VANCOUVER — Vancouver city officials say they would be willing to finish installing a Living Stones Memorial Project in memory of Robert Pickton’s victims — if the families approve — after the original organizer announced he planned to fold the non-profit society he created for the project.
Sean Kirkham, a director with the Canadian Foundation for Creative Development and Innovation, emailed the victims’ families this week, saying “recent events in my life have led me to dissolve the society” and asked for volunteers to carry the project through.
Kirkham is grappling with legal troubles, and even some of the victims’ families are wondering about the project.
Only four plaques have been laid for the 26 women murdered or believed to have been murdered by the Coquitlam pig farmer, as well as 36 others whose bodies have never been found, since the program was launched last October.
Pickton was charged with killing 26 women and was convicted in 2007 of six murders. The other charges were stayed.
The bronze plaques, which were intended to be placed at various locations where the women lived or were last seen, bear a woman’s name, date of birth and the word “murdered” or “missing.”
According to the project’s website, Carrie Kerr, sister of victim Helen Mae Hallmark, has taken over the project, and would be liaising with the city to get it done “in a timely manner.”
The handover comes months after Jacqui Cohen’s Face the World Foundation launched a small claims lawsuit against Kirkham in B.C. provincial court, claiming Kirkham owed the foundation $20,000.
The foundation claims Kirkham had agreed to buy three tickets to the Face the World Foundation Gala, which occurred on June 8, and wrote the organization a $6,000 cheque in the name of the Canadian Foundation for Creative Development and Innovation. Kirkham, along with two guests, attended the gala, where he allegedly bid $14,000 on a vacation package, including a one-week trip to Belize. He won and went on the trip.
The foundation claims Kirkham failed to pay for the trip, and the cheque for the vacation package bounced because of insufficient funds. Counsel for the foundation in June issued a letter to Kirkham demanding payment.
Kirkham said he issued a certified personal cheque in the full amount, but the foundation said no form of payment has been received.
Kirkham said Friday he has not been served the small-claims notice and wouldn’t comment on it.
But he insisted he didn’t ask for any money for his society, except for a $7,000 city grant for a mural project, and has paid to keep the society alive out of his own pocket.
Some parents of victims say they’re not sure they want to go ahead with the project anymore. Marilyn Renter, stepmother of murder victim Cindy Feliks, said she always believed the plaques would be installed, mainly because the first four saw so much fanfare.
B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix and Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu attended those ceremonies.
Rick Frey, father of victim Marnie Frey, whose plaque has been installed outside the Balmoral Hotel, said he would also rather not have it in the ground with “people walking over it and spitting on” a plaque for his daughter.
“I don’t think we really want her to be down there. It’s very nice the plaque was done and everything but I don’t think we want that plaque to be put there,” he said.
