Wijayakoon said he understands where Lambert and the others are coming from. He wants them all to know his teams are doing their best and that race has nothing to do with their decisions.
“I know the history the Indigenous community has had with the police. I know how hurting the families are, and I understand why that aunt would think that way,” he said. “I can assure her that nobody in my section, nobody in the Dawson Creek RCMP, feels like that.”
The bottom line, Wijayakoon said, is homicide investigations are very complex, and they take time.
“For me and my teams, the goal isn’t arrests. It really is arrests, laying charges and then convictions.”
For the first time, Wijayakoon offered a public timeline. Within the next six months, he predicts the RCMP will have “some level of success” for “some of the families.”
Another sign of hope in Dawson Creek: violent crime has started to trend downward. It’s a trend Cole Hosack’s mother, Julie Hosack, hopes will continue.
“I don’t want Cole to be forgotten. I also don’t want anybody else to be forgotten. Not Renee, not Darylyn, and not the other people that have gone missing or the people that have been murdered.”
She hopes a safer Dawson Creek will be their legacy.
“I would like it if this helped the town so that someone else going through town doesn’t disappear.”