On December 17, 2012, the Honorable Mr. Wally Oppal released the long-awaited report in the Missing Women’s Inquiry. This Report came after months of testimony from police officers, Crown-Counsel prosecutors, sex trade workers and the families of missing and murdered women.
Just shy of 1,500 pages, in six separate volumes, the Report into the Missing Women’s Inquiry is a significant document recording the findings of the inquiry. The findings are disturbing, as you might expect.
In his report, Mr. Oppal makes sixty-two recommendations. These recommendations range in scope from the establishment of a compensation fund for children of missing or murdered women to the development of a national DNA missing persons’ index. However, in each of his recommendations, and throughout his Report, Mr. Oppal makes one thing clear – police actions and investigations fell desperately short of the standard required to adequately address the concerns of marginalized women on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.
Violence against women continues to be a serious and pervasive problem in Canadian society. Violence against marginalized women is disproportionately higher. These women include women of low socio-economic status, women with mental and/or physical disabilities, women of color, particularly Aboriginal women, and sex workers. Mr. Oppal recognized this in his Report. He also recognized that authorities in British Columbia were aware, as early as the 1970s, of a potential serial killer preying on vulnerable and marginalized women working in the survival sex trade.
On March 23, 1997, a violent attack took place on a complainant, Ms. Anderson. The perpetrator of this attack was Robert Pickton. Ms. Anderson survived her attack and escaped. She reported to the police that Pickton had attacked her on a farm in Port Coquitlam. She also told police that he previously had girls on his farm. She told them about bizarre trophies and items, such as women’s hair brushes and identification cards, that she observed while there. An investigation was conducted and Pickton was charged with attempted murder, assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement and aggravated assault. A trial date was set. Crown Counsel withdrew the charges because it was very unlikely, given the whole of the case, that they would have succeeded in prosecuting Pickton. He was then able to escape further police scrutiny until his eventual arrest five years later.
If police knew about the problem of missing women in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, and they knew that there was a violent man on the loose, who had assaulted, and nearly murdered a woman from Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, why then did it take them until 2002 to arrest Robert Pickton?
From the data available in 2005, Public Safety Canada reported that over 100,000 people are reported missing in Canada on an annual basis, with 4,800 people remaining missing after one year and approximately 270 new cases of long-term missing people. Between 20 and 30 sets of human remains are found each year in Canada. Historically, British Columbia has a higher number of missing persons than any other province in Canada. The police should be well aware that people who are reported missing may have been murdered.
Pickton is believed to be responsible for the murder of at least sixty-seven missing women from Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. We are speaking of sixty-seven families who have lost their daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, wives and friends. Sixty-seven families who are left asking why this continued to go on so long.
The police knew that women were disappearing from Vancouver’s Downtown East Side in the 1970s. They knew that Pickton was violent and dangerous in 1997. But he was not arrested until February, 2002. Why was that?
The Missing Women’s Inquiry Report identifies critical police failures. The police were not careful or diligent in taking reports or following up on reports of missing women. They did not communicate with each other or with family members or friends of missing women. They treated the family members and friends insensitively and disrespectfully. They were slow to check records and police databases for important information that could have aided in their investigation. They were inconsistent and ineffective.
And their mistakes were repeated over and over. The police seem to have turned a blind eye even after Ms. Anderson came forward. After a special task force had been established to look into the problem, they still disregarded the obvious suspect. Even after countless people had come forward, reporting their loved ones missing, the police it seems continued to turn a blind eye.
They fell desperately short of the standard that they owed to the community and the people that they are responsible for protecting.
Vancouver’s missing and murdered women serve as a particularly tragic illustration of police short-comings and failures.
If you would like to help reduce violence against marginalized women in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, you may consider donating to a not-for-profit organization involved in such work. PACE Society, provides support and services to survival sex workers in the DTES. As well, Wish Drop-in Center Society is a non-profit society that provides free services to survival sex-trade workers.