Picton Inquiry - Funding Denied for Legal Representation

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

James Keller reports for the Canadian Press, 3 May 2012:

 

http://thetyee.ca/CanadianPress/2012/05/03/Missing-Women-Inquiry-17877708/

 

Sex workers must be able to come forward with allegations of abuse without worrying about whether police will arrest them on unrelated, outstanding warrants, the public inquiry into the Robert Pickton case has heard.

 

Several presenters at a series of policy forums examining how police should treat sex workers have raised concerns that officers are using minor, nuisance-related charges to ticket vulnerable women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

 

If those small tickets lead to warrants because women fail to appear in court to deal with them, they will be reluctant to come forward if they are victimized, the inquiry heard Thursday.

 

"It's extremely endangering for them to have warrants," said Ann Livingston of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users .

 

"Police should stop ticketing for minor offences such as street vending and institute a policy whereby police waive prosecution for outstanding warrants when victims or witnesses are reporting violent crime."

 

The Vancouver Police Department introduced a draft policy earlier this year that directs officers to look at prostitution-related charges as a last resort when dealing with sex workers.

 

The force has pointed to statistics that show only three women have been arrested and charged with communicating for the purpose of prostitution since 2007. Charges were stayed in two of those cases, and the third ended in a conditional discharge.

 

But the inquiry has heard officers are still issuing violation tickets to sex workers for offences such as jaywalking, street vending and spitting on the sidewalk.

 

Others find themselves facing charges related to drugs or breaching bail conditions that would also make them wary of approaching a police officer who might run their name through a criminal database, the inquiry has heard.

 

"A lot of times, the reason these girls are not reporting violent crimes is because they're afraid when they're in there, they're going to get arrested for spitting on the sidewalk or peeing in an alley they did a few months before," said Lori-Ann Ellis, whose sister-in-law Cara Ellis's remains were found on Pickton's farm.

 

"I think those need to be put aside," she told the inquiry. "Reporting of a violent crime and getting a violent offender off the street is much more important than getting the cuffs on some girl."

 

Earlier in the week, Oppal suggested he, too, thought police shouldn't be worrying about warrants if a sex worker comes forward to report abuse.

 

"I don't think anyone is suggesting that there should be a blanket amnesty for warrants, but some common sense needs to prevail where a woman is a victim of violence and she's reluctant to go to the police because she's breached a condition," Oppal told the forums on Tuesday.

 

On Thursday, Insp. Mario Giardini said officers can and should use discretion in such cases, but he said there need to be provincewide standards to ensure all police forces are working under the same rules.

 

"My concern is we can't have a haphazard approach, where I as a police officer in Vancouver employ discretion and somebody goes to New Westminster or to Burnaby, and that officer doesn't," Giardini said.

 

"We need a provincial standard, we need it entrenched in legislation, so that we have the same approach, whether it's in Prince George or Vancouver or Richmond."

 

Oppal replied by saying such standards would make "eminent sense."

 

Oppal is spending two weeks outside of the inquiry's usual venue of a Federal Court for hearings in a library meeting room where sex workers, community groups and police officers have been invited to make presentations. The policy forums are focusing on topics including sex worker safety, communication between police and the public, and police accountability ...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Neal Hall reports for the Vancouver Sun, 8 May 2102:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Profound+cultural+differences+between+RCMP+senior+officer+tells+missing+women+forum/6587023/story.html

 

There are profound cultural differences between the Vancouver police and the RCMP

, VPD Insp. Brad Desmarais told a Missing Women inquiry policy forum today.

 

He said the cultural differences are at the management level and at the street level.

 

The VPD tends to be more nimble and quick to respond to emerging crime issues, and the RCMP is more process oriented, said Desmarais, a former Mountie who now heads the VPD major crime section.

 

He said the VPD has a deep pool of resources to draw from quickly to react to a crime problem that needs to be dealt with "right now."

 

"That's not to say we can't cooperate," Desmarais told inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal.

 

"The integration of a number of investigations over the years have turned out quite well," he added.

 

RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong disagreed with Desmarais, telling the policy forum that the RCMP also has a deep pool of talent to draw from to react to crime problems.

