Another Travesty of Justice

The question is out there, and the fear. Neither are present without reason. A world class predator who became a world-class serial murderer has finally been apprehended, found guilty of a succession of horrific murders, and placed in prison to relive his dreadful adventures at his leisure, no longer a threat to women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

But it has been revealed that those who were once the targets of Willie Pickton now have cause for further nightmares. While he has been finally placed in iron custody, guilty as charged, albeit found so tardily and criminally late in his game, his brother David remains on the prowl. The older of the brothers, the one said to be in complete control of the younger, convicted, incarcerated murderer presents now as the dominant fear of vulnerable women.

He has been seen prowling around the very area where his brother picked up women, to lure them back to their Port Coquitlam pig farm. David and Willie lived together on the farm. And since David was the dominant of the two, is it then not reasonable to assume that he would know what was occurring at all times, since being dominant he would also insist on being knowledgeable, if not involved...?

But he has never been charged with anything connected to his brother's hobby of murder-and-butcher. He has previously been charged, though with sexual assault, convicted in 1992, handed a 30-day probation. "We're not aware that he's caused any trouble, but our staff is supporting women who want to speak to police about him. The women are scared", explained the director of a social housing agency in the Downtown Eastside.

Brian Hutchinson / National Post A poster in the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users office warns Downtown Eastside residents about the brother of serial killer Robert Pickton. The poster alleges that David Pickton is a sexual predator and that he has been seen in the area.

David Pickton and his sister sued the RCMP for purported damages allegedly caused by police investigations into their brother's criminal atrocities, searching for a prolonged period on the farm for remnants of women who had been missing from the Downtown Eastside. "The RCMP disturbed, disrupted, killed and destroyed various plants, trees, groundcovers and other vegetation and the fish in the pond", the lawsuit claims, filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

Of course, people are concerned about their private property. Of course, other people - family, friends, the public, news media, the police and the courts were rather infinitely to the point of desperation, more concerned with the prospect of discovering what had occurred to make 26 women vanish, although it's generally agreed that this is a modest number, that far more women are missing, presumed dead.

A lawyer, Cameron Ward, representing the families of 25 of those missing and slaughtered women has asked Wally Oppal, head of the inquiry commissioned to look at the actions of the RCMP and the Vancouver and Port Coquitlam police forces in the investigation, evidence-gathering, and final apprehension of Willy Pickton to have his older brother David come before the commission.

Ideally, others too should appear before the commission for it to adequately sift through the arguments and reach a reasonable judgement about the slovenly manner in which the investigation was undertaken and why it appears that no one in authority was really all that much interested in the absence of women who were drug- and alcohol-addicted, and prostitutes. Concerned members of the public, for example, who had given the police important leads.

Cameron Ward feels rather strongly, as a lawyer committed to revealing the truth, and to bring answers to the grieving families of murdered women that: "A proper enquiry must include testimony from this central character". And so it should. But it would appear that this will not occur, and this is yet another travesty of justice.

But should it occur, and should it eventually appear, after skilled questioning meant to reveal the truth, that David Pickton was involved in his brother's passion of butchering women, the poster should be turned from a "beware" poster to a "wanted" poster.