Wally Oppal's long-awaited report on the missing women finally came out in December and was aptly titled Forsaken. Since that time, politicians, the media, the public and affected groups have had time to absorb the recommendations.
Sadly, most of the focus has been on the need for a regional police force - something Richmond has already been studying - but at the expense of other issues.
According to Oppal, the missing and murdered women were forsaken twice, "once by society at large and again by the police," and subsequent police investigations were "blatant failures."
One of Oppal's recommendations is that the provincial government fund an additional full-time sex trade liaison officer position in the Lower Mainland.
According to WISH, which runs a drop-in centre for Downtown Eastside prostitutes, women on the streets are still facing harassment, theft, rape and strangulation.
These women don't go to the police for a variety of reasons, but a key factor is their relationship with law enforcement.
That relationship was most certainly informed by the "discrimination, systemic institutional bias, and political and public indifference," Oppal outlines in his report.
So while more liaison officers would help, a deeper attitudinal change needs to happen with the police. That's why we welcome recommendations that officers receive anti-oppression training to overcome their biases.
When serial killer Robert Pickton selected his victims from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, he went after the most vulnerable: women who were addicts, prostitutes and disproportionately aboriginal.
He relied on police bias and societal indifference to get away with butchering women for years.
The police have admitted they screwed up and they've said sorry, but the authenticity of that apology will be proven when we see some real behavioural changes.
It may be too late for Pickton's victims, but we welcome meaningful action to help the women who are still facing attacks on our most impoverished streets. For them, help can't come soon enough.
