The First Nations Leadership Council is expressing concern over the RCMP’s attempt to dispose of approximately 14,000 exhibits related to the Robert Pickton case.
They are also calling for the preservation of evidence collected from his farm and any related properties and associates.
Furthermore, the FNLC stated the RCMP’s application to dispose of the exhibits is in contravention of the National Inquiry’s Calls for Justice and their legal obligations under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
In addition, the organization is calling on the Mounties to implement a rights-based, trauma-informed, culturally safe, and Indigenous gender-based analysis plus approach to center the rights of victims, survivors, and families.
Regional Chief Terry Teegee stated the following:
“The will of those most impacted must guide how evidence is managed in this case. We support families’ advocacy for a moratorium on the destruction of evidence and assurances that evidence will be preserved. We call for urgent action to ensure the proposed disposal of evidence in the Pickton case does not proceed. The RCMP and other policing bodies must be accountable for adhering to their obligations; conducting thorough and respectful investigations that uphold the human and Indigenous rights of Indigenous peoples.”
Pickton confessed to killing 49 women, the majority of whom were Indigenous, and was charged with the murders of 26 women.
In 2007, he was convicted of second-degree murder in six cases. He was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years—the longest possible sentence for second-degree murder under Canadian law at the time he was sentenced.