Sex workers ‘deemed as disposable,’ inquiry hears

Surely we don’t live in a society that just abandons its most needy, its most vulnerable. — Jamie Lee Hamilton, sex-trade activist

RICHMOND — A Vancouver sex-trade activist recounted the justice system’s failure to protect women who were killed or have disappeared as posters of missing persons were shown on screens Wednesday at a national inquiry.

Jamie Lee Hamilton said sex workers from Vancouver’s “Downtown Eastside killing fields” deserved better.

“I feel that the women were deemed as disposable,” Hamilton told the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Hamilton said she grew up in Vancouver and began sex work in the early 1970s after dropping out of school. She started losing faith in the justice system when, as a teenager, a police officer picked her up, drove her into Stanley Park and demanded oral sex, Hamilton said.

Decades later, she said the police officer was put on administrative leave, but despite other allegations of harassment against him she was not aware of any further action being taken.

“It just seemed to be whitewashed,” she said.

Over the years, Hamilton said she heard more stories of sex workers disappearing from Vancouver, and she began collecting the missing persons posters.

She said sex workers knew a serial killer was preying on the community long before Robert Pickton was charged with murder in 2002.

“So many of them were talented. They were artists, they were creative, and it was so sad to see them going missing and nothing being done,” Hamilton said.

Pickton was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder in 2007 in connection with women who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Twenty other counts of murder against him were stayed because he was already serving the maximum sentence.

Despite the deaths and disappearances, Hamilton said she remains hopeful that change will come.

“Surely we don’t live in a society that just abandons its most needy, its most vulnerable,” she said.

The hearings began with chief commissioner Marion Buller saying it was an opportunity for Indigenous people to rewrite history and set the record straight about their lives and experiences.

Commissioners made a formal request to the federal government last month for the inquiry to be extended by two years.

Commissioner Michele Audette said Wednesday expectations are high for the inquiry’s outcome and in order to hear all the stories of victims, ask important questions, and produce a thorough report, the inquiry will need more time.

Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Indigenous relations and northern affairs, said last month the government would consider the request for an extension.

Richmond is expected to be the final stop for the inquiry’s public hearings. Organizers said nearly 100 people have registered to testify and as many as 300 people are expected to tell their stories by the time hearings wrap up in Richmond on Sunday.