Vancouver police under scrutiny after deaths of multiple young Indigenous women, girls
CBC
WARNING: This story discusses violence against Indigenous women and girls, and contains distressing details.
A series of recent deaths and disappearances of young Indigenous women in Vancouver has advocates and families questioning whether police learned many of the lessons — or applied recommendations of numerous reports — from previous tragedies.
The Assembly of First Nations, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, and now the former head of the province's Missing Women Commission of Inquiry have spoken out urging reforms to how police handle missing persons cases.
The latest tragedies include the deaths of 14-year-old Noelle O'Soup, and Kwemcxenalqs (Kwem) Manuel-Gottfriedson, 24.
O'Soup was found dead in an apartment at the corner of Heatley Avenue and Hastings Street on May 1, but is believed to have died some time before — sparking a police code of conduct investigation into one officer who allegedly failed to see her while searching the apartment.
Manuel-Gottfriedson, meanwhile, was found in a building near East Hastings Street and Hawks Avenue last Saturday; her death is subject to a major crimes squad investigation.
Community anger at police erupted earlier this year when the body of Chelsea Poorman was found on the grounds of a Vancouver mansion.
Another Indigenous woman, 20-year-old Tatyanna Harrison, is among those still missing. She was last seen in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on April 22.
LISTEN | Louisa Housty-Jones on recent deaths of Indigenous women, girls in B.C.
Ten years ago this year, former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal headed the province's Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.
His commission scrutinized how several police forces botched investigations into serial killer Robert Pickton, and numerous reports of missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
"The conditions in Downtown Eastside Vancouver are ripe for another Pickton to come to work, because that's exactly what's happening now," Oppal said in an interview Friday on CBC's All Points West.
Oppal's final report recommended 63 reforms, many of them directed and policing and justice agencies.
He said police have made significant improvements in investigating missing persons cases, and in communicating with other law enforcement agencies, as he recommended.
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