constable Drennan won’t be appearing.

“The commissioner is a very experience jurist, and I have total confidence that his ruling will allow him to do what he feels he needs to do,” Mr. Vertlieb said in an interview outside the inquiry.

Mr. Oppal’s statement said Cpl. Galliford is welcome to participate in a less-formal study commission planned for next month, which will examine broader policy issues related to missing and murdered women.

Cpl. Galliford couldn’t be reached to comment on her participation in the inquiry.

Constable Drennan was a spokeswoman for the Vancouver police and handled media calls about the missing women investigation until she was reassigned in June, 2001.

She repeatedly denied there was any evidence that a serial killer was targeting sex workers in the Downtown Eastside, even as investigators on the ground actively investigated that theory.

Constable Drennan continued those denials even as a geographic profiler on the force prepared reports that concluded a serial killer was the only explanation for a sudden increase in the number of missing sex workers, and after the force received several credible tips that Mr. Pickton was taking prostitutes to his farm in Port Coquitlam to be butchered.

The inquiry has heard Constable Drennan was following the direction of senior officers within the department’s major crime unit.

Cpl. Galliford had limited involvement in the investigation that preceded Mr. Pickton’s arrest.

The RCMP and the Vancouver police formed a joint task force in 2001 to review missing-person files involving sex workers, and Cpl. Galliford joined as spokeswoman in December, 2001 – two months before Mr. Pickton’s arrest.

Still, Cpl. Galliford has publicly alleged she saw enough to know the RCMP dropped the ball on the case.

She told reporters last year that after reading the RCMP’s file on the case, she believed police could have raided Mr. Pickton’s farm in Port Coquitlam as early as 1999. Instead, the Mounties didn’t arrive until February, 2002, when an officer who wasn’t connected to the missing women investigation obtained a search warrant on a tip about illegal firearms.

She made the comments in a series of media interviews last year in which she came forward with allegations of persistent sexual harassment during her 20 years on the force. Cpl. Galliford, who says the experience left her with post-traumatic stress, outlined the allegations in a 115-page internal complaint with the RCMP, which the force is now investigating.

Mr. Oppal’s statement on Wednesday listed more than a dozen additional witnesses, including former B.C. premier and attorney-general Ujjal Dosanjh, former RCMP deputy commissioner Gary Bass and former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen.

The witnesses that Mr. Oppal rejected include Ross Caldwell, one of the informants that implicated Mr. Pickton; Lynn Ellingsen, a friend of Mr. Pickton’s who became a star Crown witness at his trial; and Peter Ritchie, who was Mr. Pickton’s lawyer when he was charged with attempted murder in 1997 and later represented him at his murder trial.

Meanwhile, the inquiry continued to hear evidence Wednesday from senior Vancouver police officers who were overseeing the investigation into missing women in the 1990s.

Retired inspector Fred Biddlecombe, who was in charge of the Vancouver police force’s major crime unit in the late 1990s, has faced repeated criticism that he ignored warnings a serial killer was preying on sex workers and, as a result, didn’t give the investigation the attention it deserved.

Instead, Mr. Biddlecombe assigned officers to investigate other theories to explain the disappearances. For example, one investigator spent two months searching indigent burial records to determine whether any unidentified remains were, in fact, those of Downtown Eastside sex workers.

“I’d characterize that as a wild goose chase,” Jason Gratl, a lawyer representing the interests of Downtown Eastside residents, told Mr. Biddlecombe during cross-examination.

“It’s an investigative lead that had to be followed up,” Mr. Biddlecombe replied.

“It was an investigative lead that was focused on your pet theory that the women would be found because they would be transient,” continued Mr. Gratl, “or, as you put it in your memo [in May of 1999] they had died because of the deaths attributable to AIDS or drug overdoses.”

“That was one possibility, yes,” Mr. Biddlecombe replied. “It was not a pet theory. It was an investigative process that had to be looked at.”

