blevkog

Flash,

I'm going to respectfully disagree. It is very much our business. Picton got away with his crimes for so long because it was none of our business. It was none of our business what a bunch of East Vancouver drug addicts and hookers did. It was none of our business how they got there. It was none of our business what happened to them.

Indeed, many of them knew about "the farm" before the cops, but the cops ignored them. It was none of their business. No one cared what happened to those "people" - they were disposable. This was why Picton picked them as victims (and why Ridgeway picked them just south of there as well).

No we need to see this to get the whole picture. We need to see that these women had families, problems and issues. That save a few bad choices or bad circumstances, they are very much like our sisters or our aunts or our mothers. We need to hear what happened to make Willie Picton the monster he became.

And for justice to be done, it must be done in public so we may learn and change. Just because we may be offended by the subject matter does not me we should advocate secret trials. And it should be public so that in the incredibly unlikely event that Picton is innocent (or did not act alone) we can see the poor case against him and correct it. Stephen Truscott and Guy Paul Morin are a testament to that - without public scrutiny of the gory details, both men would not have found justice.

I want people to be able to see this so they can see how our justice system works and how it doesn't. i want people to remember those women as real people, the next time they see a hooker in Ottawa or Toronto or Halifax. I want them to think of the horror that can happen when they see a junkie at a bus stop. I want them to think of these people as people, not the disposal garae of a rotten downtown core.

Maybe then something can be done to help them and to stop guys like Picton long before take victims.

Sometimes if the public's stomach will be turned, it should be.

I do not want the victim's families to relive the horror, and to be exploited. I hope their attorneys can stop that abuse. I hope the Crown can protect them. But my sympathy for the lot of the victim's families cannot let me condone a secret trial.

Because it is very much my business.

if we only heard that there was a court hearing and then the next we hear the verdict ... ; no matter what the outcome, it is just another trail. i want to hear how and what goes on in the courts. i am aware of media bias, i hope i have good judgement to filter; and i hope the women and families are not exploited. however, by hearing about it; it is talked about ... and with all hopes change can come about. despite pickton, the other tragedy is why did so many missing women go without a real on going investigation. why were they just another silent number?

I have to throw my opinion on the side of Mike and a_o on this one. Justice has to be seen to be fair, otherwise it is simply another decision coming out of a box. Yes, for many this will mean publicly re-living old horrors and opening old wounds, and that's unfortunate, but it is part of the process.

Alas, for most of us this will only be an opportunity for grisly rubber-necking, but that also is part of the process.

Good points, folks. Thanks for commenting. I always learn something after sharing my opinion - that makes writing in this forum a lot of fun.
I wasn't referring to secrecy, rather toning down the publicity. I think the media circus that will inevitably arise makes a mockery of our justice system and objectifies the victims and their families. A small point, I admit.