 

She pointed out that there are 6,500 Mounties in B.C. - about one-third of all the RCMP in Canada - who police 99 per cent of the province.

 

Such integrated police units as the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are working well, she said.

 

Kim Rossmo, a former VPD officer who now is a criminologist teaching at a Texas university, said

Metro Vancouver is patchwork of police forces that cause jurisdictional confusion when investigating serial crimes that cross municipal boundaries.

 

He suggested a standardization of major case management systems to allow forces to share and compare data.

 

Rossmo suggested the Police Act needs to be changed to formalize cooperation and allow municipal police forces to have access to all databases, "so we don't have the kind of finger pointing that we've seen in the past."

 

Rob Gordon, head of the criminology school at Simon Fraser University, and Mike Webster, a police psychologist, both suggested there needs to a regional police force.

 

It is easier to keep the "culture and competition" between the RCMP and municipal police forces in check "if everyone wears the same uniform, plays for the same coach, uses the same play book, is supported by the same association and is governed by the same collective agreement," Webster said.

 

"It's time to let the patient go - he's dead," he said, adding there is a need to create a "functional system of policing in the Lower Mainland."

 

The focus of the forum was "Inter-jurisdictional Collaboration and Coordination Among Police." ...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Neal Hall reports for the Vancouver Sun, 8 May 2102:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/detectives+worked+missing+women+case+felt+serial+killer+responsible/6595265/story.html

 

Two detectives who worked on the Vancouver police missing women case in 1999 felt a serial killer was responsible, the Missing Women inquiry was told Wednesday.

 

"I didn't think they were missing, I thought they were murdered," Mark Wolthers testified.

 

He said he felt the VPD should have assigned more resources to investigate suspects, rather than treat the women as missing.

 

"It wasn't rocket science," Wolthers told the inquiry, which is probing why police didn't catch serial killer Robert Pickton sooner -- he wasn't arrested until 2002.

 

"You have to prioritize...because people are being murdered," Wolthers said.

 

He suggested officers could have been moved from the mounted squad and traffic squad to help "because we've got a serial killer on the loose."

 

Doug Fell also felt police made a mistake in putting out the message in the media that there was no evidence of a serial killer after dozens of women had been reported missing.

 

"With the benefit of hindsight, it was a horrible mistake," he said.

 

"In my opinion, we should have been doing as much as we could to warn the women out there."

 

Wolthers is now retired but Fell is still with the VPD.

 

They worked on the missing women investigation from the summer of 1999 until they were removed from the case in early 2000.

 

At the time, they said, their superiors believed women were no longer going missing, so the team was scaled back, but three more women were reported missing by the end of the year.

 

They denied they had "tunnel vision" but focused on one suspect -- Barry Niedermeyer, a former man in Alberta with a history of abusing sex workers.

 

Fells and Wolthers pursued Niedermeyer, who was later arrested and charged with serious sex assaults of Vancouver women.

Both took issue with the criticism of their work by VPD Deputy Chief Doug LePard in his 2010 report, which said Fell and Wolthers were difficult to work with, used derogatory language when talking about sex workers, withheld information from their colleagues and followed their own suspect while ignoring Pickton.

 

They said two other detectives were assigned to a Pickton tip.

 

Wolthers recalled Niedermeyer had made odd statements during interviews with police and psychologists, which suggested he could be responsible for the missing women.

 

"He said, 'I'm not saying I killed all of them'," he recalled Niedermeyer saying.

 

Fell said Niedermeyer was a "very, very nasty predator" and at the time they believed more than one serial killer was preying on the women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

 

After catching Niedermeyer, Fell and Wolthers were assigned in early 2000 to show photographs of possible suspects to sex workers in Vancouver.

 

Fell recalled asking their colleagues for photos of the 20 best suspects, but they were only given seven. Pickton was not among them, he said.

 

About a week later, in early April, they returned to show sex workers the photos of 10 additional suspects, including Pickton, who was identified by several sex workers.