The Canadian Press

Pickton inquiry: street nurse Bonnie Fournier wins fight to testify on missing women | The Vancouver Observer

Pickton inquiry: street nurse Bonnie Fournier wins fight to testify on missing women | The Vancouver Observer:

'via Blog this'

Missing Women inquiry wants to hear from Mountie who alleges she was sexually harassed

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 25, 2012 8:01 PM

wally oppal-commissioner_mwci

VANCOUVER -- Wally Oppal, commissioner of the Missing Women inquiry, issued a directive today that he wants to hear from Catherine Galliford, the Mountie who has alleged she experienced sexism and sexual harassment in the RCMP.

Oppal said Galliford will not be called as a witness at the formal hearings, which are expected to continue into May, but would like to hear from her at a policy forum on May 8, which will address issues relating to police accountability.

Galliford, 44, left active duty four years ago and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She is being treated at an Ontario facility.

She previously handled media relations for the RCMP Air India investigation and in 2001 handled media relations the RCMP-Vancouver Police Missing Women Task Force.

The 10 policy forums will begin May 1 and will take place in Vancouver.

Oppal's directive, issued at 4:27 p.m. today, said he will hear from an additional 13 witnesses at hearings in May, including former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh, former Vancouver mayor Phillip Owen, the former commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP, Gary Bass, former Vancouver street nurse Bonnie Fournier and a woman sex worked referred to as "Jane Smith," who apparently survived an attack by serial killer Robert Pickton.

Also to be called will be former Vancouver police detectives Doug Fell and Mark Wolthers, who worked on the missing women case and investigated a suspect named Barry Niedermier, who was eventually charged with sexually assaulting and torturing sex workers.

Oppal said he doesn't need to hear from a dozen witnesses, many of whom were requested by Cameron Ward, the lawyer at the inquiry representing 25 families of murdered and missing women.

The inquiry is probing why the Vancouver police and RCMP investigations of Pickton didn't lead to his arrest sooner.

Oppal latest directive can be viewed here

Process Management Directive #5

Families of Pickton victims ‘offended to the very core’ about limits on inquiry: lawyer

Neal Hall, Postmedia News Apr 25, 2012 – 6:27 PM ET | Last Updated: Apr 25, 2012 6:30 PM ET

Simon Hayter / National Post files

Simon Hayter / National Post files

The Missing Women inquiry has "become a fiasco because of the time limits,” lawyer Cameron Ward said Wednesday. Ward is representing several families of Robert Pickton's victims.

VANCOUVER — The Missing Women inquiry is a “fiasco” because it is rushing through witnesses and limiting cross-examination of important Vancouver police witnesses, the lawyer for 25 families of murdered and missing women said Wednesday.

“The families lobbied for a decade for this inquiry,” Cameron Ward told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal.

“It is quite frankly ridiculous that we get shut down when trying to fulfil our mandates,” the lawyer said.

Related

“I can tell you my clients are offended to the very core about the government’s limits on this inquiry, which is affecting my mandate,” Ward said.

“This process is supposed to be thorough,” he added, “But it’s become a fiasco because of the time limits.”

‘That’s why we’re here, to examine all the reasons, which are many’

Ward was responding to Oppal cutting off the cross-examination of Jason Gratl, who is representing Downtown Eastside interests at the inquiry, when he reached his one-hour time limit imposed by the inquiry on his cross-examination of three retired senior Vancouver police officers — former Sgt. Geramy Field, whose last name now is Powell, and former inspectors Fred Biddlecombe and Dan Dureau.

Ward complained that he only had an hour to cross-examine the three witnesses, who collectively spent 15 years on the investigations of the missing women case.

The inquiry is probing why police didn’t catch Robert Pickton until February 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving tips in 1998 about Pickton being a possible serial killer who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women.

Oppal responded by saying: “Cross-examination has to be fair, not endless.”

He said the time limits imposed by the inquiry of the three witnesses adds up to nine hours of cross-examination.

“Let’s get on with it,” Oppal told the lawyers.

Powell, who was the first female sergeant in the homicide section and was the supervisor of the detectives working in the Missing Persons unit, testified Wednesday that she never experienced any sexism in the workplace.

She said a few immature people made stupid comments over the years, but she did not experience overt sexism within the Vancouver Police Department.

Ward pointed out that three Vancouver police employees, including two retired civilian employees, Sandy Cameron and Rae-Lynn Dicks, testified they experienced a sexist and racist “old boys culture” at the VPD, which affected the missing women investigation.

