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Gratl, acting for “affected Downtown Eastside individuals,” also cited claims of rude and racist behaviour by Vancouver Police Department missing persons clerk Sandy Cameron.

The inquiry has heard that Cameron, who will testify next year, could be curt and dismissive to families of missing women, especially those who appeared to her to be “marginalized” or of First Nations descent.

In 1997, Cameron rebuffed Dorothy Purcell, the mother of Tanya Holyk — who was later confirmed as a murder victim of Robert Pickton — by saying that her daughter wouldn’t be missing if she had been a better parent.

Some Vancouver police officers complained Cameron made racist remarks to and about First Nations people.

The inquiry is investigating why it took Vancouver police and RCMP until 2002 to catch Pickton when they were receiving detailed tips as far back as 1998.

Pickton, 62, is serving a life sentence for the murders of six women. He initially was charged with killing 20 more but those charges were stayed in 2010.

The serial killer has been linked by DNA to the deaths of 33 women and has boasted to an undercover police officer that he killed at least 16 more.

Police officers must swear an oath to act “without favour or malice” but civilian staff are covered only by work site policy, LePard said.

Gratl noted that such policy wouldn’t help people who approached Vancouver police looking for help in finding missing loved ones.