 

The inquiry has heard criticism of Fell and Wolthers for withholding the fact that Pickton was identified. But neither could recall whether they told anyone. If they didn't, it wasn't intentional, they said.

 

The inquiry, which will continue hearing testimony Friday, will hold its final policy forum Thursday at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

The Canadian Press reports, 14 May 2012:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/05/14/bc-pickton-missing-women-inquiry.html

 

RCMP officers who were investigating Robert Pickton allowed the case to lay dormant for months at a time and didn't know they were dealing with a possible serial killer, several officers with the force told a public inquiry Monday.

 

The inquiry has heard allegations the RCMP in Port Coquitlam, where Pickton's farm was located, failed to realize they were investigating a multiple murderer and allowed their case to sit inactive for weeks and months at a time when officers in Vancouver considered Pickton their top suspect in the disappearance of Downtown Eastside sex workers.

 

Retired officer Ruth Chapman, then a constable, took over the RCMP's Pickton investigation in late August of 1999. The force was looking into a tip received by Vancouver police that Pickton had murdered a sex worker on his farm.

 

Chapman's predecessor, Cpl. Mike Connor, has already testified that by late summer of 1999 he saw Pickton as a potential serial killer who may have been actively picking up sex workers to murder.

 

But

Chapman said she was never given a detailed briefing about the investigation when she joined the case, and neither she nor her boss, Sgt. Darryl Pollock, had any idea they had a potential serial killer on their hands.

 

"Did you know that you were investigating a possible serial killer?" asked commissioner lawyer Art Vertlieb.

 

"No, not at that time," Chapman, whose surname was Yurkiw at the time, told the inquiry.

 

"No," added Pollock, "I wasn't investigating a serial killer at that time."

 

Pickton interview delayed

 

Chapman came onto the case when the force was investigating a tip from an informant, who relayed a story from one of Pickton's friends, Lynn Ellingsen. Ellingsen recalled walking in as Pickton was skinning a prostitute in his barn, the informant said.

 

When the RCMP contacted Ellingsen, she denied ever telling the story and refused to take a polygraph test. She later told the story at Pickton's murder trial.

 

Chapman then attempted to interview Pickton, but he asked to put off the interview until the rainy season was over. Chapman agreed to that request, and nothing happened with RCMP's investigation until the end of December.

 

Two months passed in which nothing was done on the file, said Chapman. She had other homicides to deal with and felt she had run out of leads in the Pickton case, she said.

 

"When homicide files and other high-priority major crime files came in, they were acted upon on a priority basis," said Chapman.

 

"The Pickton file was always a priority, but it didn't have continuing action, because there wasn't incoming tips to further the investigation."

 

The Vancouver Police Department was investigating the disappearance of Downtown Eastside sex workers, but officers have testified they left Pickton to the RCMP because he was in their jurisdiction.

 

Vancouver police and the RCMP appeared to be in regular contact when Connor was running the Mounties' Pickton investigation, but that communication appeared to dry up when he left. For example, no one from the RCMP ever told the Vancouver police that the Pickton investigation was effectively on hold.

 

The communications chasm between the two forces has emerged as a key factor in the failure to catch Pickton sooner, as officers in two nearby communities conducted investigations that were almost entirely separate from one another.

 

Former inspector Earl Moulton, who was in charge of major crime in the RCMP's Coquitlam detachment, said the Mounties didn't provide Vancouver police officers with updates because they never asked.

 

"They never asked, and in my term of service, I've never encountered a situation where you would [share such information]," said Moulton.

 

"There would be no reason to do so, and there's no practice of doing so."

 

Interview technique criticized

 

Chapman eventually resumed work on the Pickton file, notably when she interviewed Pickton in January 2000.

 

The interview was conducted by Chapman and another officer, neither of whom had interrogation experience, and has been widely criticized as sloppy and poorly planned. One of Pickton's friends was allowed to sit in on the interview, and when Pickton invited the officers to search his property, they never took him up on the offer.

 

Chapman said she didn't have access to specially trained homicide interrogators.

 

"There was some discussion that we wanted someone with more experience to conduct the interview, but I don't believe it met the criteria for the [RCMP's interrogation] team to assist us," said Chapman.

