Lawyer representing aboriginal interests withdraws from inquiry

Robyn Gervais, the lawyer representing aboriginal interests at the Missing Women inquiry, announced Monday that she was withdrawing from the inquiry.

Gervais tried to address the commission Monday but she was cut off by Commissioner Wally Oppal, so the lawyer left the inquiry.

She plans to return this morning to explain her reasons for withdrawing from the inquiry.

“This inquiry is fundamentally about missing and murdered women, a disproportionate number of whom were aboriginal,” Gervais said in a statement released Monday. “Despite 38 days of police testimony, the commission has yet to hear from an aboriginal witness.”

“As I leave, I regret that I could not find a way to bring the voices of the missing and murdered aboriginal women before the commissioner,” she said.

Lawyer Cameron Ward also left the inquiry Monday after he angrily complained he had no notice that witness Chris Beach was going to testify Monday.

He told Oppal cross- examination needs preparation, but he can’t prepare without notice that a witness will testify.

Gervais said she was withdrawing because of “the delay in calling aboriginal witnesses, the failure to provide adequate hearing time for aboriginal panels, the lack of ongoing support from the aboriginal community and the disproportionate focus on police evidence.”

The inquiry appointed Gervais as independent counsel on Aug. 11 last year after the provincial government refused to provide legal funding to first nations groups, who all withdrew.

Gervais, who is Metis, previously represented the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council at the inquiry before the group withdrew for lack of legal funding.

The inquiry heard testimony Monday from a panel of retired Vancouver police officers.

One said various levels of government are putting $ 1 million a day worth of funding into Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and it’s still a mess.

“At one point I was told that the provincial and federal governments were putting $ 1 million a day into grants for the Downtown Eastside,” former staff sergeant Chris Beach told Oppal. “I would have expected a lot more results.”

“The Downtown Eastside was a mess when I started and it was a mess when I left,” said the officer, who retired in 2005 after 30 years with the force.

Despite 38 days of police testimony, the commission has yet to hear from an aboriginal witness.

ROBYN GERVAIS LAWYER

“After the 31 years I’ve been down there, it’s worse than ever,” added retired constable Dave Dickson.

They both agreed there needs to be more drug- treatment programs to get people off the cycle of addiction, which in turn fuels property crime.

“There are six beds for drugaddicted females in this province,” Beach said. The community needs to pull together to tackle the drug- addiction issue, which is the root of the problem, he said.

The inquiry, which began on Oct. 1, is probing why police didn’t catch serial killer Robert Pickton sooner. Pickton was convicted of six murders at his first trial in 2007. Pickton confessed to an undercover officer that he killed 49 women.