Dicks testified that one officer, Ron Joyce, said: “Who cares? It’s just another hooker.”

Tim Dickson, the lawyer for the VPD, told the inquiry that Joyce denies making the comment and will testify later.

Powell testified Wednesday that she left the department’s homicide section for six months to work on a project at the Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit, returning in March 1999.

By that time, she recalled, Det.-Const. Lori Shenher, who was investigating the missing women and tips about Pickton, had concluded that the missing women had met with foul play.

Powell told the inquiry she reached the same conclusion — that one or more men were preying on sex workers on the streets of Downtown Eastside.

Ward pointed out that Powell attended a series of meetings with her superiors at the VPD and with the RCMP about pursuing Pickton as a suspect.

“You implored management to give you the tools and resources you needed?” the lawyer asked. Powell agreed.

“But help didn’t come, did it? Not sufficient help,” Ward suggested.

“No,” Powell replied. “That was the feeling — that we weren’t getting the support.”

She said the senior VPD managers who were informed in 1999 about Pickton included Biddlecombe, Dureau, then deputy chief John Unger and perhaps chief Bruce Chambers.

Ward suggested to the witness that it must have seemed that the older men in senior management didn’t really care.

“I didn’t really believe that,” Powell said.

“Why wasn’t this man (been) brought to justice?” Ward asked about Pickton.

“That’s why we’re here, to examine all the reasons, which are many,” Powell said.

She blamed the slow communication between the Vancouver police, the RCMP, and Unsolved Homicide Unit for the lack of manpower devoted to the case.

She cited an August 1999 interview done by two Unsolved Homicide Unit detectives of Lynn Ellingsen, whom a tipster said had witnessed Pickton with the dead body of a Downtown Eastside sex worker in his barn one night.

Ellingsen told the detectives the story was untrue and one of the detectives, Frank Henley, believed Ellingsen, which caused the investigation to stall.

If the detectives had believed the informant’s information, more resources might have been assigned to the investigation and a joint forces operation formed sooner, Powell said.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder but once confessed he killed 49 women.

The remains or DNA of 33 of the missing women were found on Pickton’s farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

The inquiry, which began hearings last Oct. 11, is expected to conclude testimony by the end of the month.

It will start public policy forums on May 1 in Vancouver.

Postmedia News

Missing Women inquiry is a "fiasco," lawyer for families tells inquiry today

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 25, 2012 1:06 PM

commissioner wally opal_mwci

VANCOUVER - The Missing Women inquiry is a "fiasco" because it is rushing through witnesses and limiting cross-examination of important Vancouver police witness, the lawyer for 25 families of murdered and missing women said today.

"The families lobbied for a decade for this inquiry," Cameron Ward told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal.

"It is quite frankly ridiculous that we get shut down when trying to fulfill our mandates," the lawyer said.

"I can tell you my clients are offended to the very core about the government's limits on this inquiry, which is affecting my mandate," Ward said.

"This process is supposed to be thorough," he added, "But it's become a fiasco because of the time limits."

Ward was responding to Oppal cutting off the cross-examination of Jason Gratl, who is representing Downtown Eastside interests at the inquiry, when he reached his one-hour time limit imposed by the inquiry on his cross-examination of three retired senior Vancouver police officers - former sergeant Geramy Field, whose last name now is Powell, and former inspectors Fred Biddlecombe and Dan Dureau.

Ward complained that he only had an hour to cross-examine the three witnesses, who collectively spent 15 years on the investigations of the missing women case.

The inquiry is probing why police didn't catch Pickton until February 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving tips in 1998 about Pickton being a possible serial killer who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women.

Oppal responded by saying: "Cross-examination has to be fair, not endless."

He said the time limits imposed by the inquiry of the three witnesses adds up to nine hours of cross-examination.

"Let's get on with it," Oppal told the lawyers.

Powell, who was the first female sergeant in the homicide section and was the supervisor of the detectives working in the Missing Persons unit, testified Wednesday that she never experienced any sexism in the workplace.

She said a few immature people made stupid comments over the years, but she did not experience overt sexism within the Vancouver police department.

Ward pointed out that three Vancouver police employees, including two retired civilian employees, Sandy Cameron and Rae-Lynn Dicks, testified they experienced a sexist and racist "old boys culture" at the VPD, which affected the missing women investigation.