 

Neither Chapman nor Moulton could recall just what those criteria were.

 

As for the search, Chapman and Moulton said they didn't believe Pickton would provide the formal consent required before such a search, and they noted he wasn't the only owner of the property.

 

Pickton co-owned the property with his brother, David Pickton ...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

James Keller reports for the Canadian Press, 15 May 2012:

 

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120515/bc_missing_women_inquiry_120515/20120515/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

 

A civilian RCMP worker rang in the year 2000 at serial killer Robert Pickton's illegal booze operation, where she saw him with a woman she later recognized in news coverage of missing sex workers from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the public inquiry into the case heard Tuesday.

 

But it's not known whether Beverly (Puff) Hyacinthe, who worked in the radio room at the Coquitlam RCMP detachment, ever told investigators what she saw or anything else she knew about Pickton. She isn't scheduled to testify.

 

The inquiry has already heard about Hyacinthe, who lived near Pickton in Port Coquitlam and had known him and his brother David for years. Her husband attended grade school with the Picktons; her son had worked for them.

 

Cameron Ward, a lawyer representing the families of more than two dozen missing and murdered women, revealed what Hyacinthe told police investigators several days after Pickton's arrest in February 2002, including details of her trips to an illegal drinking establishment known as Piggy's Palace.

 

"On Dec. 31, 1999, Willie brought a date to one of the parties at Piggy's Palace, who (Hyacinthe), when she saw the front page of the Vancouver Province several weeks later, immediately recognized as one of the missing women from the Downtown Eastside," Cameron Ward told the inquiry as he summarized the police interview.

 

"She could produce photos of that evening upon request."

 

Ward said the woman at the party was likely either Mona Wilson or Dawn Crey. Wilson was one of the six women Pickton was convicted of killing, and Crey's DNA was found on the Pickton property.

 

By the end of 1999, the RCMP were investigating a tip that Pickton killed a sex worker on his property and were considering the possibility he was responsible for more murders.

 

Hyacinthe was aware of that investigation and had spoken to officers involved in the case. For example, she told Cpl. Mike Connor, who in 1998 and 1999 was the lead investigator on the file, that Pickton was aware police were monitoring his activities.

 

Connor told the inquiry earlier this year that he didn't pry for more information from Hyacinthe about Pickton.

 

A group of four officers who testified Tuesday, including Ruth Chapman, who took over from Connor, and Earl Moulton, who was an inspector in charge of major crime in Coquitlam, said Ward's cross-examination was the first time they had heard detailed information about what Hyacinthe knew about the Picktons.

 

"All I can say is that if this is the state of Puff's knowledge, I sure wish she'd made it known to us," Moulton told the inquiry.

 

"I put it to you she did -- she told you," said Ward.

 

"She did not," replied Moulton.

 

Other information Hyacinthe told the police during her February 2002 interview:

 

Pickton staged cockfights and pit bull fights on his farm.

 

Piggy's Palace was frequented by "a strange group of people" and Pickton would always bring "dates" to his parties.

 

Years earlier, her husband helped the Picktons bury stolen cars on their property.

 

Her son told her there were often women on Pickton's farm, who he believed were sex workers.

 

Her son once saw bloody clothing in Pickton's truck.

 

The RCMP have maintained they did not have enough information to legally search Pickton's property, but Ward has argued police were well aware of illegal activities Pickton was involved in -- any number of which could have been used to secure a warrant.

 

Ward noted a tipster told police Pickton was running weekly cockfights on his farm, and the RCMP knew for years about Piggy's Palace, which was frequented by members of the Hells Angels.

 

He said the Mounties also had information about illegal guns. Ross Caldwell, who told police in 1999 that Pickton may have killed a sex worker at his farm, recalled seeing guns on the property.

 

Almost three years later, a junior officer named Nathan Wells used another tip about illegal firearms to obtain a search warrant for Pickton's farm, which ultimately led to his arrest on Feb. 5, 2002.

 

"You could have got on the property in '99," said Ward.

 

Moulton insisted Caldwell's tip wasn't enough. He said he even asked a Crown prosecutor in 1999 whether police had enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, and he was told they did not.

