Shining a light on a dark, dark corner; Stevie Cameron turns her eye to the Pickton horrors
The Edmonton Journal
Fri 15 Jun 2007
Page: G11
Section: What's On
Byline: Alan Kellogg
Dateline: EDMONTON
Source: The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - What if they held the trial of the century and no one came?

Sometimes it seems like that in New Westminster, B.C., where pig farmer Robert (Willie) Pickton, charged with murdering 26 women, is currently on trial for six first-degree murder counts. The first trial, likely to last a year, should be nearing the halfway point.

It's not as if there has been a total dearth of coverage. Over the past six months, The Journal has published 47 pieces on the subject. The Vancouver newspapers have run far more than that, of course, but apparently even in the Lower Mainland, where 65 women have been on the police "missing" list since 1978, a certain Pickton fatigue has set in.

"It's just all too brutal," a veteran Vancouver media hand told me Monday. "People just don't want to read about this horrific stuff day after day."

This sort of talk infuriates Stevie Cameron, arguably Canada's most famous investigative journalist and the author of The Pickton File (Knopf Canada, $24.95), which hit the bookstores this week. For one thing, it's personal. The Toronto-based independent reporter has spent the better part of five years on the Pickton case. She burned through her "generous" book advance from Knopf Canada years ago, toiling under a publication ban during the preliminary hearing and voir dire segments. Her car was stolen. She moved from place to place, missing her family, frustrated by delays and a generally glacial pace, stonewalling participants and the court gag order. Along the way, she interviewed dozens of victims' family members while also building bonds with advocates who assist the sex-trade workers of Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside.

All of which is detailed in the new book, an engaging combination of Pickton trial primer, reporter's notebook and cri de coeur. Those looking for trademark splashy revelations along the lines of Cameron's bestselling Brian Mulroney expose of 1994, On the Take, will have to wait for her next book. Tentatively titled The Pig Farm, it promises to be the definitive Pickton account. But it won't be released until the second trial is over and the existing pre-trial publication bans expire. As it stands, Cameron says she can't even publicly hold forth on Pickton's guilt or innocence.

According to her Harper's style "Pickton Index," about 378 media accreditations have been issued for the trial, but only between two and six journalists attend each day.

"A friend of mine, a producer at Dateline NBC, happened to be in Vancouver recently on another matter," Cameron says on the phone from her Toronto home this week. "He went to check out the trial for a bit and said there wasn't a single journalist in the courtroom."

This, for an investigation that has already cost more than $100 million and seen 200,000 DNA samples processed, 291,000 cubic metres of soil sifted by investigators, some 12,700 tips recorded by the Missing Women Task Force and 600,000 exhibits seized by police. And, of course, the trial centres on the murder and revolting disposition of 26 women and an alleged serial killer whose grisly handiwork outstrips the likes of Jack the Ripper. All at a time when popular culture has sent police forensic dramas to the top of the ratings.

Cameron just doesn't get it.

"They expected huge crowds and planned for it. I'm shocked, actually, since this is a very important trial. I guess part of it can be attributed to the nannying instincts of editors and publishers. Two or three people write in and complain, and that's it. I also hate those smarmy disclaimers. It's not the duty of a (media outlet) to supposedly protect readers or viewers from the truth, on the grounds of taste. This is shocking material. But it happened, and it must be reported."

Cameron may be dealing with her court-mandated prescriptions. But she feels sufficiently liberated to issue some pointed observations. For starters, she says she knows exactly why it took so long for police to recognize many of the women were even missing, much less putting the serial murders together.

"It's simply because the women were drug addicts and prostitutes living in Downtown Eastside. The assumption was also that most of them were from poor backgrounds and native, although -- not that it matters -- that wasn't even true. In other words, these people had no value. Good riddance, a lot of the police thought."

Add that to an old boys' Luddite mentality within senior ranks of the Vancouver Police Department that even doubted the usefulness of modern techniques such as profiling. "They won't escape," predicts Cameron, noting an internal police report of the investigation will be released following the trials.

For all the embarrassing publicity the case has caused, Cameron says services haven't improved in Vancouver's seamy Downtown Eastside. "When I first started with this five years ago, there were six detox beds at the Sally Ann and six at another facility. That hasn't changed.

"Canadians should also care because we live in a society where everyone is supposed to be equal when it comes to justice. The neglect by the police and to some degree by the general public was because these people were meant to be nobodies."

She hopes her book brings the case more attention and makes readers less judgmental and more aggressive in asking questions. "To humanize these women and their families. Maybe being more educated will help. That sounds preachy. But as a reporter I found this assignment the best I've ever had, a gift from God. It drives some people crazy when I say it, but this has been a privilege."

akellogg@thejournal.canwest.com

Illustration:
• Photo: Vancouver Sun, CanWest News Service, File / From the spring of 2002 to late 2004, police investigators sifted every inch of dirt on the Pickton farm outside Port Coquitlam, B.C.
• Photo: Mark Mainguy / Stevie Cameron

Idnumber: 200706150037
Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 936 words