The 1989 disappearance and murder of Alberta Williams is the focus on a new audio documentary presentation which was launched by the CBC in October.
The eight part series which delivered its first installment last week is a project from the Toronto based CBC News Investigative Unit.
Hosted by Connie Walker and produced by Marnie Luke along with the remainder of the team from CBC News, it takes a methodical look at the still unsolved murder of twenty seven years.
The format the documentary series is taking is one of an anthology approach to the case from the summer of 1989, taking its path forward by tracing the story from the disappearance of the 24 year old following a house party in Prince Rupert and the discovery of her body outside of the city.
Episode one provided some early background to the project, outlining the concept for the podcast and how it was launched by the receipt of a single email. To set the foundation for the project, Walker offers up some notes as to how the story will roll out over the next eight weeks.
As the first episode moves forward we are introduced to Garry Kerr, the original lead RCMP investigator of the time and author of the email that sparked the podcast. He was the first investigator tasked with the case and began the process of trying to find out the circumstances of the disappearance and subsequent discovery of Ms. Williams.
Early on the podcast we are delivered a surprise, both Kerr and Alberta's sister Claudia have the same suspect in mind. The name is never provided owing to legal reasons, but the indications suggest that if those in the community that knew Ms. Williams at the time were to retrace those days, something new may come to light to provide some more answers and help to take it from the files of the unsolved.
Now retired, Kerr maintains that the Alberta Williams case can be solved and knows that there are one or more people in the region that could shed light on the case and perhaps provide that one missing item of information that may move the file and deliver some sense of closure on the story for Alberta Williams family and friends.
The story remains a case that still resonates for the community and now with the additional national exposure, it will become part of the cross Canada dialogue on the cases of the missing and murdered women and girls of Northern British Columbia.
The first episode of the Podcast and accompanying slide show can be reviewed here. You can access the podcast from iTunes as well.
Episode number two will be posted to the CBC website and released to the podcast feed tomorrow. The series will air through November and December and will wrap up on December 13th.
The podcast is one of a number of resources that the CBC has put towards its review of missing and murdered women and girls across Canada. Included among that work is an extensive listing and status update on the progress of investigations into thirty four cases that the national broadcaster has looked into.
Both the podcast and the scope of the remainder of the CBC's work makes for a renewed focus on the topic and comes as the upcoming inquiry into the missing and murdered women and girls prepares to move forward with its work.
The most recent information from the RCMP related to the investigations into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal women was released in 2015 you can review that document here.
You can find some of the latest item of interest on Missing and Murdered inquiry from our archive page located on our political portal Darcy McGee.
The National Aboriginal Television network APTN has turned some of its attention towards the story of Lelu Island, using its APTN Investigates program to focus on the story of those who are opposed to the development of an LNG Terminal on the island near Flora Bank.
The thirty-five minute documentary style review traces some of the history of the story to this point and highlights the divisive nature of the issue that can be found at Lax Kw'alaams.
In addition to the now well known themes of opposition from those that are currently occupying the proposed LNG site, reporter Rob Smith notes the change of Band Council government of 2015 and how once they were settled in office, Mayor John Helin and his Council had reversed the path previously held by the community when it comes to the proposed LNG development.
Through interviews with a number of residents of the region, Smith outlines some of the concerns that some in the community had when it came to the process and results of the second vote held in August of this year. It was that consultation which delivered the approval of 66 per cent of those that voted (532 out of the 812 ballots cast) and set in motion plans from Lax Kw'alaams to continue engagement with Pacific NorthWest LNG.
Much of the documentary features a look at the opposition to the project from Hereditary Chief Donald Wesley (Smoyget Yahaan) and examines some of the background to recent suggestions that his Hereditary status may not valid.
However, the reporter also gains some comment from Mayor John Helin, (though it appears to have taken a few attempts), who offers up some background as to how the Band Council has interpreted that vote and what areas of engagement on LNG that the community has authorized the Band Council to follow through on.
Other issues reviewed over the thirty minutes is how the Port of Prince Rupert views the current occupation of the Island as well as the latest development from the Lelu Island story, that of the court challenge taken to the Vancouver Law Courts last Thursday.
There's no firm date set yet, but one obstacle has been cleared for a charity event in the community to be hosted by the Bank of Montreal.
To lend assistance to the project, Prince Rupert City Council on Monday evening voted to waive an hour of ice rental fees at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre to allow for a charity skate in aid of the local Food Bank operated by the Salvation Army.
Mayor Brain outlined the background to the request at Monday's Council Session which would see the Bank of Montreal host a Free public skating session at the Civic Centre, with admission gained by participants through the donation of food to be directed towards the Food Bank.
