Twenty-six sex-trade workers have been murdered or gone missing in Metro Vancouver since convicted serial killer Robert William Pickton was arrested in February 2002, according to a list prepared by activist Jamie Lee Hamilton.

In a phone interview, Hamilton asserted that a moratorium on the application of prostitution laws is needed to allow sex workers to come forward and provide more information on the spate of post-Pickton violence—without fear of being charged by police.

“The enforcement of prostitution laws causes displacement, and displacement is historically linked to conditions that lead to violence against sex workers,” Hamilton said.

As the Straight went to press on February 20, Hamilton was scheduled to speak to the Vancouver police board, chaired by Mayor Sam Sullivan, about a moratorium.

“We’re fearful that this violence is going to a new level,” Hamilton said. “Women who work in their own homes are now being targeted.” Indoor sex-trade workers Tammy Lynn Murray, and Nicole Parisien were murdered last year, according to the well-known activist.

In 2004, Pivot Legal Society recommended a similar moratorium, but this was rejected by the Vancouver police board, which was chaired by then-mayor Larry Campbell.

“We would point out that since the arrest of Robert Pickton, reports of recently missing sex trade workers from the Downtown Eastside have all but stopped, and note that new names added to the list of missing women are historical,” Campbell wrote in a December 4, 2004, letter to Pivot lawyer Cristen Gleeson.

Campbell also wrote that “none of the women on the missing women list went missing later than November 2001.”

Posters of missing women are a common sight in offices of Vancouver organizations that help sex workers.

To the shock of Hamilton, deputy chief constable Doug LePard declared at the December 12, 2007, meeting of the Vancouver police board that the police department had no outstanding cases of missing women. After that meeting, Hamilton told the Straight that an average of five women have been killed or gone missing every year in Vancouver and nearby suburbs since Pickton’s arrest.