‘You have to have a definite end line’
“I had been on a campaign to destroy confidence in the residential condominium market. ... I think the inquiry did bring in major, major improvements that warranted the restoration of confidence.”
Former B.C. Premier Dave Barrett, who oversaw the inquiry into the quality of condominium construction, made 82 recommendations, including changes to building codes and requirements of design professionals. He also called for the establishment of a compensation fund for reconstruction and a provincial homeowner protection office.
However, Balderson said he is still disappointed that condo owners such as him — he paid $161,000 to fix his unit — were never compensated for their losses.
TASERING DEATH
Other inquiries also have been applauded for bringing about sustained change, such as Justice Thomas Braidwood’s examination of the 2007 police Tasering death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport.
A coroner’s investigation, which came after Braidwood’s report, found many of the inquiry’s recommendations had been adopted, including the formation of a legislative committee to look into changes to police training and use of Tasers. The coroner found Taser use by police dropped by 87 per cent between 2007 and 2011.
Zofia Cisowski, Dziekanski’s mother, has said she was “comforted” by the recommendations.
The four police officers involved in Dziekanski’s case were not charged in connection with his death, but two were convicted — and two acquitted — of perjury for lying during their testimony at the inquiry.
MISSING WOMEN INQUIRIES
One of the most emotional inquiries in B.C. history, overseen by former judge and former attorney general Wally Oppal, looked at the many women who had disappeared from the Downtown Eastside and the failings of the police investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton.
CeeJai Julian, who escaped from the Pickton farm and was a friend of several of his victims, cried in December 2012 when the inquiry ended, echoing the complaints of others — including Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs — that it fell short of expectations because Oppal had excluded some people from testifying.
“The Oppal inquiry, I was very disappointed in. The process didn’t include some of the families,” said Julian, who was also dismayed by the provincial government’s slow response to his 65 recommendations for change. “They didn’t fill all of them when they should have. That is the point of an inquiry: To right the wrong.”
Julian, now a peer support worker with Vancouver Coastal Health, said the recommendations brought more money for the women’s agency WISH and a better relationship with police in the Downtown Eastside. “But it is still pretty rough down there,” she added.
The province said earlier this year it had made “significant progress” on Oppal’s recommendations and would continue to take action to improve safety.
One suggestion that took a long time to implement was bus service along Highway 16 in northern B.C., where many girls and women have disappeared while hitchhiking on the isolated route.
Oppal, who has been involved in other commissions, such as a major examination of policing in B.C. in 1993, defended the missing women inquiry this week. He argued that police are now better at investigating missing women cases.
When asked for advice on the money-laundering inquiry, he said the B.C. government should set clear goals and a firm timeline to keep it on schedule.
“A lot of good things can come of them, but before governments establish inquiries, they should first of all ask themselves: What questions need to be answered? ... And what are the powers that we’re going to give to an inquiry commissioner?” Oppal said.
“The other thing is you have to have a definite end line, otherwise it can go on forever.”
Julian has supported women testifying at the federal inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She believes this missing women inquiry — longer and better-resourced than the B.C. one — will bring more positive change. The commission, which was launched in September 2016, is to release its final report June 3.
“I am more optimistic because it is national, it isn’t just B.C.,” Julian said.
“I’m hopeful. As long as I’m living there’s still hope.”