This week, and hopefully in the weeks to come, I'm here to bring you some of the big news stories from your friends to the north. As I'm writing this, I am stuffed full of poutine (with bacon and onions), chugging a Maudite, and watching the Edmonton Oilers. Now that I've got the bad Canada jokes out of the way, let's get on with the news.

Canada has never really been known for churning out brutal murderers, but every now and then, they pop up.

Today, The Crown announced that it would be seeking new charges to be laid against notorious pig farmer/prostitute solicitor/lunatic Robert Pickton.

For those of you who aren't really aware of the case, here's a little history:

The setting: east downtown Vancouver.

Sixty-one women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts, had disappeared from this area since 1983. Numerous public outcries had accused the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of ignoring the growing number of cases. Many feared that a single, disturbed person may be behind the rash of abductions. Finally, in 1999, the RCMP began to take things seriously.

In the spring of 1999, two Vancouver detectives teamed up with two RCMP detectives to review the file pertaining to the 31 missing women. In August of that year police began investigating an account by a woman, not a prostitute, who said that a man snatched her from the stairwell of a hotel in Vancouver's downtown eastside. The woman jumped from her captor's moving vehicle to escape.

Now, we jump ahead to 2002 and introduce the star of our story, Robert William Pickton. Pickton's pig farm, located just outside of Vancouver in Port Coquitlam, quickly became the focal point of the police investigation. Seven murder charges would be filed that summer. More charges would be filed in September and October, and, by the end of the year, the total would reach fifteen.

After years of sitting on their back-bacon-loving duffs, the RCMP (and their team of anthropologists) were up to their eyes in pig shit and very tiny pieces of dead hookers ... and probably loving back bacon a little less. The search of Pickton's farm uncovered disturbing new evidence, and eventually brought the number of charges up to twenty-six.

And so, in December 2006, the trial began. The prosecution decided to proceed with the six strongest cases, reserving the other twenty for a later date. The trial, which lasted just over a year, captivated and disgusted the nation. Week after week, a nation which normally considers itself fairly safe and well-balanced, was exposed to a monster hiding among them. Finally, in December, the jury returned with their verdict.

Pickton was acquitted of the first-degree murder charges. All six of them. Not to fear, the jurors weren't complete muppets. They found Pickton guilty of six second-degree murder charges, and he was sentenced to six concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years. He is set to rot in jail until he dies. Somewhere, someone is taking bets on a mess hall shanking.

And that brief synopsis brings us to now.

The Crown filed an appeal today, hoping to re-try Pickton in an effort to get the first-degree convictions. They have asserted that Justice James Williams erred in presiding over the case, and that his errors led to the rejection of the first-degree charges.

The notice of appeal filed by the Crown is called a "Crown appeal against acquittal" even though Pickton was found guilty on six counts of second-degree murder. The Crown will argue in the Appeal Court that Pickton should not have been acquitted by the jury on six counts of first-degree murder.

In layman's terms: The judge fucked up, and they want a chance to really nail Pickton to the wall.

Pickton's lawyers are also expected to file appeals this week. They will obviously be trying to keep him out of jail, rather than having him locked away for the rest of his natural life.

Oh, and if you were wondering what happened to the other twenty murder charges… you're not alone. As of this writing, there are no firm plans to try Robert Pickton for the other murders to which he has been linked. He is already going to jail, and his chances of ever walking free are on par with my Oilers' chances of winning the Stanley Cup this year. It has been suggested, at least on talk radio and in lunch rooms, that the cost and effort of additional trials would be better used to assist the people Pickton preyed on for years, the desperate women of downtown Vancouver. Right now, the focus remains on the current trial and what will no doubt be a lengthy appeals process.

Rest assured I'll be back with updates as the story progresses.

FreakPirate really hates talking in the third person, but desperately wanted to put some italics at the end of this story. I hope you've enjoyed hearing about Canada and I'd love to hear your responses and criticisms.

Oh, and I still eat Canadian pork.

punk

NEWSWIRE

Phoenix, AZ

JAN 08, 2008 09:01 PM

All I want to say is that I'm a big fan of Canadian bacon.

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH

February 2007

JAN 08, 2008 09:06 PM

i have no clue how Canadian law works, but wouldn't a conviction of six murders put him away for multiple life sentences? I know it would appeal to the family of the other 20 victims, to put them at ease, but i can kind of see why they are just concentrating on the six.