 

"The information from Mr. Caldwell had been assessed by myself and many others, and the information did not support the issuance (of a warrant)," said Moulton...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

James Keller reports for the Canadian Press, 16 May 2012:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Failed+police+investigation+into+Robert+Pickton+major+embarrassment+former+Vancouver+mayor/6632242/story.html

 

The fact that Robert Pickton's victims were poor, drug-addicted sex workers from Vancouver's blighted Downtown Eastside contributed to the slow police response, a former mayor told a public inquiry Wednesday.

 

Philip Owen described the "badly handled" investigation as a national embarrassment for the city.

 

Owen, who was mayor and chairman of the city's police board from 1993 until 2002, told the missing women inquiry that a mix of indifference and incompetence within the Vancouver police and the RCMP allowed Pickton to continue killing for years.

 

"The lack of response to the disappearances of all these women was a function of the part of the city they went missing from and class, the disadvantaged, vulnerable position they held in society, wasn't it?" asked Cameron Ward, a lawyer representing the families of missing and murdered women.

 

"Partially," said Owen. "And also because it involved the RCMP in Port Coquitlam and that slipped through the cracks."

 

Owen suggested police should have been able to catch Pickton as early as 1998. He noted by then Pickton had already been accused of attempting to kill a sex worker at his property in Port Coquitlam in 1997, though charges in that case were never brought to trial.

 

The inquiry has heard the former mayor and the police board ignored the community's concerns about missing sex workers and instead adopting the police line that there was no evidence of a crime, let alone a serial killer.

 

But Owen said there was little he or the board could do to find out what police were doing or order the force to change direction. The board sets broad policy, Owen said, but can't interfere with the day-to-day operations of the police.

 

Owen acknowledged he initially accepted the police department's view there was no evidence a serial killer was preying on sex workers, but he said he grew skeptical over time. The police chief and other senior officers within the force, he said, were slower to change their minds.

 

"It was a horrible issue. It was a disaster. It was badly handled. It was badly managed," said Owen.

 

"It's an embarrassment right across the country."

 

Family members and community groups in the Downtown Eastside had been raising alarms about missing women in the neighbourhood for years. By 1999, those concerns had escalated and family members of the missing women were calling for a police task force and a $100,000 reward.

 

Owen was initially opposed to a reward, but eventually supported it during a police board meeting in April 1999. The police argued against issuing a reward, saying it wasn't necessary because there was no evidence the women were victims of foul play.

 

An obscure crime news website quoted Owen in 1999 dismissing the reward as little more than a "location service," paying people to locate sex workers who had merely moved away to other cities.

 

On Wednesday, Owen cast doubt on the report. He said he couldn't recall ever making the statement and didn't recognize the reporter's name at the top of the story.

 

Owen insisted his main concern was ensuring the city wasn't on the hook for the entire reward.

 

"I was concerned about Vancouver being on the hook,and I had no authority to commit Vancouver to $100,000," he said.

 

In the end, the city put up $30,000 for the reward and the B.C. government contributed $70,000.

 

In 2010, Vancouver police announced some of the reward money had been paid out to six tipsters, although the force didn't identify who received the money or how much was paid to each....

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

The Canadian Press reports, 18 May 2012:

 

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/75390/Police-deny-bias-at-Pickton-inquiry

 

Allegations that sexism and bias against sex workers are rampant within the Vancouver police and played a role in the force's failure to catch serial killer Robert Pickton are false, a senior officer from the force told a public inquiry Friday.

 

Deputy Chief Doug LePard, who testified at length last fall about the department's missing women investigation in the late 1990s and early 2000s, returned to the inquiry to refute a handful of the allegations made against the force in recent months.

 

Many of those allegations centred on how the force treated sex workers, with former officers, civilian police employees, sex workers and families of Pickton's victims recounting episodes in which officers treated prostitutes poorly or dismissed family members and friends attempting to report them missing.

 

LePard denied there is a culture of sexism that neglects sex workers, then or now.

