THE NEVER-ENDING NIGHTMARE
Why the Sickening Story of the Pickton Pig Farm Still Matters
Woman’s body found beaten beyond recognition.
You sip your coffee
Taking a drag of your smoke
Turning the page
Taking a bite of your toast
Just another day
Just another death
Just one more thing you easily forget
You and your soft, sheltered life
Just go on and on
For nobody special from your world is gone
-Sarah de Vries, murder victim
Hey Folks,
On May 31, 2024, the notorious Canadian serial killer Robert William Pickton died.
If you aren’t from Canada, there’s no way that you could possibly understand what a big deal this story was. Basically, this was the story that punctured the national mythos that Canadians used to believe in.
REMEMBER WHEN WE THOUGHT WE WERE THE GOOD GUYS?
We used to think that we were the good guys. When I was growing up, Canadians were proud that they didn’t need to lock the door when they went out. And it was true in a lot of places, including where I grew up in Ottawa. Crime was not an issue that we worried about. I started walking to school in Grade 1. I was allowed to go to the skinny rink by myself, at night, from the age of 6 or 7. Canada was safe. It really was. And we didn’t take this for granted. We were thankful that we lived in such a safe country.
We believed that we were fortunate to live in one of the most prosperous and successful countries in the world, and we were convinced that Canadians had to be some of the most decent people on the planet.
We were proud that Canada was involved in peacekeeping missions, because peace was very popular back then. We vaguely knew that the English had oppressed the French for hundreds of years, but we thought that was in the past now. The future was bright.
There was very little discussion about indigenous people in mainstream political discourse, despite the fact that they constitute about 10% of the country’s population. I was interested in politics from a young age, and I don’t remember hearing much about indigenous people, to be honest.
THE PICKTON CASE CHANGED EVERYTHING
Now, to be fair, I do have a special connection to the case. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in East Van over the years. When I was sixteen, I hitchhiked out to Vancouver, doing the skunk thing. If you didn’t know, a skunk is a summer camper punk, also known as “traveller punks”, “crust punks”, “train kids”, or “crusties”.
Like a lot of skunks, I had a family who I could go back to, but I lived on the street, hitchhiked around, and rode trains. It used to be an entire scene, and East Vancouver was a destination.
Like most skunks, I preferred Commercial Drive to Skid Row, but I spent time on the Downtown Eastside too. On one occasion when I was 17, I was sleeping in an alley on the DTES and someone stole my backpack. I was estranged from my family at the time, so that might be the most down-and-out I’ve ever been.
Regardless, though, it wasn’t just me that cared about the Pickton story. Everyone did, and not simply out of morbid curiosity. The details of the case were shocking, and many were at a loss to believe that such horrifying crimes could occur in Canada. And the worst part was that the police had been letting it happen for many years. Clearly, they didn’t care about drug-addicted indigenous prostitutes.
I know that people are sick of hearing about racism in 2024, but the Pickton Case is a story about racism. It is clear that predators were preying upon indigenous women because Canadian society just didn’t care that much about them. That was a tough pill for a lot of people to swallow, but it was clearly true.
At the time, I remember hearing rumours about the Hells Angels, Vancouver cops making sketchy porn, organ-harvesting, ritual abuse, and many things that strained credulity. But after Robert Pickton was arrested and the infamous publication ban was put in place, I eventually mostly forgot about the story. I think most Canadians did.
Then, in 2022, I decided to spend some time on the DTES interviewing people. I wanted to know if anyone on Skid Row had died of COVID. To me, one of the strongest arguments against COVID was the fact that it didn’t affect homeless populations.
While I was on Skid Row, I ended up locating a vending machine at a government-run injection site.
I also ended up doing a bunch of interviews with drug users, trying to understand the opiate crisis.
Along the way, I realized that women were still going missing, and that residents of the DTES believe that vulnerable women are still being preyed on by serial killers, and the police still aren’t doing anything about it. In other words, nothing has changed.
In particular, I was shocked by the story of Chelsea Poorman, a young Cree woman from my dad’s hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
In August of 2022, I published a report that serial killers were still preying upon indigenous women in Vancouver.
I also wrote a second article, which focused on how Canadian authorities managed to cover this shocking scandal up.
Basically, I believe that Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics were used to make everyone forget about the Pickton story.
Unfortunately, it seems this tactic was largely successful.
To my dismay, my stories made little impact. At the time, Nevermore was not the world-famous juggernaut that it is today, and I was actually quite depressed that I wasn’t able to be more successful at raising the alarm. My drug and alcohol consumption increased. I felt like I had failed, but I didn’t really feel personally guilty. I more felt that everyone else was guilty - the cops, social workers, poverty pimping bureaucrats, politicians, and Canada in general. My opinion of Canada, which was already in the toilet due to COVID, sunk further.
One good thing that happened was that I befriended Mike Kiernan, Chelsea Poorman’s father. I actually hitchhiked to Saskatoon and interviewed him in his home, though the interview was never posted due to the sensitive nature of some of the information it revealed.
Since 2022, I have continued to cover the story of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada.
As incredible as this is, Robert Pickton came up in parole in March. Pretty fucking crazy, I know.
A few months later, he was dead. Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that after over 20 years in protective custody in a maximum-security prison, he just happened to conveniently get murdered soon after coming up for parole.
For context, it is important to know that Robert Pickton portrays himself as the fall guy for the Hells Angels. He even wrote a book about it, though that book is apparently not available for purchase or download anywhere on the internet.
When Robert Pickton was killed, every single mainstream media outlet seemed to be reading from the same script. They all included the same basic information, even choosing the same photo to use.
