Murdered and Missing Inquiry Could Visit Rural B.C. for Anwers

By 250 News

Prince George, BC.- A recurring theme at the  Murdered and Missing Women pre-inquiry  conference in Prince George yesterday, was a call for the inquiry to visit the small communities in the north. Communities victims of the Highway of Tears, and the  Pickton case, called home.  Inquiry Commissioner, Wally Oppal ,  is willing to explore that  request “I  think we are going to have to seriously consider that.    We’re here to listen to the community  and if it means that  our work will be facilitated  by going to the  communities, then maybe we’ll have to do that. We’re here today for that reason, we wanted to here what this particular community , the victims of families and the advocates, and  what they had to say, that’s why we’re here”.

Unlike the  Wednesday  session in  Vancouver,  the Prince George  session did not  see any rally, those who made presentations were  not as  “vociferous” as those who had made presentations in the lower mainland.  Oppal says he understands why the issue brings up the emotions “You know there’s anger out there,  and the anger in many cases is justified, so  you know, these  people have lost loved ones. If you lose a daughter and nothing’s been done, maybe you have reason to be angry, so I’m not really surprised by that.”

There were about 100 people who attended the  three hour session at the Prince George Civic Centre,  about 20  made submissions.

Most talked of the impact  the loss of a  loved one has had  on their lives  and many called for the  Highway of Tears to be a separate inquiry, fearing it will be overshadowed or lost in the probe of how the investigation into  the  women who had gone  missing from Vancouver’s downtown east side was handled. 

Oppal doesn’t agree,  “If you look at the terms of reference,  they refer to  missing women, and  multiple homicides, period.  While two of the terms specifically  refer to the downtown east side and the Pickton investigation,  the fact is, this is a national problem.  In fact, we have three senior  police officers  from Peel Region in Ontario  who are here and they are seconded full time to our inquiry mainly because  this is a national problem , so  I don’t  think the fact  the Highway of Tears is not specifically  referred  to in the terms of reference that it makes that much of a  difference, it’s a global problem, national  problem, why are women disappearing and  if they are disappearing  what are the  police forces doing about it?  Are they sharing information?   Those are the things we need to look at.”

Many called for a change of the terms of reference for the inquiry, but that  is not something Oppal  could  do,  that is something has to come from government.  He did promise his inquiry will offer a very “liberal” interpretation of the terms of reference.

One of the other themes of the  pre-inquiry  conference  was that whatever recommendations are made, that they are followed through   and not  become just another  study or report  that will gather  dust on a shelf.  Oppal is hopeful that when his final report  is handed down,  the community will keep the  pressure on “It’s up to the community to do that.   This is mostly a policing issue, what we’re dealing with here, and I think  it’s up to the communities to go to their  police forces and demand  some  accountability.  I think we  have  been remiss in Canada in that we have accepted what Police forces tell us, and I think we have to be  more active.  They are here to serve us and  we have excellent policing  throughout Canada, historically, but you know we live in an era of accountability and everyone’s accountable.”

Oppal says he is  hopeful  of starting the inquiry in June, with  hearings through the fall.  The  final report is supposed to be due  by the end of this year.

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