 

"You're view about whether the (Vancouver Police Department) tolerates under-enforcement or under-investigation of violence against women in the sex trade is that it's simply not correct?" asked Sean Hern, a lawyer for the force

 

"No, and there are many examples now and during that time where serious crimes were committed against sex workers that vigorous investigations ensued," replied LePard.

 

Rae-Lynn Dicks, a 911 operator who testified last month, described a culture in which officers believed sex workers didn't deserve the protection of the police.

 

Dicks described a case, which wasn't related to the missing women investigation, involving a teenaged prostitute who had been raped at a gas station. Dicks alleged an officer who responded to the call sent her a note on the force's internal messaging system that said: "It's just a hooker. Hookers don't get raped."

 

LePard said he examined all of the sexual assault calls Dicks had ever taken, and he identified the case she appeared to be referring to. He listened to an audio recording of the 911 call and reviewed records of all communication related to the case.

 

LePard said there was no record of any messages sent to Dicks, let alone the one she described.

 

And LePard said the story Dicks told the inquiry contained numerous factual errors about the call, what the victim told her, and how the case was handled.

 

"This example was held up by Ms. Dicks as something she would never forget, as an example of the bias that Vancouver police members held against sex workers," said Hern. "In your review of the file, what is this file indicative of?"

 

"When you Google Ms. Dicks," replied LePard, "what you come up with is multiple articles that said missing women were considered scum of the earth, and it was just entirely inconsistent with what was actually going on. In fact, what it was an example of is the type of police officers that we had in the 1990s doing that work, that dealt with the case very professionally, did everything that could be expected."

 

The case resulted in a conviction against the woman's attacker, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, LePard said.

 

LePard also denied allegations from Marion Bryce, mother of Patricia Johnson, whose remains were found on Pickton's farm.

 

Bryce claimed she was treated poorly by a 911 operator when she attempted to report her daughter missing.

 

LePard said he located the recording of the 911 call that generated the first missing person report in Johnson's case. The call actually involved another of Bryce's daughters, said LePard, though it appeared Bryce was next to the phone.

 

He said the operator taking the call was professional and courteous.

 

"It was a very pleasant conversation, she (Bryce's daughter) finishes off by saying,' Thank you very much for all your help, it was wonderful,'" said LePard.

 

The testimony on Friday was limited to a small handful of allegations, mostly dealing with attitudes towards women and sex workers.

 

LePard authored a report, released in August 2010, that was highly critical of the force's investigation and identified a number of failings. But the report also concluded sexism and anti-sex-worker bias weren't factors.

 

LePard has apologized a number of times for not catching Pickton sooner, and the department's lawyers have repeated that apology numerous times during the inquiry.

 

However, the force has spent the inquiry arguing those failings are only apparent with the benefit of hindsight. Officers did the best they could with the information they had, the department insists, and shouldn't be blamed now...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Terri Theodore reports for the Canadian Press, 24 May 2012:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Missing+Women+inquiry+hears+police+knew+Robert+Pickton+hunting+women+while+disguise/6674898/story.html

 

Almost two years to the day before police searched Robert Pickton's now-notorious pig farm, police knew the man was "hunting" for women while in disguise, the missing women's inquiry has heard.

 

A retired RCMP profiler told the inquiry Thursday that he met with several other officers to discuss Pickton as a key suspect in the case at the Coquitlam, B.C., RCMP detachment, not far from Pickton's muddy farm.

 

During the Feb. 4, 2000, meeting, then-sergeant Keith Davidson said investigators discussed getting a search warrant for the farm and asking for a wiretap of Pickton's phone lines.

 

But police didn't get the warrant.

 

It would be another two years before police searched the farm, and in between that time, 14 women disappeared, said Cameron Ward, lawyer for more than two dozen family members of the murdered and missing women.

 

"Can you explain to me and my clients ... why the RCMP failed to either prove he was a suspect or rule him out in that two-year period?" Ward asked Davidson.

 

"I can't," he replied.

 

A rookie officer from the Coquitlam detachment eventually obtained a search warrant to look for weapons on the farm in February 2002. Instead, police found evidence of horrible crimes and eventually the remains or DNA of 33 women.

