Brian Hutchinson: Time is running out for the Pickton inquiry   Jan 10, 2012 – 11:08 PM ET | Last Updated: Jan 10, 2012 11:23 PM ET http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/10/brian-hutchinson-time-is-running-out-for-the-pickton-inquiry/

More trouble is brewing for Wally Oppal, the former B.C. attorney general who is presiding over the province’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

Time is running short. Some women and men who have waited years to present evidence, or to just relate their experiences in a formal, public setting, could lose their day. Other potential witnesses likely will be turned away. There is fear the inquiry may not get to the bottom of things, after all.


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More trouble is brewing for Wally Oppal, the former B.C. attorney general who is presiding over the province’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. He has already clashed openly with commission lawyer Cameron Ward, representing families of 25 women who vanished from Vancouver’s crime-riddled Downtown Eastside.

Dozens more women disappeared before a suspect long known to police was finally arrested at his suburban pig farm in 2002. Robert “Willie” Pickton was eventually charged with 26 murders.

Among other things, Mr. Ward says, the inquiry is moving too slowly. Testimony resumes Wednesday after a long, holiday season adjournment, and the issue now on everyone’s mind — Mr. Oppal’s included — is how to fix the process. Because it isn’t working.



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Major crimes investigators were already aware, for example, that Pickton had a predilection for prostitutes. They knew of his episodic, sadistic violence. They had sources who claimed he was murdering women and chopping them to pieces. And yet investigations launched by both RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department seemed low priorities, the inquiry has heard. Little effort was made to co-ordinate efforts. Promising leads were discounted or dismissed altogether.

Perhaps most telling, on April 25, 2000, RCMP officers were already discussing the possibility that bungled police efforts would lead to a public inquiry.

On that date, a staff sergeant named Brad Zalys had a conversation with a superior officer, RCMP Inspector Earl Moulton. Staff Sgt. Zalys made the following observation in his notebook: “Also discussed Pickton again–>if he turns out to be responsible–>inquiry!–>Deal with that if the time comes!”