BC Missing Women Inquiry. Sham and shame

When the BC government refused to fund legal counsel for groups wishing to be heard at the inquiry into the botched investigation of serial killer Willy Pickton it was a signal that this was nothing but an exercise at ass-covering on the part of the police services involved.

Today, one of the two lawyers representing the aboriginal women Pickton targeted, in complete frustration, packed it in.

Lawyer Robyn Gervais, who was appointed to represent the interests of aboriginals at the hearings, has resigned after complaining the focus has almost entirely been on police and not the First Nations women Pickton targeted.

"Given that these hearings are largely about missing and murdered aboriginal, I didn't think I'd have to fight to have their voices heard," she said.

"I think I should have been provided those four days without any question."

Gervais says she has faced resistance in calling First Nations witnesses, making it impossible to investigate whether systemic bias played a part in the failure of police to catch Pickton.

By comparison, the police were represented by no less than 24 lawyers, a large number of which are being paid for by the public.

Commissioner Wally Oppal says he's disappointed Gervais has decided to resign, and that the only way to have a voice at the inquiry is to be there.

"You always had my support, I just want you to know, and you still have my support," he said.

"I want the aboriginal community to come here and I'll say it one more time — it doesn't do anyone any good, particularly aboriginal interests, to walk away from an inquiry."

Why shouldn't they? All they were permitted to do was sit and watch the boys with yellow stripes on their pants throw up smokescreens.

There was a lot of concern about the appointment of Oppal.

There still is.

Stonewall Wally Oppal starts his re-election campaign

CanWest today : RCMP officers may be charged in Dziekanski death

"The four RCMP officers who Tasered a Polish immigrant at the Vancouver International Airport may face charges in his death, B.C.’s Attorney General said Monday.

"Nothing is final . . . particularly where we’re getting more and more evidence elicited on a daily basis," Oppal told the CBC, referring to the inquiry evidence. "So it may well be, at the end of the day, the people in the criminal justice branch could re-examine this."

Really, CanWest? Are you quite sure that's what he said?

Because what I'm remembering is that all three levels of Executive Management in the Criminal Justice Branch watched exactly the same Paul Pritchard video footage the rest of us saw and after comparing it to Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson's statement in which he claimed 12 times that Dziekanski swung the stapler at them and had to be stunned twice before being wrestled to the ground, they announced that the video supported the officers' accounts. They then mustered the gall to issue this unanimous statement on December 12, 2008 :

"There is a substantial body of independent evidence which supports that the Officers in question were lawfully engaged in their duties when they encountered Mr. Dziekanski, and the force they used to subdue and restrain him was reasonable and necessary in all the circumstances.

In light of this independent evidence, there is not a substantial likelihood of conviction in this case for any of the offences considered, in fact, the available evidence falls markedly short of this standard."

And that available evidence hasn't changed, has it?
So what did Stonewall Wally Oppal actually say today?

CP (Italics mine) :

"RCMP officers who testified at the inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport could still face charges after the inquiry but so far there is nothing to suggest that might happen, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said Monday.

"It's always the case in any determination where we decide that no charges were warranted that if there was new evidence and that new evidence was appreciably different then in those circumstances charges could be laid," Oppal told The Canadian Press. "But we're talking theory here."

"(The criminal justice branch) said at that time there would be no charges and all I said is that if new evidence emerges there's always a possibility to lay charges, but I didn't specifically say in this case it would happen," said Oppal.

Oppal said he's "not prepared to buy in" that there was a significant change in evidence and there were false statements made."

Care to revise your bullshit headline now, CanWest?
Everyone else ... as you were.

Electioneering for the May 12 BC Election apparently started in earnest today with Wally suddenly remembering his seat is up for grabs too.

Cross-posted at Creekside