According to Yahoo news:
[W]hen Pickton was seeking to acquire day parole, a 51-year-old unidentified inmate at his prison in Quebec assaulted him on May 17, stabbing him in the neck with the sharpened end of a toothbrush, then the pointed portion of a broken broom handle to his head. The as-yet unnamed assailant was promptly arrested and Pickton was rushed to hospital where he was placed in a medically-induced coma, but never regained consciousness…
On one hand, I’m glad that Pickton is dead, but I’ve got some questions that I think need answering.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT ROBERT PICKTON’S DEATH:
Who is the “unidentified inmate” who stabbed Pickton to death?
Why hasn’t his name been released?
Has he been charged with murder?
How did he get close enough to Pickton to stab him to death?
How often do inmates murder other inmates in maximum-security prisons?
Is there video footage of the attack?
Did Pickton actually die from his stab wounds, or was he allowed to die by hospital staff?
Was an autopsy done?
Will details of that autopsy be made public?
What will be done with his remains?
THE NEVER-ENDING NIGHTMARE
I chose to call this article The Never-Ending Nightmare because I don’t believe that this is the end of the Pickton story.
I would love it if we could all forget about this dark chapter of Canadian history, but we can’t, because it hasn’t ended.
It’s still happening.
If anything, it’s gotten worse.
WHY IS THE RCMP SEEKING TO DESTROY EVIDENCE?
For another thing, Canadian authorities are trying to continue the cover-up by destroying evidence related to the Pickton case.
According to a recent article:
On May 31, the notorious serial killer who preyed on the vulnerable women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), Robert Pickton, took his last breath.
Convicted of six counts of second-degree murder, he received the maximum sentence under Canadian law.
Pickton murdered Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, and Brenda Wolfe. But the names of his victims were many more than these six. Pickton was charged with 26 counts of murder, while 20 were stayed.
[…]
The DNA of 33 women were found on his farm.
According to a Canadian Encyclopedia article, at least 65 women disappeared from the DTES from 1978 to 2001. Sue Brown, director of advocacy and staff lawyer at Justice for Girls, said that there are potentially 70 women who went missing from the DTES.
In December of 2023, it became public knowledge that the RCMP applied to the court to dispose of 14,000 exhibits of evidence pertaining to the Pickton murders.
According to Brown, the exhibits are from his farm in Port Coquitlam where most of the murders are believed to have taken place.
A letter titled, “A call to preserve evidence in the Pickton case” was signed by 35 organizations and 10 individuals.
“The exhibits were obtained during the investigations into 50+ women who were murdered and disappeared from the Downtown Eastside,” reads the Justice for Girls letter. “The majority of these missing women are Indigenous and their cases remain unsolved to this date.”
“Disposal of the exhibits will quash any remaining hope they have and solidify their perception that their daughters, mothers, sisters and aunties are less important than the space required to keep that evidence,” reads the letter.
In 2023, Justice for Girls learned that the RCMP had begun filing applications to dispose of evidence in 2020 and 2021, said Brown.
“There were upwards of an estimated 200,000 exhibits that they had in relation to the missing women’s investigations and the Robert Pickton investigation,” she told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
“Five of those applications, to our knowledge, have already been dealt with by the court,” said Brown. “And they were done so without many of the family members being aware.”
To Brown’s knowledge, they are fighting for the remaining 14 to 15,000 exhibits.
“The majority of these cases, apart from the six that Robert Pickton was convicted of, remain unsolved cases,” said Brown. “It’s our belief that those exhibits do retain evidentiary value and they ought to be preserved and the police ought to continue thoroughly investigating those unsolved cases.”
In January, the court was notified of Justice for Girls interest in “applying for standing to intervene on the RCMP’s application,” said Brown.
A court date regarding the RCMP application is scheduled on June 26.
You get that? THEY’VE ALREADY DESTROYED SOME EVIDENCE.
And they want to destroy it all, despite the fact that it contains evidence relevant to 27 unsolved murder cases. Remember, Robert Pickton was only ever convicted of 6 counts of second-degree murder, but DNA evidence linked to 33 different missing women was found on the Pickton farm.
According to the true crime podcast Dark Mind Detective (formerly known as Vancouver True Crime), there is also DNA evidence of an additional 80 people, who have not been identified. Interestingly, about half of these unidentified remains were male, lending credence to the theory that the Pickton farm was used by the Hells Angels for body disposal.
Welcome to Canada, 2024.
THE RCMP IS GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
In coming days, I will be continuing my reporting on this story, specifically exposing the Port Coquitlam RCMP, who have been attempting to cover up the truth about the Pickton Farm since the 1990s.
This may be our last chance to make a big deal about the Pickton case before everyone forgets about it.
I encourage people to get in touch if they have relevant information for me.
Wish me luck!
Crow Qu’appelle
P.S. If you want to brush up on the case, I refer you to my previous work on this subject:
MY PREVIOUS ARTICLES ABOUT MMIWG & THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
August 13, 2022 - Ten Things You Need to Know about the Drug War Right Fucking Now
August 20, 2022 - Indigenous women are still being murdered in Vancouver, and the police are still are covering it up
August 21, 2022 - Will Five Billion Dollars be Enough to Cover Up Vancouver’s Dirty Little Secret?
October 3rd, 2023 - Robert Pickton is Eligible for Parole in 2024
March 1, 2024 - Robert Pickton is Up for Parole
May 2024 - Who Killed Robert Pickton?
Very interesting article! I'm not Canadian, and clearly you've done much investigating on this subject. I hope one day you will give the missing and their families some resolve and peace. Thank you for making those of us who are unaware, aware evil exists everywhere and that it trickles down in all directions.
In my opinion, Pickton was just the disposal guy for the perverts in high places. His release was too close to a certain upcoming federal election to allow to happen. Trudeau, from what I’ve read, only lived a mile or so up the road and frequented the parties held there.🤷♂️ Make of that what you will, but it warrants further investigation IMO.