The request did provide for some discussion by Council members who weighed the lost revenue for the hour with the prospect of providing assistance to the Food Bank which finds its load increase significantly during the holiday season.
Councillor Kinney had a question on the date of the event, which was not known at this time, while Councillor Cunningham asked about the cost of the ice time that had been requested. As there has been date or time indicated at this time, he was advised it would depend on when the Bank intended to host their event.
Councillor Wade Niesh raised his concerns over the idea, calling attention to the position the city was put in recently when it came to raising the fees and charges and suggested that giving away the time was not going to benefit the city towards keeping the place open.
He also has some thoughts to share as to why the Bank didn't donate the money towards the cost, or why another organization didn't step forward to cover the cost. Mr. Niesh also cautioned Council that providing for the free ice rental could set a precedent for other groups to also come forward to ask for free time at the arena in the future.
The Mayor noted that while they will face a number of these requests, he pointed towards the charity aspect of the request and how it will benefit the community, moving the topic forward for Council to decide.
Councillor Cunningham spoke in favour of the request noting the assistance that it will provide to the food bank, which is very busy at this time of the year and is facing larger demand with the issues related to the loss of employment and hours worked at the Canadian Fish Cannery.
The Mayor also found the charity aspect of the request as the area which would guide him on his decision, adding his support to the Bank of Montreal's bid for the rental waiver.
Council provided their positive vote at the end of their discussion.
You can review the discussion from the City's Video Archive starting at the 53 minute mark.
The Bank of Montreal will be using the Public Skate for the Food Bank as part of their plans for their Day of Caring event, where employees of the bank give back to the community.
Once the event has been announced you can find the details on our Community Events Listings and archive page, both are found as part of our right hand column listings.
More items related to Monday's Council Session can be found on our Council Timeline feature, while further background on City Council Discussions can be reviewed on our Archive page.
Calling the plans of Pacific NorthWest LNG and their proposed Lelu Island LNG project "dangerous and ill conceived", opponents of the site selected for the project filed three separate writs with the Federal Court in Vancouver on Thursday.
The thee documents are seeking a judicial review of the Canadian government's approval in September of the LNG project to be located in the Port Edward area.
We outlined the prospects of the court challenge on the blog on Wednesday, when the first indications began to come in about the quest of two First Nation groups and the environmental organization Skeena Wild to pursue legal action on the LNG approval.
Yesterday, following a filing ceremony held outside of the courthouse in Vancouver, the three writs were filed, putting in motion the potential review of the Federal decision. The three groups, among them the hereditary chiefs of the Gitanyow and Gitwilgyoots cited lack of Federal consultation as to the heart of the legal challenge:
“Despite repeated requests, the federal government has failed to properly consult with our people,” .... “Justin Trudeau promised a new relationship with Indigenous communities. Instead, he added insult to injury by ignoring us, and giving the green light to a project that will destroy our way of life.” --Chief Malii (Glen Williams), Chief Negotiatorforthe Gitanyow
“Once again, we are forced to ask courts to do what our politicians seem unable to do – to honor Canada’s obligations to its Indigenous communities, and to protect our environment from catastrophic harm,” --Chief Yahaan (Donnie Wesley), of the Gitwilgyoots Tribe.
The third applicant to the court, was the environmental organization SkeenaWild with Executive Director Greg Knox, noting that their core concern is the impact on fish and fish habitat:
“The Agency gave the Environment Minister flawed information and conclusions about the project’s impacts on fish and fish habitat,” ...“We challenge the Agency’s conclusion that the project will have no significant impact on fish even though construction of the project could
permanently destroy 35,000 square meters of crucial salmon habitat.”
In addition to the Court challenge, which came one month to the day from the Federal approval, an information statement was issued as the court filing was taking place.
The statement expanding on the path ahead for the opponents to the Lelu Island project, noting that in addition to the potential for a day in court, they will also be putting increased pressure on Petronas to reconsider its project. With plans to rally international opposition against the industrial development and continue with civil disobedience to disrupt the plans to build the facility over the top of Flora Bank.
The three groups were not alone in expressing their concerns over the Federal Decision of September, with the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs also declared its opposition to the project on Thursday, issuing a statement from Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.
"This is a dangerous and ill-‐conceived attack on our environment and our Indigenous rights,” ... “Our courts have ruled that Canadian energy companies cannot run roughshod over FirstNations. Well, foreign companies can’t either.”
The Federal government was quick to respond to the announcements of the court challenge, with Environment Minister Catherine McKenna issuing a statement on behalf of her department and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, that indicated that the Federal government stands behind its decision on the terminal project and that it had undergone a rigorous and thorough science-based process.
No timeline was revealed on Thursday as to how long it will take for the Federal Court to consider whether they will entertain the legal challenge, or advise if they will conduct the judicial review of the Federal Government's decision.
