The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry has found money in its own budget to pay two of four attorneys to represent the interests of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side community and aboriginal women at hearings scheduled to begin on October 11. Two others will work pro bono.

To do so it “reallocated resources and benefitted from cost savings in its investigations, which did not take as much time as previously anticipated,” the commission said in its August 10 statement announcing the appointment of attorneys Jason Gratl and Robyn Gervais.

Gratl is a former president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Gervais previously represented the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council at the Commission. They are joined by Bryan Baynham and Darrell Roberts, who will work pro bono as Gervais’s support staff, the commission said.

The appointments come in the wake of turmoil in which six groups of 13 granted standing before the commission withdrew because the British Columbia government refused to help defray the legal expense of participating in the hearings.

Rather than representing specific clients, the four attorneys will work independently of the commission, the statement said, taking guidance from unfunded participant groups and the organizations and individuals affected.

The hope is that the four lawyers’ input “will contribute significantly to the commission’s ability to conduct a relevant inquiry leading to findings and recommendations that will make a real difference to the people of British Columbia and Canada,” commission spokesperson Chris Freimond said in the statement. “The commission has worked hard to prepare for the hearings and believes that when they begin on October 11, it will become clear that the resources and structure are in place to deal thoroughly with the important issues in a way that satisfies British Columbians.”

All four will be able to examine evidence in an adversarial role at the hearings if necessary, Freimond said.

The list of aboriginal groups dropping out of the British Columbia Missing Women Inquiry Commission is growing, as two more groups of the 13 originally granted standing announced on August 9 that they also will not participate in October hearings.

The Ending Violence Association of British Columbia (EVA BC) and West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) withdrew from the Missing Women Inquiry because of the provincial government’s refusal to help community groups defray legal expenses associated with participating. The government has agreed to fund an attorney to represent victims’ families before the commission, but declined to do so for the groups representing aboriginal communities and the areas that were affected by serial killer Robert Pickton’s years-long rampage through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Wally Oppal, the inquiry commissioner, granted standing to 13 community groups back in May, recommending that they receive funding because their participation was integral to the commission’s work. The province declined to fund them.

“The failure to fund counsel for aboriginal, sex worker and front line women’s organizations essentially shuts these groups out of the inquiry,” said EVA BC Executive Director Tracy Porteous in a statement. “We will not participate in an inquiry that will not listen to the voices of those who were closest to the missing and murdered women and their communities.”

West Coast LEAF spokesperson Kasari Govender said that the refusal flies in the face of Premier Christy Clark’s previous statements about British Columbia’s commitment to the safety of aboriginal women.

“The government’s decision on funding indicates that they don’t take seriously the safety of aboriginal women, sex workers and women living in poverty,” Govender said. “The failure to provide adequate resources at this early stage does not bode well for the government’s commitment to implementing the commissioner’s final recommendations.”

The commission is examining the reasons behind the failure of Vancouver police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to apprehend Pickton, who was convicted of killing six women but who told undercover police he’d killed 49. DNA or remains from 33 women were found on his farm. More information is in Valerie Taliman’s series on missing and murdered women written exclusively for Indian Country Today Media Network.