Still no charges in Robert Pickton prison death a year after fatal assault

A year after the day after the serial killer Robert Pickton died after an assault of another inmate in a Quebec prison, there have been no charges against the alleged assailant and few answers about what happened.

Pickton died at the hospital on May 31, 2024, after being attacked in the maximum goalkeeper security prison 12 days before. The 74 -year -old man was sentenced in 2007 for six second -degree murder positions, but was suspected of killing more dozens in his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, BC

The Canada’s correctional service first issued a launch on May 20 of last year on an “important assault” to an inmate, and added that “the assailant has been identified and appropriate actions have been taken.” Later, the agency confirmed that the injured inmate was Pickton and that he had died.

The Provincial Police of Quebec identified the suspect as a 51 -year -old inmate, but did not give a name.

Earlier this week, the force said his investigation remained open.

“Some expert reports are still ongoing. As this is an active file, we will not make more comments,” wrote the Sûreté du Québec in an email. On the phone, a spokesman said that the police archive had not yet been delivered to the Office of the Prosecutor of the Crown of Quebec, who will decide if charges will be presented.

Spokesman Audrey-Anne Bilodeau added that the police sometimes take longer to investigate when a suspect is already behind bars because there is no risk for the public.

Correctional Service Canada said he hopes to publish the results of the investigations on death “in the near future,” spokesman Kevin Antonucci wrote in an email.

“Time was required to ensure that they were completely translated and examined in accordance with the Privacy Law.”

Call the public consultation

The defenders of the rights of the prisoners expressed concern about the lack of answers about what happened and said that death raises questions about the safety of inmates.

“We are concerned about a series of deaths that have occurred at the hands of other prisoners without clear responses,” said Catherine Latimer of the John Howard society in a telephone interview.

Latimer cited a fatality report published earlier this year by Alberta Judge Donna Groves in the death of a 21 -year -old inmate who was killed to death inside his cell by another inmate of the Edmonton institution in 2011.

The report raised a series of questions, including why the two inmates were allowed to get out of their cells at the same time despite belonging to rival gangs and being under the orders of not being close to other inmates.

Groves asked for a public investigation into death, saying that it is the only way to get to the bottom of the actions of three guards that day, including the concerns that they were directing a “fighting club” of the prison.

Latimer said the report shows that there is a serious problem with the “incompatible or vulnerable prisoners” exposed to others who want to kill them. “Pickton really raises that,” he said.

Pickton, he added, would probably have been considered “vulnerable” because the nature of his crimes would have become a potential objective.

Prison deaths difficult to investigate

Howard Sapers, who spent 12 years as Canada’s correctional researcher, said that sudden prison deaths, particularly criminals, are often long and difficult to investigate.

“There are difficulties in terms of accessing crime scenes, preserving crime scenes, obtaining witness statements, so all these things tend to frustrate investigations,” he said.

He added that such research is often not a priority, at least in terms of speed, due to the lack of generalized public security risk.

He said that federal researchers who investigate the death of Pickton will analyze whether the protocol and politics were followed in areas such as smuggling and weapons, underground trade of weapons and drugs, gang conflicts and known threats against an individual.

Tom Engel, the former president of the Canadian Prison Law Association, agreed that Pickton’s reputation would have meant that he was at high risk of being attacked by other inmates.

“The question should be asked: ‘Well, how could this happen when it is at high risk?'” He said in a telephone interview.

Engel said he was not surprised by the lack of charges so far. He said that investigations can be long, partly because correctional staff and inmates can be reluctant to cooperate with the police.

The announcement of Pickton’s death last year was found public expressions of satisfaction and joy instead of concern. The families of the victims used words such as “healing”, “rejected” and “justice” to describe the death of a man who took advantage of vulnerable women in the center of East Vancouver, many of them indigenous.

But Engel believes that the fate of prison inmates should be a concern.

“The members of the public who believe in human rights, who believe in the rule of law, who believe that the Canada Criminal Code applies to all should worry about this, because this type of illegality cannot be had in a prison,” he said.

Sapers said prisons can be dangerous for both inmates and correctional staff. And he said that many of the solutions, which include more investment in personnel, training, penitentiary infrastructure and programming to significantly occupy prisoners, benefit both groups.

“Often, people do not create the link with safe environments for people who are in custody are also safe environments for people who have to work there, and I think it is a really important point,” he said.