Break with aboriginal community destroys inquiry’s credibility

TI feel like, that if I lend an aboriginal voice to this process it will give [ a] public perception that aboriginal interests were adequately represented when in fact I don’t feel they have been. ROBYN GERVAIS LAWYER

he credibility of the Missing Women inquiry has been shattered and the fault line between the aboriginal community and the commission now yawns like a chasm.

Robyn Gervais, a Metis lawyer representing native interests at the commission, broke down Tuesday as she withdrew from the proceedings.

In a tearful indictment of the inquiry’s work, she said first nations were being ignored even though a disproportionate number of their members were victims of serial killer Robert Pickton: “Given that these hearings were about missing aboriginal women, I didn’t think I would need to fight to have their voices heard.”

Gervais cited “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.”

Senior Vancouver lawyer Bryan Baynham, who was working pro bono with her, left too.

Native leaders such as Union of B. C. Indian Chiefs president Stewart Phillip were on hand to support the dramatic departure.

Speaking outside the inquiry room, he was scathingly dismissive, calling the inquiry “a charade,” “a debacle,” “a whitewash,” “a coverup.”

“The aboriginal voice in this inquiry has been relegated to a sideshow,” Phillip fumed. “It’s an absolute travesty … [ T] his has been nothing more than a soapbox for police agencies … that’s an absolute disgrace.”

Equally upset, First Nations Summit Grand Chief Ed John submitted an open letter to the inquiry:

“Unfortunately, the fears expressed by our chiefs and leaders at the outset of this process, have been confirmed. Given the withdrawal of, and the reasons provided by, the independent legal counsel, Robyn Gervais, today and the withdrawal of all first nations/ aboriginal organizations earlier in the process, we feel we cannot continue to participate.”

Commissioner Wally Oppal and his staff denied marginalizing native concerns or minimizing their involvement. Oppal appointed Gervais last August after Victoria refused to fund native groups so they could have lawyers at the inquiry to counterbalance the 24 publicly funded counsel representing law- enforcement interests.

Phillip said natives fought for a decade to get an inquiry into the Downtown Eastside tragedy but this is “another lost opportunity …. It has no credibility. It lost its credibility when no resources were made available to the aboriginal community.”

The showdown has been brewing for the last few months as tensions and rancour spilled into the open at the inquiry in disputes over the disclosure of evidence, witnesses and the hearing schedule. Oppal attempted to forestall this debacle by radically altering the proceedings recently to move from hearing individual witnesses to listening to panel discussions.

Although it was a hopeful development that kindled native optimism, Gervais in her emotional speech complained it was a mirage. She maintained she was being forced to pressure the commission into setting aside time for native witnesses, though the inquiry staff disputed her interpretation of their discussion.

Oppal defended his work, saying his terms of reference were not to investigate racism but rather what went wrong in the police investigations of Pickton and how such mistakes could be avoided in future.

During the bitter exchange, the former appeal court justice and provincial cabinet minister patronizingly played the mentor card — reminding Gervais that only a month ago she came to him privately for career advice. He urged her publicly to reconsider and stay to give native people a voice.

Outside the Federal Court hearing room, Gervais shook her head, saying that would not happen: “No, I’ve made my decision.”

“When I first took this appointment,” she explained, “I really thought, you know what, it’s better to have some aboriginal voice at the table. But now the way I see things have unfolded, I just feel like” — she paused as her eyes welled again — “I feel like, that if I lend an aboriginal voice to this process it will give [ a] public perception that aboriginal interests were adequately represented when in fact I don’t feel they have been.”

She said she felt like “a token in the room.”

Grand Chief Phillip sneered at the notion that first nations would fare better if they were at the table than not.

“I think that’s self- serving crap quite frankly,” he said. “It’s very late in the ball game, there’s a matter of a few weeks left and we’re still not finished with the police witnesses. So virtually there’s very little if any time left for credible aboriginal involvement.”

He pointed to the panel of four Vancouver police officers who testified this week.

“It was collegiate banter among police officers about the good old days,” Phillip said. “That so angers me when I consider the devastation of the families who lost their mothers, their aunties and sisters as a result of the brutal murders at the Pickton farm. I’m just so deeply angered at what I heard in there.”

With hearings set to wrap up at the end of April, Gervais insisted there simply isn’t enough time left to do justice to aboriginal concerns.

Since starting in October, the inquiry has heard from several aboriginal witnesses, such as Grand Chief John, native advocate Ernie Crey and Metis sex- trade activist Jamie Lee Hamilton.

But police testimony has been dominant — the 13 former and present cops have consumed 39 of 53 days of hearings so far, and there are more to come.

With an end- of- June deadline for delivery of the report looming, it’s hard to see how Oppal can possibly turn this sow’s ear of a process into a silk purse of a report.

And that should make taxpayers who are footing the multimillion- dollar bill for these proceedings as angry as first nations who’ve felt shut out.