Compensation offer coming soon for families of Pickton victims
An offer to provide financial compensation to the children of serial killer Robert Pickton’s victims could come as soon as six weeks from now, a lawyer for the B. C. government said in court Wednesday.
Len Doust asked a B. C. Supreme Court judge to put a series of lawsuits filed by the children of nine women on hold, because he said a settlement offer could be ready soon.
“To be clear, there will be a payment,” Doust told a hearing in a Vancouver courtroom, as Pickton watched by video from Kent Institution in Agassiz.
“It wouldn’t be at all unreasonable for that to occur ( if the case was adjourned for six weeks to two months). It could occur even a lot sooner than that.”
Doust did not reveal the potential amount of such a settlement offer.
The report from a public inquiry, released in December 2012, included a recommendation that the children of the murdered women be given financial compensation.
Doust told the court there could be more than 90 children who would qualify for compensation.
He said the provincial and federal governments and the City of Vancouver have been discussing various issues related to a compensation offer, such as the amount of an offer and what percentage each level of government would be responsible for, and he said they have made significant progress. “It is not a fast process,” said Doust. The families’ lawyer, Jason Gratl, told court he presented settlement offers to the province and the city six months ago, but has yet to hear back.
He said if the governments agree on a compensation package, “that may change the circumstances significantly.”
The families’ lawyers are in court this week asking for public funding to pay for their legal bills as the case proceeds.
They also want to force the provincial government, which represents the RCMP and the Crown prosecution service, and the City of Vancouver, which represents the city’s police force, to be forced to accept the factual findings of the public inquiry.
At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, Pickton was asked whether he had anything to add.
He attempted to correct the date of a previous legal case cited during the hearing — although Pickton’s correction was, in fact, incorrect — and then said: “Otherwise, no. I’m just going
“5,000 years of Chinese music and dance in one night...”
— The New York Times
along with the information. I’m just going along.”
Judge Susan Griffin reserved her decision on the families’ two applications until the end of March, although she said she hoped the governments would continue their efforts to produce a compensation offer in the meantime.
The nine lawsuits target the provincial government, the city, several individual police officers and Pickton himself. Pickton’s brother, David, is named as a defendant in seven of the lawsuits.
“It’s a new realm of dance— there’s a lot of depth to it, and a lot of meaning.”
— Vanessa Harwood, former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada
“Inspired. ... These beautiful, gifted people are expressing something that’s both pure and good.”
— Philadelphia Weekly