Another group pulls out of Missing Women Inquiry
Posted September 20, 2011 11:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Yet another group is pulling out of the Missing Women Inquiry, which is going to look into the missing and murdered women on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The Pivot Legal Society says it’s withdrawing over the government’s refusal to pay for legal help for sex worker organizations, aboriginal groups and others to take part in the inquiry led by former attorney general Wally Oppal.
Doug King with the society says their staff will now be interviewing sex workers and others.
“The terms of reference for the inquiry really only lead up to 2002 and then ultimately I think the inquiry is supposed to be answering that question: What happened with women going missing? What happened with safety to women in the Downtown Eastside up to that time period? And what we want to do is ask the question: What’s happened since 2002?”
By last month, more than a half dozen other groups also pulled out of the inquiry for the same reason, including the Women’s Equality and Security Coalition.
But Commission Council Art Vertlieb says plenty of people still want to participate. “I’m totally confident the inquiry will end up doing what it has been asked to do.”
The government has said it can’t afford to cover the costs of these organizations and will only pay legal bills for the families of the victims of Robert Pickton.
The inquiry was supposed to begin next month.
