Children of Vancouver’s missing and murdered women can each apply for $50,000 in compensation from the provincial and federal governments and the City of Vancouver.
Representatives of the three levels of government announced a $4.9-million fund March 18.
Ninety-eight children of 67 missing and murdered women identified in the lead-up to Robert “Willie” Pickton’s arrest in 2002 will be eligible.
“We recognize the long and difficult road for the families and remember these women as daughters, as sisters and as mothers,” said Coun. Andrea Reimer, who represented the city on behalf of Mayor Gregor Robertson. “On this day, we stand by other responsible parties to financially acknowledge the loss experienced by the children of the missing women.”
The $50,000 in compensation is meant to assist children of missing and murdered women with their education, housing or fundamentals that could improve their lives.
Attorney General and Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said 12 of 13 families involved in a civil case have agreed to the $50,000 in compensation.
Children of women whose DNA was found on Pickton’s pig farm launched a civil suit that claimed police and the Crown had failed to warn women on the Downtown Eastside that a serial killer may have been on the loose and raised concerns about the way police eventually told families their cases were linked to Pickton, according to a CBC news report.
Pickton was charged with the murders of 26 women. In December 2007, he was convicted of murdering six and the remaining charges were stayed.
“Given the compelling evidence that I heard concerning the intergenerational impact of these crimes and the need to break the hold of violence on families, I recommend that the provincial government establish a compensation fund for the children of the victims,” commissioner Wally Oppal wrote in his Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, which was released in December 2012.
Anton said the government has been working on a compensation fund since 2012. She said the $50,000 amount was arrived at in relation to the ongoing civil lawsuit and with funding partners.
“It’s a fair amount and it’s the right thing to do but, as I said, we can’t compensate for the loss of a mother,” she said.
Anton and Reimer were joined by Craig Callens, the Commanding Officer of the RCMP in B.C., and Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu.
