Carlito Pablo
City & Culture

Sex-trade veterans say society shares blame for missing women

Two women with extensive experience in the sex trade say that it's not only Robert William Pickton who should be on trial for the missing women.

Susan Davis, an escort who used to walk the streets, told the Straight that police, politicians and the community deserve some blame for the fate of at least 60 women who have disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside since the early 1980s.

Pickton has been charged with the murder of 26 of these women. He will be first tried on six counts of murder before the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster starting January 22.

A separate trial for the remaining 20 charges will be set later.

"If we want to know why this happened, we have to look in the mirror," Davis said. "It's our fault."

Davis recalled that there was a time when the police would take not reports from women who were allegedly assaulted by their dates. According to her, the message prostitutes got was: "You don't want to be raped, don't come down here. You don't want to be killed, don't come down there."

Davis said that police, politicians, and "citizens and the community at large", wanted to drive away sex workers.

"It was a bad policy," she said. "It led to people dying."

Jamie Lee Hamilton, a former sex-trade worker, told the Straight that people other than Pickton must be held accountable.

"Some of those lives could have been saved," she said. "But because of the indifference and neglect, others have to be held to scrutiny and account as well."

In 1998, Hamilton dumped more than 60 pairs of stiletto-heeled shoes at the steps of city hall. She wanted to call attention to the women who have vanished from the Downtown Eastside.

Four years later in 2002, police started an extensive search for clues at the Port Coquitlam property owned by Pickton and his siblings.

"I've always maintained that there should be a public inquiry," Hamilton said. "There was obviously a wrongdoing right from the get-go."

Lisa Gibson, a women's-rights activist, told the Straight that the Pickton trial "will bring to light some of the issues, some of the bigger root problems".

"Lots of people have raised concerns over the amount of time and the very few resources that were put into the missing-women case," Gibson said.

She noted that while much publicity is focused on the Pickton case, there are still women from the Downtown Eastside who go missing.

"There is still violence," she said. "One person in trial doesn't solve the issue."

The Pickton trial is projected to last for one year, according to a media guide issued by the Ministry of Attorney General.