Dicks testified that one officer, Ron Joyce, said: "Who cares? It's just another hooker."

Tim Dickson, the lawyer for the VPD, told the inquiry that Joyce denies making the comment and will testify later.

Powell testified today that she left the homicide section for six months to work on a project at the Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit, returning in March 1999.

By that time, she recalled, Det.-Const. Lori Shenher, who was investigating the missing women and tips about Pickton, had concluded that the missing women had met with foul play.

Powell told the inquiry she reached the same conclusion - that one or more men were preying on sex workers on the streets of the DTES.

Ward pointed out that Powell attended a series of meetings with her superiors at the VPD and with the RCMP about pursuing Pickton as a suspect.

“You implored management to give you the tools and resources you needed?” the lawyer asked. Powell agreed.

“But help didn’t come, did it? Not sufficient help,” Ward suggested.

“No,” Powell replied. “That was the feeling – that we weren’t getting the support.”

She said the senior VPD managers who were informed in 1999 about Pickton included Biddlecombe, Dureau, then deputy chief John Unger and perhaps chief Bruce Chambers.

Ward suggested to the witness that it must have seemed that the older men in senior management didn’t really care.

“I didn’t really believe that,” Powell said.

“Why wasn’t this man brought to justice?” Ward asked about Pickton.

“That’s why we’re here, to examine all the reasons, which are many,” Powell said.

She blamed the slow communication between the Vancouver police, the RCMP, and Unsolved Homicide Unit for the lack of manpower devoted to the case.

She cited an August 1999 interview done by two Unsolved Homicide Unit detectives of Lynn Ellingsen, whom a tipster said had witnessed Pickton with the dead body of a DTES sex worker in his barn one night.

Ellingsen told the detectives the story was untrue and one of the detectives, Frank Henley, believed Ellingsen, which caused the investigation to stall.

If the detectives had believed the informant’s information, more resources might have been assigned to the investigation and a joint forces operation formed sooner, Powell said.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder but once confessed he killed 49 women.

The remains or DNA of 33 of the missing women were found on Pickton's farm in Port Coquitlam.

The inquiry, which began hearings last Oct. 11, is expected to conclude testimony by the end of the month.

It will start public policy forums on May 1 in Vancouver. More information on the forums is available on the inquiry's website: http://www.missingwomeninquiry.ca/

Inquiry hearings can also be watched online on the website.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, April 24

Brian Hutchinson: Vancouver Police prejudices ensured missing skid-row prostitutes were a low priority | Full Comment | National Post

Brian Hutchinson: Vancouver Police prejudices ensured missing skid-row prostitutes were a low priority | Full Comment | National Post:

'via Blog this'

Former VPD inspector tells Missing Women inquiry he suffers memory loss

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 24, 2012 4:36 PM

wallyoppal

VANCOUVER - A former Vancouver police inspector testified Tuesday that he suffered from stress in 1998 while he was overseeing an investigation that involved serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton.

Fred Biddlecombe recalled he took some time off sick, suffering from job-related stress, in 1998.

He said he was suffering headaches and night terrors, causing him to wake up screaming, as well as weight loss and lack of focus.

Biddlecombe said he went on extended sick leave in October 1999 and never returned to work before retiring in September 2000 after 30 years with the VPD.

He said he still is under psychiatric care and has been diagnosed as suffering from major depression and anxiety, which has affected his memory.

Biddlecombe explained this to the inquiry when asked if he recalled certain events in 1998 when Vancouver police first received tips that Pickton was possibly a serial killer responsible for the disappearance of dozens of women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES).

Biddlecombe said his depression is due to "ongoing press-related stress issues."

Lawyer Jason Gratl, representing Downtown Eastside interests, told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal that Biddlecombe seems to suffer from "selective recall."

Biddlecombe was testifying at a panel along with former VPD sergeant Geramy Field, now known as Geramy Powell, and former inspector Dan Dureau.

Powell was the sergeant in the homicide section and Dureau replaced Biddlecombe when he was on sick leave or off doing other projects.

Biddlecombe in 1998 was in charge of major crime, which included the homicide section, robbery sex offences and the missing persons unit.