Some notes on yesterday's developments can be found below:
The NDP's George Heyman and Michelle Mungall join host Vaughn Palmer to discuss such topics as resource development, social assistance rates and BC's environment. October 27 See link here.
Mayor Brain provided a review of Saturday's Redesign Rupert Recharge event for Council
A short review of the Redesign Rupert Recharge event of Saturday made for some of the notes from Monday's City Council session, as Mayor Lee Brain provided a short overview of how the Saturday event went and the engagement found between residents and facilitators.
The event made for a fair bit of conversation at Monday's session, with both representatives of ecotrust Canada and Pacific NorthWest LNG making mention of the Recharge event and noting the efforts that had gone into organizing the project.
As for the Mayor's review of events, his comments came at the end of the Monday session and noted a few of the themes from the day that he had observed at the Saturday event at the Civic Centre.
Key to Mayor Brain's thoughts from Saturday morning was the participation of the community and how it's important to the recharge process.
"The really good thing about this whole process is that the entire community came out, en masse to participate and that is just the beginning of something much bigger that is emerging here with this redesign process ... I do want to say, that I have been hearing a lot of feedback saying you know what's going to be different, we've had meetings, we've done these types of things before, what's really is going to change. The fundamental structure of Redesign Rupert process is actually built into the design process for action to emerge from this process. So it's not going to be some report that's generated that's just given to council with 100 list of things for us to now additionally do, on top of the 100 things we already have to do"
The Mayor also observed that the process moving forward will see residents take ownership over the issues and to start the process of becoming more involved in reshaping and redesigning this town.
Adding that interested residents should drop into the Redesign offices in the Community Futures office to learn more about what the process is all about. The Mayor also paid tribute to the number of volunteers who assisted through the day, stating that hundreds of people from the community participated in the process and even observed that the newspaper reporter had taken on the duties of the balloon distributor at the event.
With an impressive list of items available for those that took the time on Saturday to participate.
Included in those incentives to head down to the Civic Centre on Saturday morning was a Main Prize of a Big Screen television set which was provided by City Furniture Monday night, Mayor Brain also reminded Council of the upcoming November engagement session with the Planning Partnership, an opportunity that will allow residents to engage in redevelopment themes related to Third Avenue, Seal Cove and City held waterfront properties, adding that the economy of Third Avenue and the future for that commercial area will be part of those discussions.
He also called attention to some comments he has heard related to the funding of 75,000 dollars provided by Northern Development Initiative Trust towards the November session and further study.
"We did receive 75,000 dollars from NDIT and I will say that those who believe (and ask) how much 75,000 will do really, well I argue how much will zero dollars do, so it's better than no dollars and so we'll start with that and I'm very excited about it and I think it's going to be huge for the community"
Councillor Kinney had one note on the weekend event, reminding Council members he was unable to attend the Saturday session as he was taking care of the City's business as part of Regional District proceedings that day.
You can learn more about the work of the Redesign Rupert initiative from their website and Facebook page.
The full discussion can be reviewed from the City's Video archive starting at the one hour, five minute mark.
Councillor Barry Cunningham had a number of questions related to Enhancement Grant Funding on Monday
A door was opened a little bit on Monday into some of the inner workings of council members outside of the public meetings of every second Monday, as Councillor Barry Cunningham raised a number of questions related to the Community Enhancement Grant process currently underway.
Speaking towards the end of Monday night's session Mr. Cunningham's observations involved a review of the issue of contracts for the Lester Centre, Museum and Library. A process that he noted started in January of this year when Council gave direction to staff to approach the three organizations to engage in contracts to reduce the need for them to approach council for enhancement grants.
Adding that as he understands it, that while the contracts are in negotiation that they have not been completed ten months later and the three groups have been advised to apply for enhancement grant funding.
Making for a situation which Mr. Cunningham has some concerns about.
"If this is true, I think it's putting a big burden on these organizations that are just about driven by volunteers and it's taking time away from those volunteers to do their jobs for the institution, if they have to apply for enhancement grants and are told at the last minute that we're changing in mid stream for that. So, I would like to know if that's true and if so if there is not another alternative to them applying for enhancement grants at the last minute or giving them a definite extension"
Mayor Brain outlined the challenges being faced by City Staff to address the contract issue, suggesting that he doesn't completely agree with the argument that staff hasn't done anything for ten months. The Mayor did however offer up some thoughts on the status of those talks and the nature of the shift to the process that the City is looking to achieve.
