Port Coquitlam woman pushing for healing garden in memory of Pickton victims
Posted March 18, 2016 10:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PORT COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) – A woman in Port Coquitlam is hoping to gain public support as she tries to create a public memorial for the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton.
The proposal calls for a healing garden in a redeveloped park.
Jami Roberts has been pushing for a sanctuary to be built for two years, but she’s hit a brick wall.
“I’m having trouble with the bureaucrats at city hall,” she tells us. “They have promised a public consultation meeting last fall. They have yet to plan it. They have yet to book it. I try to book it in in-camera meetings — a private meeting with council — but I was denied that.”
Her proposal would see a garden in Blakeburn Lagoons. She says it’s important the community remembers the woman who were murdered on the Pickton pig farm.
“As a woman, as a mother and as a victim of violence, I really, deeply felt that this is the right thing to do. I wanted to make sure that this isn’t being pushed under the rug.”
She’s meeting with the city’s director of park operations today.
Roberts says a sanctuary is needed because the community still needs to heal. “I have yet to come across someone who doesn’t support my idea.”
Pickton was convicted of murdering six women on his pig farm, but investigators believe he was responsible for killing dozens more.