The inquiry has heard how Biddlecombe had a "hissy fit" when a senior VPD officer, Kim Rossmo, then in charge of the geographic profiling unit, presented in September 1998 a draft press release containing a public warning that a serial killer could be preying on women in the DTES.

The inquiry was told earlier that Biddlecombe said at the time there was no evidence of a serial killer and he didn't believe the women were really missing.

Instead, he directed Const. Lori Shenher, who worked in the Missing Persons Unit, to try to find the women that had been reported missing.

Biddlecombe was shown a Sept. 14, 1998, memo he wrote to then Insp. Gary Greer, which said Rossmo's draft press release was "inaccurate and unacceptable."

"I don't recall this document, the meetings or the discussion," Biddlecombe testified.

Shenher testified earlier that she couldn't find the missing women and by early 1999 believed the women had met foul play.

Shenher also began receiving tips in the summer of 1998, first from Bill Hiscox, who believed Pickton was responsible for the deaths of possibly all the missing women.

Biddlecombe testified he was never aware of Hiscox and wasn't told about the informant.

Powell, who retired in 2003, recalled she was Shenher's immediate supervisor but was transferred in September 1998 to the Coordinated Law Enforcement unit for six months.

When she returned in early 1999, she recalled, the missing women investigation was growing and detectives were being added.

The panel will continue testifying Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Missing Women inquiry heard a civilian in the VPD missing persons section complained in the early 1990s that the unit was understaffed and needed more officers to properly investigate cases.

Sandy Cameron said she discussed the matter with the sergeant overseeing the VPD's missing persons unit and he wrote a memo in 1995 to a superintendent, asking for a full-time sergeant for the unit and a motivated constable.

Cameron recalled there were problems in the early 1990s with sex workers going missing but they were not being properly investigated because the missing persons unit was short staffed.

"So the warning flag went up in 1995?" asked lawyer Jason Gratl.

"Yes," replied Cameron, who worked as a civilian clerk in missing persons for 22 years before retiring in 2005.

She said she noticed a spike in the number of sex workers being reported missing in the 1990s, which resulted in Det.-Const. Lori Shenher being added to the missing persons unit.

The inquiry heard earlier that Shenher did her best to investigate the missing women files but eventually became burned out.

VPD Deputy Chief Doug LePard said in his report that senior police managers failed to take ownership of the problem of missing women and assign more resources.

Cameron testified that she agreed with the 1998 findings of Kim Rossmo, then the Detective-Inspector in charge of the VPD's geographic profiling unit, who believed there was a possible serial killer preying on sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES)

Rossmo wanted to issue a public warning about a possible serial killer preying on women but the idea was shot down by Insp. Fred Biddlecombe, who was in charge of the homicide section.

He instead directed Shenher to find the women reported missing.

Cameron said Rossmo was not respected by his colleagues in the senior ranks of the VPD, who didn't want to give credence to Rossmo's findings.

Biddlecombe is expected to testify later today about why police failed to properly investigate the dozens of women reported missing from the DTES.

Biddlecombe will be part of a major crime panel to testify at the inquiry today.

The inquiry is probing why Pickton wasn't caught sooner.

Despite tips to Vancouver police in 1998 and 1999 about Pickton being a possible serial killer, his killing spree continued until his arrest in 2002.

One of the tips said a woman had seen Pickton with the dead body of a Vancouver prostitute in a barn on the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam.

The inquiry has heard that Pickton lured women to his farm with promises of money and drugs.

Once police began an exhaustive 18-month search of Pickton's farm, the remains and DNA of 33 missing women were found.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder.

He once confessed he killed 49 women.

The inquiry, which began hearings last Oct. 11, is expected to conclude testimony by the end of the month.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

VPD warned in 1990s about understaffing in missing persons section, inquiry told

BY NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 24, 2012 11:13 AM

Sandy Cameron testifies at the Missing Women Inquiry in Vancouver on April 23, 2012. These shots are from a TV monitor.

Photograph by: Wayne Leidenfrost, PNG

VANCOUVER - A civilian in the Vancouver police missing persons section complained in the early 1990s that the unit was understaffed and needed more officers to properly investigate cases, the Missing Women inquiry heard today.