Mayor Brain outlining the new approach to some Enhancement Grant Funding
"That is currently in discussion as you know, I think what the issue ultimately is, is that we're trying to set up a permanent arrangement and we're changing a process that was already in motion for many years under enhancement grants and we know that these people need operating grants. So there's a whole variety of questions there and we need to move from one train to another. And if we do it, we're going to do it right, make sure that the contract works for them and works for us and provides for long term certainty, which is what is in the motion now." The Mayor also acknowledged that there is a possibility that the City won't get the process signed off in time and as a back up plan it was encouraged that the three groups make application for the enhancement grants, that way if the two sides don't capture the timeline of the contracts then they would still be able to go into funding until the contracts can be signed off on. Councillor Cunningham followed up on those observations with a question for staff if those groups had been offered an extension to the deadline for the grants, the Mayor interjected at that point that he believed the applications for enhancement grants had already been submitted, something which was not known by staff on the evening, though the City's CFO noted she could find out the status of those applications. City Manager Robert Long, who doesn't comment frequently at Council sessions, did step in for a few moments to provide some further background to the issue.
"We had started this program, this process following the resolution some time ago, but some of the parameters changed, there were requirements that Council wanted us to do in the last few meetings that have now put getting into the contracts and getting them complete much more difficult that it was before"
Councillor Cunningham further explored that theme, noting that he has only seen a finalization on figures to this point and that only came at the last meeting.
The Mayor interrupted that train of thought, explaining some of the challenges that have come up in trying to bring it all together.
"There has been changes Councillor Cunningham over the process on scope and those things as well, with the Library, there's the Library Act, we have to ensure that the contract falls within the Library Act and our duties to that, how many years we are going to go and those types of things. This is something that staff is working on and I'm not sure it's a massive issue at the moment, I haven't had any issues with the organizations about that. But this is the first year that it's going to be changed, and once it has been changed, it's going to be a great process moving forward for all these groups"
Councillor Cunningham noted that he wasn't saying that staff hasn't been doing anything, but that he would like to see this come to an end as fast as possible, because the groups are looking for their funding for next year and how the do things.
And Cunningham is right, the timeline related to Community Enhancement Grants is moving quickly, City Council normally addresses the Grant funding issue in December, announcing the grant funding amounts and naming the successful applicants shortly after the Christmas break in January.
The theme of change when it comes to how the Enhancement Grants process works has proven to be controversial in the past.
In December of 2015 the first dip of the toe into the water provided for some spirited discussion and a number of concerns on how the process would be delivered. As we get closer to the awarding of the Grants for the year ahead, it would seem that there are still as many questions as answers when it comes to what the City has planned.
The full discussion on the theme from Monday can be reviewed from the City's Video archive starting at the 59 minute mark.
A look at last years Enhancement Grant levels and some of the discussion related to them can be reviewed here.
The opportunity for Prince Rupert residents to get a better understanding on what positions the City's council members may have on the theme of the Lelu Island LNG project will have to wait at least two weeks, with Council members voting on Monday night to defer their discussion on the topic until November.
The decision to move the topic off of Monday's agenda came due to the absence of Councillor Joy Thorkelson, the sponsor of the resolution, who had taken sick on Monday and was not in Council Chambers for Monday's session.
Councillor Cunningham, noting the importance of the issue to Councillor Thorkelson, suggested that the proper approach to the agenda item would be to hold it over until Council's November 7th session.
"I know that this is very important to her and I think out of respect to her we should table this until the next meeting when she is here" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham moving that a resolution related to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project at Lelu Island be deferred until the next council session.
As we noted on the Blog earlier this month, Councillor Thorkelson first notified Council of her intent to raise the issue at the October 11th Council session. Her motion would have City Council discuss and vote on the resolution, which calls for the City to withhold its support for the proposed development, unless six conditions set out by the City of Prince Rupert are met by Pacific NorthWest LNG.
Those conditions included:
1. The project is relocated to another area not in the estuary of the Skeena River. One industry should not put another at risk of our City should remain with a diversified economy. 2. The project must consult with the area’s local governments and our residents as well as with First Nations. 3. The City’s water supply is monitored and a specific set of responses, agreed to by the City, are in place to rectify any increase in acidification or eutrophication. 4. Negative economic or social consequences will be identified by the City and PNW LNG prior to the project going ahead and solutions agreeable to the City are identified. 5. Adequate contributions, agreed to by COPR, for rebuilding and maintaining Prince Rupert’s infrastructure are identified and scheduled. 6. Alternate forms of clean energy are identified and their development are committed to by PNW LNG.
Should all go as it should, the topic will return to the Council agenda on November 14th and Prince Rupert's council members will then be able to offer up any of their own thoughts related to the Pacific Northwest LNG proposal and put themselves on the record when it comes to Councillor Thorkelson's resolution.
The short discussion of the topic can be reviewed from the City's Video archive starting at the 59 minute mark.
