VANCOUVER – Clutching an eagle feather, Kristina Bateman Papin held her mother’s remains in a small blue velvet box at a vigil Tuesday near Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Georgina Papin, one of six women murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton, was remembered by about 100 family and friends who lit sage, drummed, sang and spoke at a waterfront park near the streets from which so many women disappeared.
Kristina, 25, flew to Vancouver Monday from Las Vegas, where she grew up with her paternal grandparents, then made the difficult journey to pick up her mother’s remains from the B.C. Coroner’s office in nearby Burnaby, B.C.
“I last saw my mother when I was 12, at a powwow, when I got my spirit name, and I remember her most from that time because she was so warm and loving, very strong in her traditional knowledge,” said Kristina.
Several of her mother’s friends told her she looked just like Georgina.
“When Kristina got off the plane yesterday, it was like seeing Georgina,” said Cynthia Cardinal, Georgina’s older sister.
Cardinal, together with sisters Bonnie and Elana Papin, wept openly. She said her family remains angry about Papin’s death – she disappeared in March 1999, at age 34 – and is filing a lawsuit.
“We are glad there will be the Pickton inquiry but we’re suing the (Vancouver police), the RCMP and others who didn’t do enough to stop the disappearances or to find missing women like my sister,” said Cardinal.
Vancouver-based lawyer Cameron Ward, who attended Tuesday’s vigil, said that he has been hired by the Papin family and will act for them at the inquiry and in court.
“We still don’t have a date or even a commissioner for the inquiry,” noted Ward, who has also been approached by another victim’s family.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said several aboriginal groups likely will seek legal standing at the inquiry, which Attorney General Mike DeJong announced on Sept. 9.
Calls for an independent review have increased since Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard released a 408-page review of the case in late August, concluding that investigators had compelling evidence pointing to Pickton by August 1999 – 2 1/2 years before his arrest.
“Today Georgina is flying like an eagle, she is finally free, and it was her voice who came through our hearts and whose presence came through so strongly at Pickton’s trial,” said her sister Elana Papin. “She is internationally known now and we celebrate her spirit and her journey as she finally goes home.”
Marlene George, organizer of the annual Valentine’s Day memorial for missing women, offered condolences, but added: “We still have heavy hearts because we know the violence against women is still going on, especially on the Downtown Eastside.”
On July 30, Canada’s highest court upheld Pickton’s conviction of second-degree murder in the deaths of Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury and Marnie Frey.
Pickton confessed to killing 49 women but the DNA of only 33 women has been tied to his former Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farm, now run by his brother Dave Pickton, who has never been charged in the women’s deaths.
Vancouver Province
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