Sandy Cameron said she discussed the matter with the sergeant overseeing the VPD's missing persons unit and he wrote a memo in 1995 to a superintendent, asking for a full-time sergeant for the unit and a motivated constable.

At the time, the sergeant and missing persons unit was part of the homicide section.

Cameron recalled there were problems in the early 1990s with sex workers going missing but they were not being properly investigated because the missing persons unit was short staffed.

"So the warning flag went up in 1995?" asked lawyer Jason Gratl, who is representing Downtown Eastside interests.

"Yes," replied Cameron, who worked as a civilian clerk in missing persons for 22 years before retiring in 2005.

She said she noticed a spike in the number of sex workers being reported missing in the 1990s, which resulted in Det.-Const. Lori Shenher being added to the missing persons unit.

The inquiry heard earlier that Shenher did her best to investigate the missing women files but eventually became burned out.

VPD Deputy Chief Doug LePard said in his report that senior police managers failed to take ownership of the problem of missing women and assign more resources.

Cameron testified that she agreed with the 1998 findings of Kim Rossmo, then the Detective-Inspector in charge of the VPD's geographic profiling unit, who believed there was a possible serial killer preying on sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES)

Rossmo wanted to issue a public warning about a possible serial killer preying on women but the idea was shot down by Insp. Fred Biddlecombe, who was in charge of the homicide section.

The inquiry has heard how Biddlecombe had a "hissy fit" when Rossmo presented a draft media release containing the public warning.

Biddlecombe said there was no evidence of a serial killer and didn't believe the women were really missing.

He instead directed Shenher to find the women reported missing.

Cameron said Rossmo was not respected by his colleagues in the senior ranks of the VPD, who didn't want to give credence to Rossmo's findings.

Biddlecombe is expected to testify later today about why police failed to properly investigate the dozens of women reported missing from the DTES.

Biddlecombe will be part of a major crime panel to testify at the inquiry today.

The inquiry is probing why serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton wasn't caught sooner.

Despite tips to Vancouver police in 1998 and 1999 about Pickton being a possible serial killer, his killing spree continued until his arrest in 2002.

One of the tips said a woman had seen Pickton with the dead body of a Vancouver prostitute in a barn on the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam.

The inquiry has heard that Pickton lured women to his farm with promises of money and drugs.

Once police began an exhaustive 18-month search of Pickton's farm, the remains and DNA of 33 missing women were found.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder.

He once confessed he killed 49 women.

The inquiry, which began hearings last Oct. 11, is expected to conclude testimony by the end of the month.

The inquiry will begin six policy forums starting May 1, which will be open to the public and will be live streamed online on the inquiry's website (www.missingwomeninquiry.ca).

Here is a schedule of the policy forums:

Forum 1: Ensuring the Safety of Vulnerable Women, Session A: Preventing Violence Against Sex Trade Workers

Date: Tuesday, May 1. 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver.

- Session B: Preventing Violence Against Aboriginal and Rural Women

Date: 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room, 350 W. Georgia St.

- Session C: Building Strong Police-Community Relationships

Date: Thursday, May 3, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver.- Policy Forum 2: Vulnerable and Intimidated Witnesses in the Criminal Justice Process

Date: Thursday, May 3, 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye Room, 350 West Georgia St.

- Policy Forum 3: Improving Missing Person Practices, Session A: Accepting and Investigating Missing Person Reports

Date: Monday, May 7, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420- 580 W. Hastings St.

-Session B: Police Relationships with Victims' Families, the Community, the Public and the Media.

Date: Monday, May 7, 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420, 580 W. Hastings St.

- Policy Forum 4: Inter-jurisdictional Collaboration and Coordination Among Police

Date: Tuesday, May 8, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420, 580 W. Hastings St.

- Policy Forum 5: Enhancing Police Accountability

Date: Tuesday, May 8, 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Room 420, 580 W. Hastings St., Vancouver.

- Policy Forum 6: From Report to Substantive Change - Healing, Reconciliation and Implementation

Date: Thurs., May 10, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: Wosk Centre For Dialogue, Room 320, 580 W. Hastings St. Vancouver.nhall@vancouversun.com

nhall@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun