[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-members] Rally to oppose: Sham inquiry

[Tami Starlight]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: DNC <dtescouncil at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:57 PM
Subject: [dnc-members] Rally to oppose: Sham inquiry
To: dnc-members at povnet.org, DNC Board <dnc-board at povnet.org>


Link:
http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/non-participation-sham-inquiry/

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE WOMEN'S CENTRE AND WOMEN'S MEMORIAL MARCH COMMITTEE
ANNOUNCE NON-PARTICIPATION IN SHAM INQUIRY

RALLY ON FIRST DAY OF HEARINGS: TUES OCT 11TH AT 9:30 AM AT 701 WEST GEORGIA
...
Monday October 3, Vancouver Coast Salish Territories –Calling the Missing
Women’s Commission of Inquiry a “disgrace” and an “insult to women in the
Downtown Eastside”, the Coalition of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre
(DEWC) and Feb 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee (WMMC) have announced
today that they will not be endorsing or participating in the Inquiry.

The Coalition is also announcing a rally at the beginning of the hearings on
October 11th, 2011 at 9:30 am in front of at 701 West Georgia. They will be
denouncing the Sham Inquiry and will call for a new fair, just, and
inclusive Inquiry that centres the voices and experiences and leadership of
women, particularly Indigenous women, in the DTES.

“This inquiry has a responsibility to highlight those systemic injustices
that allowed the unimaginable deaths and disappearances of so many women
from the Downtown Eastside. We have been raising awareness on this issue for
over twenty years and demanding an Inquiry for decades, but this Sham
Inquiry is flawed and unjust. We cannot endorse it. ” states Carol Martin,
victim services worker at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.

The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre made the decision to no longer
participate in the Sham Inquiry following discussion and votes by its
members who are residents of the DTES. “We are sick of this. This Inquiry
was supposed to be about a measure of justice for us and the hope that
things would change down here, but it is just more of the same injustices,”
says Beatrice Starr, who has resided in the Downtown Eastside for 30 years
and whose sister and niece were both murdered.

Diane Wood, a member of the Women’s Memorial March Committee says: “We have
essentially been shut out from this Sham Inquiry that is actually supposed
to be about us and our experiences. It is vital to this Inquiry that the
voices of women and the community be front and centre when determining its
recommendations. Without a commitment to the participation of women from the
Downtown Eastside, the Inquiry is not legitimate and has no credibility.”

According to Lisa Yellow-Quill of the Women’s Memorial March Commitee “We
were witness to the system’s gross negligence as well as racism and sexism
in investigating these disappearances and murders. It is unconscionable that
Christy Clark, Barry Penner, Shirley Bond and the BC Government are
demonstrating those same dismissive and discriminatory attitudes today. We
want and continue to be committed to a just Inquiry, not a Sham Inquiry.”

States Harsha Walia of the Downtown Eastside Womens’ Centre “It is
disgusting that the Vancouver Police Department and the Government of Canada
– who are the ones on trial here – will have an army of publically-funded
lawyers to defend themselves. Women in the DTES have their own voices and
critical information to share, but this Sham Inquiry has shut those voices
out and maintained the status-quo of inequality. This is representative of
the very legacy of discrimination, racism, sexism, and colonialism that this
Inquiry is supposed to interrogate. We have no faith that anyone or any
institution will be held responsible for the deaths and disappearances of
women from the DTES.”

REASONS FOR NON-PARTICIPATION:

The DEWC and WMMC were granted full standing to participate in the
evidentiary hearings. In a letter to the Commission, they list the following
reasons for their recent decision to not participate in the Sham Inquiry:

- The Commission has created an adversarial structure, which forces women in
the Downtown Eastside to rely on lawyers to defend them from rigorous cross
examination. This is also highly objectionable as it revictimizes and
traumatizes survivors of violence in an Inquiry that provides no support or
protection for them.

- Despite creating an inaccessible and cumbersome process that requires
lawyers, the BC government has unjustly decided to not grant the resources
necessary for legal counsel or support services to ensure that women in the
DTES can meaningfully participate in the Missing Women’s Inquiry. As written
in a letter from legal experts in Ontario “The refusal of the Attorney
General to fund parties to the Inquiry will result in an unfair and
discriminatory hearing process.” Letter in full available here:
http://is.gd/3qZUP1

- There is a total disregard for vulnerable witnesses. An application for
procedural protection of vulnerable witnesses, including the opportunity to
testify through anonymous affidavits, has been opposed by the VPD. Without
anonymity and confidentiality, witnesses will face real or perceived
reprisals from the police.

- The police – the VPD, RCMP, and the Police Union – are over-protected in
this Inquiry. The police are armed with well-paid legal teams, embedded
police experts from the Peel Division are reviewing legal documents which we
have not even seen, and individual police officers are being granted
standing in this Inquiry.

- The Commission has not been transparent or fair in its handling of the
Inquiry. We object to a series of decisions including the retention of Peel
Police as experts to review legal documents, the terms of the disclosure
agreement between the Commission and the police, and the withholding of
witnesses lists.

- We are boycotting the amicus proposal because it shows an utter lack of
respect for the multi-dimensional experiences of those women who are
directly impacted in the DTES by suggesting that one or two lawyers will
“represent” all of us. Letter in full available here: http://is.gd/G9L9A1

- The Study commission is not a replacement for full and meaningful
participation in the Inquiry. The Study Commission is not an evidentiary
hearing; therefore we will not be able to review evidence and cross examine
witnesses. At best, the Study Commission will produce yet another report
about systemic injustice in the DTES without anyone being held responsible
and with no systemic change. Without participation in the evidentiary
hearings of the Inquiry, the Study Commission is toothless and we do not
endorse it.

The DEWC, established in 1978, exists to support and empower women and
children living in extreme poverty in the DTES of Vancouver, Coast Salish
Territories. The Centre is unique, in that it is one of the only safe spaces
within the Downtown Eastside specifically and exclusively for women and
their children. It provides practical support to over 300 women and children
on a daily basis. The DEWC are also committed to long term systemic change
of the realities of poverty, racism, colonization, violence against women,
addictions, disability, child apprehension, policing, and more which marks
the lives of the women who access our space and services. Many of the women
who have gone missing, have been murdered, or are survivors of violence in
the DTES have been members of the DEWC.

The February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee was founded in 1992 when
a woman was found murdered on Powell Street. Since then, over the past 20
years, the Committee has organized for justice for missing and murdered
women and raised local, national, and international attention on the issue.
An annual march on February 14th is led by women in the DTES because women,
especially Indigenous women, face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
violence on a daily basis. Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from
the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members
with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Every year the list of women
going missing also increases and we are committed to justice.****

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