Maggie de Vries

Vancouver, BC

Honourable Michael De Jong

Attorney General
Po Box 9044 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2

Dear Mr. De Jong,

I am writing to you as the sister of one of Vancouver’s murdered women to ask you to commit to
beginning a full public inquiry into the investigation into Vancouver’s missing women as soon as
the publication ban regarding the Robert Pickton case is lifted.

I learned recently that VPD Deputy Chief Constable Doug LePard has completed a thorough
internal investigation and written an extensive report analysing where the VPD and the RCMP
went wrong in their investigation into the missing women between 1997 and 2001. That report, I
understand, contains recommendations that have the power to save lives, but it sits under lock
and key, unavailable even to VPD investigators for training purposes. Across Canada,
marginalized women continue to go missing and to be murdered, and police departments across
the country continue to make errors in their investigations that delay results, leading to further
disappearances and deaths.

The contents of LePard’s report must enter the public record and become part of a full inquiry, so
that we can all understand better the nature of the errors that were made, and much more
important, so that Vancouver and other municipalities across the country can begin to learn from
one another and to implement change.

I recently participated in a symposium in Ottawa hosted by Amnesty International at which we

discussed the situation in Vancouver and at which police officers from other municipalities
spoke about their own initiatives, including Craig Nyirfa, of the Canadian Police College,
Detective Wendy Leaver, Toronto Police Department, Sex Crimes Unit, and an RCMP officer
from Alberta’s Project KARE. I was excited to see some of the initiatives that have been taken
elsewhere and eager to see more initiatives taken here in British Columbia. I was also struck by
the power of open communication. Police departments can be deeply insular, and problems only
make them more so.
British Columbia must shine a bright and searching light onto the missing women investigation,
so that all of our women and girls can live in greater safety, and so that we can all move forward
with greater faith in our police forces.

Sincerely,

Maggie de Vries

cc:

Premier Gordon Campbell

Opposition Leader, Carole James
Opposition Critic for Attorney General, Leonard Krog
Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Kash Heed
Opposition House Leader and Critic for Public Safety and Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth
Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation George Abbott
Opposition Critic for Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Scott Fraser
MLA, Vancouver—Mount Pleasant, Jenny Kwan
MP, Vancouver East, Libby Davies
Mayor Gregor Robertson and city councillors
VPD Chief Constable Jim Chu
VPD Deputy Chief Constable Doug LePard
Union of BC Indian Chiefs
BC Association of Chiefs of Police, Bill McKinnon
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, British Columbia RCMP
Highway of Tears Walk for Justice, Gladys Radek
Amnesty International, Canada
The Vancouver Sun