[Wamvan] Harsha's brilliant interview on CBC

[Frieda Werden]

Heard Harsha interviewed by Rick Cluff on CBC about 8:15 this morning.  She
was great!  In a very few minutes, she cut through all the BS about the
missing women inquiry. Basically, what I got from it: 1) the inquiry has
turned into police lawyering up and protecting their own butts - this has
made it into an adversarial process, 2) there are women living on the DTES
still today who knew what happened on the Pickton farm and the police didn't
want to hear it then and apparently don't want it to come out now, 3) the
inquiry was structured to be adversarial - if the police didn't have
lawyers, the women who could testify wouldn't be requiring lawyers either -
as it is, the police lawyers would eat these vulnerable witnesses alive, 4)
these women who have real information about what happened on the ground need
to be treated as part of the category of "victims and their families" who
are being provided legal counsel by the province, 5) what kind of protection
will the women have afterwards if they testify?, 6) the women and their
organizations are the ones who've been working for decades to get this
inquiry - they are the most committed of all to having it, and the fact that
they are being marginalized and can't safely testify is destroying the
potential of the inquiry.  Cluff dragged out everything the government and
the other press have been saying and she demolished it.

-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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