 

Davidson said he learned at the February meeting that police knew Pickton was a night person, that he picked up pigs every Saturday at auction and that he was ritualistic and sloppy.

 

He used wigs when he picked up girls, Davidson said.

 

"He went out hunting for girls in disguise, right?" Ward asked as he read over Davidson's notes of the meeting.

 

"Hunting would probably have been my word. Obviously if he wears wigs," he said, pausing. "I was being told he went out to pick out girls wearing wigs."

 

Davidson, who testified at the inquiry via Internet from London, contradicted testimony given by his former boss on Wednesday.

 

Gary Bass, the former deputy commissioner of the RCMP in B.C., said he didn't launch a task force into the missing women investigation because he wasn't asked to get involved by Vancouver's police department.

 

But

Davidson said Bass told him the Mounties didn't have the resources after Davidson presented a joint task force proposal to look into the missing-women case.

 

Davidson told the inquiry he believed a provincewide task force was necessary because the RCMP was the provincial police force and had the investigative resources.

 

He testified he didn't contradict his boss on the decision not to get involved.

 

Thursday was the last day for oral testimony at the commission.

 

Final arguments from various lawyers representing police officers, their departments, governments, family members and aboriginal interests, among others, have been put off until June 4.

 

The week-long delay of final legal arguments angered Lori-Ann Ellis, the sister-in-law of Cara Ellis, whose DNA was found on Pickton's farm.

 

"Family members have made travel plans," she said. "They're going to the memorial."

 

A memorial event at a park on the edge of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside where many of the women lived is set for June 1.

 

It was planned as a way for the women's families to mark the end of the public inquiry.

 

Outside the inquiry, Ward said a great deal about what went wrong around the police investigations into the women's disappearances has come out since the inquiry started last October.

 

Commissioner Wally Oppal must complete his report by June 30.

 

"It's my hope ... that we learn enough from this process to ensure that a tragedy of this nature does not happen again," Ward said.

 

He said the process has been especially horrific for the murdered or missing women's families who have waited more than a decade to learn why Pickton wasn't caught sooner.

 

One stark factor that's emerged from the inquiry has been the attitude of indifference by some people involved in the investigation towards the women who disappeared, Ward said.

 

He said he would like to see recommendations on improving police communications, more resources for such investigations and how police in the province could better co-operate to solve such cases sooner.

 

The inquiry started off on a sour note when the provincial government denied legal funding to several groups who had already been granted participant status at the inquiry. Many of those groups or individuals pulled out of the process.

 

Pickton was charged with killing 26 women, but convicted of six murders. Many of his victims were sex workers from Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

The Canadian Press reports, 31 May 2012:

 

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Missing+women+inquiry+gets+four+month+extension+report/6709669/story.html

 

The former judge overseeing the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry has received an extra four months to write his final report

, but the extension will likely do little to allay critics who have demanded commissioner Wally Oppal spend more time hearing from witnesses about why police failed to catch the serial killer.

 

Oppal has been hearing evidence since last October about why police didn't catch Robert Pickton in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the inquiry has been sluggish as dozens of lawyers lined up to cross-examine witnesses, some of whom spent days and weeks at a time in the witness box.

 

The slow pace combined with a series of delays have made it increasingly unlikely Oppal would be able to finish his work before the previous deadline of June 30.

 

Oppal, who is scheduled to hear closing arguments next week, asked to have until Oct 31 to write his final report. The province's attorney general announced Thursday she had agreed to that request.

 

However, Oppal did not ask for time to hear additional evidence.

 

"We've heard a lot of evidence and we have a lot of exhibits and reports that have been given to us, so we feel that we can move forward," Oppal said in an interview Thursday.

 

"All commissions of inquiry have timelines, and we need to work towards those deadlines. We have more than enough evidence from which to make findings and recommendations."

 

Last year, Oppal asked to be given until the end of 2012 to complete his work, but the province instead set his deadline for the end of June.

 

A number of families of Pickton's victims, their lawyers and the Opposition NDP have demanded Bond give Oppal more time, saying there are several witnesses that have yet to be heard that are important to understanding why police failed to catch Pickton as he murdered sex workers from Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside.

