Sister outraged 'just hookers' remark
ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER - From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Nov 23, 2011
The sister of a woman killed by Robert Pickton fought back tears as she heard
testimony about a top Vancouver cop who allegedly dismissed missing women from
the Downtown Eastside as “just hookers.”
During a break in Wednesday’s Pickton inquiry hearing, Lilliane Beaudoin said in
an interview that she was appalled by the attitude of the senior Vancouver
police officer. And she was horrified to hear a suggestion that police did not
do their job because the women were dismissed as prostitutes.
“My sister Dianne [Rock] was not on the street very long, maybe only the last
month of her life. She sold her body to support her drug habit,” Ms. Beaudoin
said. “[His comments] were extremely offensive.”
Ms. Rock, the mother of five children, was reported missing from the Downtown
Eastside two months before Mr. Pickton was arrested in February, 2002. Her DNA
and some personal items were found on Mr. Pickton’s farm.
During cross examination on whether women from the Downtown Eastside were
treated differently than others who might have gone missing, Deputy Chief Doug
LePard of the Vancouver Police Department confirmed that he had been told that
another top cop, Deputy Chief John Unger, had referred to the missing women as
“just hookers.”
“I agree it is not an appropriate comment. … I thought that it was a terrible
remark to make,” he said.
Deputy Chief Unger, who served in that role from April 1, 2000, to Dec. 31,
2002, had wanted to characterize the women as missing, not murdered, Deputy
Chief LePard also said. But Deputy Chief LePard dismissed the suggestion that
the characterization reflected a dismissive attitude to the women. “It was clear
to me that [Deputy Chief] Unger wanted them to be truly missing. He did not want
to believe they were murdered,” Deputy Chief LePard said.
Commissioner Wally Oppal listened to the account of Deputy Chief Unger’s remarks
without interruption. Unlike a criminal case, an inquiry is not restricted to
firsthand information.
However, Sean Hern, a lawyer representing the Vancouver Police Department, told
the inquiry later that Deputy Chief Unger denied “in the strongest terms” making
the remarks. Deputy Chief Unger is expected to testify at the inquiry but a date
has not been set. The hearings are to continue at least until the end of April.
Deputy Chief LePard told the inquiry that some senior police officers found it
difficult to make the conceptual leap to conclude that the missing women had
been murdered, he said.
“People wanted to see indisputable evidence that there had been a murder. Most
investigations begin with a discovery of a murder and [police] backtrack from
the murder, the crime scene, the physical evidence, the witness information,” he
said.
“When there was none of that, it was difficult, in the absence of a witness, for
example, for them to make the leap that [a serial killer preying on women] was
actually what this was about,” he said.
“It may seem easy to see that, in hindsight, that the information was so
compelling. But people struggled with that,” Deputy Chief LePard said.
Another factor was that some women reported missing were later found. Deputy
Chief LePard cited examples of one woman who went missing in 1997, was reported
missing a year later and found two years later in Arizona. Police found two
missing women in Ontario, another who changed her name and two who had died, but
not of foul play.
“That fed into the misconception police had – look, if we look hard enough, we
are going to find them,” he said.
When compelling evidence was available in the summer of 1999, the Vancouver
Police Department did not have strong leadership that accepted that a serial
killer was preying on women, he said.
In addition to Deputy Chief Unger, Bruce Chambers, who was chief from August,
1997, to June, 1999, never fully accepted the serial-killer theory, Deputy Chief
LePard said. Neither did Brian McGuiness, deputy chief from January, 1999, to
March, 2000.
Investigators who had the best understanding of the issues, such as Constable
Lori Shenher, had written memos about the possibility of a serial killer. But
senior officers did not accept the information, he said.
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