Missing Women inquiry follows new tack with public panels
Missing Women inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal made a surprise announcement Tuesday that he’ll soon begin hearing from public panels to assist him in making recommendations to help save the lives of vulnerable women.
He said the inquiry has gathered valuable information during its 53 days of hearings since Oct. 11 about the failures of the police investigations of serial killer Robert Pickton.
But the inquiry has to make recommendations and now wants to hear from the community in a less adversarial process, so it has decided to hold a series of panel discussions starting next week.
“To this end, I am asking aboriginal leaders and other community leaders to assist in developing a process whereby this can occur,” Oppal said.
While Oppal did not refer to it in making his announcement, most aboriginal groups and women’s groups withdrew from participating in the inquiry because they didn’t get legal funding from the government.
Commission counsel Art Vertlieb said the inquiry will continue hearing some witnesses in an adversarial setting, where people can be cross- examined by lawyers representing police, the victims’ families and other parties. Vertlieb said the panels are not an attempt to save time or money but to meet the inquiry’s mandate, which is to provide solutions to existing problems.
“This is the natural evolution of any inquiry,” he said.
“We’ve seen the panels have been a very successful feature in other inquiries,” he said, citing the Cohen inquiry into dwindling salmon stocks.
“It’s not designed to speed things up,” Vertlieb said. “It’s a better way to encourage ideas and hear from people.”
He also said Oppal wants to reach out to the community, including aboriginals.
Vertlieb pointed out that the inquiry has already held community forums in seven northern communities along Highway 16, often called the Highway of Tears because so many teens and young women have disappeared or were found murdered along the highway.
“At the end of the day,” Vertlieb said, “this commission cannot eradicate serial killers from our society, but it can and will help ensure serial killers are identified and stopped far sooner than appears to have happened in the Pickton case.” In announcing the public panels, Oppal said he also wants to hear how the relationship between the community and police can be improved in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside ( DTES).
“I need to gain a better understanding of what will be required to build trust and a positive police- community relationship in the DTES,” Oppal said.
And he wants to hear from the families of Pickton’s victims about how to improve the safety and security of vulnerable women.