 

But Attorney General Shirley Bond has repeatedly rejected those demands.

 

"I am very concerned about ensuring that this report comes to a conclusion so that we can use the recommendations that will be provided to ensure that this kind of tragic circumstance doesn't happen again," Bond said on Thursday.

 

"The commissioner has assured me he has had the time required to understand the policing aspects that need to be changed."

 

Lawyers representing families of Pickton's victims have argued there are a number of witnesses that still need to be heard and he asked Oppal to add more than a dozen to the hearings schedule.

 

The list included Ross Caldwell, a police informant who implicated Pickton years before his arrest; Lynn Ellingsen, who told Pickton's trial about seeing him murder a woman on his property; Bruce Chambers, a former Vancouver police chief; Beverly Hyacinthe, a civilian RCMP worker who knew the Pickton family; and police spokeswomen Anne Drennan and Catherine Galliford.

 

The families also asked that Oppal hear from Pickton and his brother David.Oppal rejected those witnesses and will write his report without their testimony.

 

Neil Chantler, one of the lawyers representing the families of more than two dozen missing and murdered women, said he was disappointed Oppal didn't ask for more time to hear evidence.

 

"We remain of the view that this commission was unable to complete its work du to the strict time limits placed on it by the province," said Chantler.

 

The inquiry has been beset by delays and controversies since its inception.Critics argued that Oppal, a former Liberal attorney general, was a poor choice to lead the commission.

 

A number of community and advocacy groups pulled out of the process last year when the province denied their requests for legal funding.

 

The inquiry was put on a three-week hiatus earlier this year when an independent lawyer appointed to represent aboriginal interests resigned, citing concerns that First Nations voices weren't being heard.

 

And the inquiry was rocked by sexual harassment allegations in April, when the National Post published anonymous allegations directed at an unnamed member of Oppal's staff. Oppal appointed an independent lawyer to look into those allegations....

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

The Canadian Press reports, 13 Jun 2012:

 

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Missing+women+inquiry+staff+cleared+sexual+harrassment+allegations/6776978/story.html

 

An investigation into claims of sexual harassment within the offices of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry found no evidence to corroborate what remain anonymous allegations published in the media, says a report by the lawyer who conducted the probe.

 

The

National Post

newspaper published a story in April that relied on anonymous sources who alleged they were sexually harassed while working at the commission.

 

The article prompted commissioner Wally Oppal to appoint an independent lawyer, Delayne Sartison, to look into the allegations. In the meantime, the commission's executive director, John Boddie, took a paid leave of absence to ensure the investigation's independence.

 

Sartison interviewed current and former staff members but found no evidence of sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination, according to her report, released by the commission on Wednesday.

 

"Many of the staff interviewed expressed that they were 'very surprised' or 'shocked' to learn of allegations of sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination at the commission," says the report.

 

"These staff said they had never experienced or witnessed any conduct or communication which made them feel uncomfortable while working with the commission."

 

Sartison's terms of reference were to determine whether there was any evidence that would contravene the discrimination provisions in the province's human rights code.

 

"We have concluded there is no basis upon which to find that conduct constituting a violation of section 13(1) of the Human Rights Code, in particular, discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, occurred in the commission workplace," the report says.

 

Sartison's report says she contacted current and former staff and received responses from most, but not all, of them. She acknowledges some staff members declined to participate, citing concerns their identities would not remain confidential.

 

Sartison also notes the majority of staff who work or have worked for the commission have been women, with notable exceptions being Oppal, Boddie and commission lawyer Art Vertlieb.

 

Peter Gall, a lawyer appointed by Oppal to advise the commission about Sartison's investigation, issued a statement saying Boddie had resumed his duties as executive director.

 

"He took this leave of absence because of his commitment to the important work being done through this commission of inquiry. He did not want any misperceptions to occur during the independent investigation," Gall said in his statement.

 

"Mr. Boddie's leave of absence should in no way be interpreted as anything except a necessary precaution and it does not reflect on his personal or professional integrity" ...