Inquiry Missing Women’s Voices And Justice

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry opened this morning surrounded by protesters demanding justice. Over the next eight months, the inquiry will be looking into the way the police handled the investigation of missing women on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, who began disappearing in the early 1990s. When Robert Pickton was finally arrested in 2002, the remains of 33 women were found on his farm. In 2007, Pickton was convicted of six murders.

Women’s rights groups are calling the hearing a sham after the government has refused their repeated requests for legal funding. While taxpayer dollars are providing 14 lawyers representing the interests of the police, the 17 victims’ families and numerous women’s advocacy groups only have one lawyer between them. At least 20 groups have already said that they will have to drop out because of lack of funding.

“How on earth are we going to participate in any meaningful way? I mean we’re not lawyers for one. We don’t have any legal training,” said Kate Gibson, executive director of Women’s Information Safe House.

After two decades of raising awareness around this issue, women’s advocacy groups are getting tired of getting no support from their government.

“We hoped the inquiry would shed light to uncover truths that could help with the healing process for the families as well as to begin to point the way forward so that all women and the most vulnerable have access to justice, said Assembly of First Nations chief Shawn Atleo. “Without equity and balance, systemic issues will not be brought forward and will therefore not be reflected in the recommendations of the inquiry… [we are] no longer confident the inquiry will bring justice for the families of missing and murdered women in Canada.”

In the 1990s, the police did not take the disappearances seriously. Today, the government does not seem to be taking the inquiry seriously either. Both the police and the government have to take an honest look at their practices and policies if they want anything to change for the better.

Contact the author here: syahidah@morningquickie.com