Lawyer quits missing women case
Counsel for aboriginals targeted by serial killer frustrated by dominance of police at B.C. inquiry
VANCOUVER— From the beginning the odds were against lawyer Robyn Gervais even though her clients, the dozens of missing aboriginal women, were the ones most targeted by serial killer Robert Pickton.
Gervais, the independent counsel appointed by the government to represent aboriginal interests at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, abruptly resigned after saying she was too outnumbered by those representing police interests.
“Given that these hearings are largely about missing and murdered aboriginal women, I didn’t think I should fight to have their voices heard,” said an emotional Gervais as she spoke before the commissioner, Wally Oppal, while announcing her withdrawal.
She pointed out that despite 38 days of police testimony, the commission has yet to hear from an aboriginal witness.
Gervais was the lone representative for aboriginal interests at the commission, which began last October to look into investigations by Vancouver police and RCMP of women who went missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside between 1997 and 2002. Pickton was arrested in 2002 and subsequently convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. He was originally scheduled to stand trial for another 20 charges of murder and had confessed in a jail cell interview that he killed 49 women. Before the commission began last October, a number of women’s advocacy groups had withdrawn saying they were unable to get adequate funds to appear before the commission. Since the commission progressed and more police investigators and those linked to the investigation have been called to testify, the number of lawyers representing Vancouver police and RCMP officers has grown. At the beginning there were 14 lawyers representing various police agencies. There are now 24 lawyers representing police at the inquiry. Gervais said she regrets she could not find a way to bring the voices of the missing and murdered aboriginal women before the commission is to conclude at the end of April.
For Chris Joseph, who has been attending the hearing as a spectator, the loss of a lawyer representing aboriginal interests at the commission means he will never know what happened to his sister Olivia Williams, who went missing from the Downtown Eastside in 1997.
“This commission, if it takes a whole year, should take a whole year because this is our only chance to find out what happened to women like my sister,” said Joseph.
Oppal said Gervais’s resignation is disappointing and that while he wants to hear about the stories of aboriginal people living in the Downtown Eastside, it was not in his mandate to delve into centuries of abuse, poverty and neglect.