Hunt for truth goes on if Pickton lives or dies: victim advocates

Advocatesfor allegedvictimsofB.C. serialkillerRobert Picktonsaythey remain focusedongetting justice for the women, as Pickton lies in a Quebec hospital in a coma after being attacked in prison.

Angela Marie MacDougall, executive directorofVancouver-based Battered Women's Support Services, reflectedonthe weekend assault that left Pickton with what police called life-threatening injuries, saying:"There's something to be said about jailhouse justice."

Regardlessofhisfate, she said the fightonbehalfofthe women Pickton was accusedofkilling continues.

She said that fight includes a legal application opposing an RCMP bid to destroy about 14,000 piecesofevidence collected in the Pickton investigation.

There are also multiple ongoing lawsuits by family membersofvictimsagainst Pickton and his brother, David Pickton.

Pickton was convicted in 2007onsix countsofsecond-degree murderofsix women, but is suspectedofkilling many more who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

He bragged to an undercover officerofkilling 49 women. The remains or DNAof33 women, manyofthem taken from the Downtown Eastside, were foundonPickton'spig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C., about 25 kilometres east of downtown Vancouver.

Police in Quebec said Thursday that Pickton, who was attacked Sunday at the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution, was in a medically induced coma but doctors planned to try to wake him soon.

Jason Gratl, the lawyer representing family membersofvictimsin nine of the lawsuits against the brothers, said the potential deathofthekillerwould have no bearingonproceedings.

He said a bigger issue is the potential destructionofthe evidence.

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"I act as legal counsel for 16 childrenofnine women who were killed by Robert Pickton," Gratl said in an interview Thursday.

"It's in their interest to preserve the evidence seized by the RCMPonthe Pickton farm to allow my clients to prove that Robert Pickton and David Pickton caused them to suffer loss."

In 2014, the botched investigation into Pickton resulted in a settlementof$50,000 for thevictims' children who had sued all three levelsofgovernment and the RCMP.

MacDougall's group is a signatory to a letter to the B.C. government calling for the exhibits to be preserved.

"It has an elementofprofound and deep significance because it is a representationofall those women and those families that did not receive justice through the criminal system," she saidofthe evidence.

About four years ago, Mounties applied to disposeofthe material found at a Ruskin, B.C., property linked to Pickton. It is now being held at RCMP warehouses.

Items range from piecesofclothing, shoes and hairpins including one with hair still in it to a sex toy and a rusty .303-calibre bolt-action rifle.

The RCMP has argued that the items were taking up substantial space and continued to run up costs. It said the evidence in question had been captured and retained and would not affect future prosecution.

In an email, RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark confirmed that the application to destroy it remained before the courts and the process was ongoing.

The letter opposing the destructionofthat evidence, sent to the provincial governmentonDec. 11, spoke to the damage that would be done to the families seeking justice.

"Twentyofthe charges against Pickton were stayed, and have not yet resulted in any convictions," it said. "For the familiesofthosevictims, justice has been elusive and they still hold hope that one day they will know what happened to their loved ones."

The letter said statements by the defence, Crown and jury also "strongly suggest a shared belief that he did not act alone and others may be implicated in the deathsofthe six women Robert Pickton was convictedofkilling."

Gratl echoed this.

"The destructionofevidence seized by the RCMP would preclude a meaningful investigation [of]accomplices and would certainly preclude any prosecution,"he said.

While it did not sign the letter, the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter was also among those calling for a halt to the RCMP's disposal plan.

Spokesperson Hilla Kerner said the shelterfelt compelled to sign the letter "in solidarity with familiesofthevictims" to see the needle pushed toward justice.She saidthe destructionofthe evidence andPickton'spotential death could mean no justice at all for those whose deaths did not result in a conviction.

"There is never ultimate justice.But in so many cases, there is no justice at all," she said.

"Our debt to the women who lost their lives, our debt to their families, our debt to the women who are now entrenched in homelessness, in poverty, in drug addiction the province did not pay this debt."

She said femicide is a "staggering problem" in B.C. and across Canada, andPickton'scase showcased this.

"The Pickton story the tragic, horrific storiesofitsvictims is a story about terrible male violence, but also the terrible, terrible state abandonmentofthe women who were killed, and I'm afraid we're not better off yet."

WATCH | Scathing Pickton inquiry report from December 2021:

Scathing Pickton inquiry report

11 years ago

Duration 3:39

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry has slammed police for botching investigations into serial killer Robert Pickton and has recommended a single regional police force be created for Greater Vancouver

Lydia Hwitsum, director at the B.C. First Nations Justice Council, said the handlingofthe Pickton case also puts a spotlightonissues facing the Indigenous community.

"Not much has changed to improve outcomes for Indigenous women's safety" in the years since Pickton was convicted, she said in an interview.

Hwitsum also called for the preservationofevidence.

"The pathway to justice has not been reached for so many that have been harmed at the handsofPickton," she said. "The evidence that's there speaks to what our people have gone through and it is critical to hold onto that."