Dr. Kate Shannon,  an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and principal investigator for the Maka Project, a research study of downtown east side Vancouver street sex trade workers conducted between 2005 and 2008, testified again today.  She confirmed that in interviews conducted with 255 such women, 23 of them said they had been to Robert William Pickton’s farm and 186 of them said they knew women who had been there.  Pickton was convicted of six counts of second degree murder in 2007, after the DNA and remains of downtown east side sex trade workers were found on the Port Coquitlam pig farm he co-owned with his brother and sister.

Dr. Shannon, in her expert opinion report tendered by Commission Counsel at the inquiry, included a dozen quotes from sex trade workers who expressed criticisms about police harassment and the ineffectiveness of the justice system in responding to assaults, abductions and murders of many of their colleagues.

The inquiry continues.