Pickton won't face all 26 murder charges in trial next year David Carrigg The Province; with files from Canadian Press Thursday, August 10, 2006 Families of Robert Pickton's alleged victims are angry and confused after learning yesterday that he won't face all 26 murder charges when he goes to trial in January. Six charges have been severed from the rest. There was no word on which group would be dealt with first, or if the larger group would be further split and then dealt with. Yesterday's judicial bombshell caught the victims' families off guard. "It's confusing. We can only pray that they deal with the six girls first and then the other ones after," said Jack Cummer, step-grandfather of Andrea Joesbury. Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey are the severed group of six. B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled yesterday that pursuing all 26 charges at once would put "an unreasonable burden on a jury because the trial would go on for too long and involve too much evidence." "The proper exercise of my discretion to maximize the likelihood that this trial will proceed properly to verdict without mistrial makes necessary an order for severance." Williams said he selected the six because "the evidence in support of those counts is materially different than that with respect to the others. One trial will proceed on those six counts; the balance will be tried separately." Crown counsel spokesman Geoffrey Gaul said the next step has not been established. "Which should go first?" he asked. "Should we go to trial with those six counts or should we look at the other 20 and should we proceed on those 20 or should we proceed on a number of those 20? "Those are discretionary calls that the prosecution will make." Gaul said Pickton still faces 26 counts of first-degree murder. Testimony is scheduled to begin in January, with a jury to be selected by the end of this year. Cummer, who last spoke to his stepgranddaughter a week before she was last seen in the summer of 2001, said if Pickton is found guilty of six killings, and not 26, then justice will be done because he will be jailed for life. "There will never be closure for the families. You either move away or you die," said Cummer, adding he will not attend the trial because he doesn't want to hear the Crown's allegations. Cummer said Joesbury told him she was moving back to Vancouver Island the week she disappeared, having completed a methadone program. She told him she was going to a party that night, and that was the last he heard from her. Lillian Beaudoin, sister of Diane Rock, who is included in the larger group of alleged victims, said she wasn't aware there was a move to separate some of the charges. She wondered when her family might see justice for the killing of her sister. "How much longer do we have to wait?" she asked. "She was the third charge against him. My mother's going to be really upset. This is not good news. I don't know what to say, I really don't. I'm quite upset." Pickton defence lawyer Adrian Brooks confirmed it is up to the Crown to decide how to proceed. But he noted that going ahead with anything other than the six counts the judge singled out in his ruling would lead to the same problem the judge was trying to avoid -- an overburdened jury. The defence said earlier it could take two years to try Pickton on the 26 counts. Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie said such a long trial "gives rise to some very serious issues about a jury." Pickton has elected trial by a jury, though he had the option of a trial by a judge alone. Pickton was arrested in February 2002 after police descended on his Port Coquitlam property. The women he is accused of killing all lived in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside. dcarrigg@png.canwest.com SEVERED 1. Georgina Papin: Born March 11, 1964. Last seen March 2, 1999, and reported missing March 14, 2001. 2. Brenda Wolfe: Born Oct. 20, 1968. Last seen Feb. 1, 1999, and reported missing April 25, 2000. 3. Andrea Joesbury: Born Nov. 6, 1978. Last seen June 6, 2001, and reported missing two days later. 4. Sereena Abotsway: Born Aug. 20, 1971. Last seen Aug. 1, 2001, and reported missing Aug. 22, 2001. 5. Mona Wilson: Born Jan. 13, 1975. Last seen Nov. 23, 2001, and reported missing Nov. 30, 2001. 6. Marnie Frey: Born August 1973. Disappeared in Vancouver in 1997. TIMELINE - 1991: Relatives of a growing list of missing women, along with advocates for sex-trade workers, press for a tougher police investigation. - Sept. 1998: Vancouver police set up team to review files of as many as 40 women missing as far back as 1971. - Sept. 2001: Police and RCMP form joint task force. - Feb. 5, 2002: RCMP officers enter property in Port Coquitlam on firearms warrant. - Feb. 6, 2002: Task force uses warrant to begin searching pr

Islam is the name of a way of life which the Creator wants us to follow. We avoid the word religion because in many non-Islamic societies, there is a separation of "religion and state." This separation is not recognized at all in Islam: the Creator is very much concerned with all that we do, including the political, social, economic, and other aspects of our society. Hence, Islam is a complete way of life. The source of Islam is Allah, the Creator of everything known and unknown to us. He is One, and He is Unique. Allah has taught us about Islam via two mediums: the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Both the Qur'an and Sunnah were transmitted to us, humanity, via the Messenger of Allah: Muhammad bin Abdullah, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him (saas). The Messenger of Allah was nothing more and nothing less than a mortal messenger of the immortal Creator. The Qur'an is a book containing the literal Word of Allah. It was transmitted from Allah to an angel of His (Gabriel), and from the angel to the Messenger of Allah who delivered it to us. The Qur'an covers a wide variety of topics, including evidence to support its claim of being the Word of the Creator, stories of earlier generations, rules which humanity is asked to obey, and information about the Hereafter. The Qur'an claims that it is protected from change by other than Allah, and this is confirmed by its 1400 year history. The earliest copies and the latest copies are the same. The Sunnah is the term used to describe how the Messenger of Allah (saas) lived his life. The Messenger's life is an example for all Muslims, or those who accept Islam, to follow. Whatever the Messenger (saas) did, said, or approved of is a source of Islam just as much as the Qur'an. The Messenger's role is not overemphasized: his life was dictated by what the Creator desired, and the Messenger did not add or subtract to Islam according to his own personal whim. His life was such that his wife called him "a walking Qur'an." The Qur'an and Sunnah are the only two mediums by which Allah has directly taught us about Islam. This leads us to the following simple but critical principle: If any man or woman engages in a belief or action which clearly contradicts the Qur'an or Sunnah, then that belief or action cannot be thought of as `Islamic'. This rule applies whether the man or woman is Muslim or non-Muslim. Hence, we cannot equate Islam and the Muslims. Islam is the way of life; Muslims are people who claim to follow that way of life. A Muslim may claim to follow Islam, but be wrong. In the context of misconceptions, we can restate the above principle in a slightly different way: Some misconceptions about Islam are due to the wrong beliefs and actions of Muslims, and others are due to a significant lack of understanding and false stereotyping by non-Muslims. Several misconceptions are listed below. Instead of simply stating the misconception by itself, we have also included some reasons why people might adopt that misconception. Therefore, each entry in the list is given in the following form: because: etc. After each misconception and its possible reasons, we show briefly why the misconception is false by showing one or more of three possibilities: a reason is false the reason does not logically lead to the misconception a key piece of information is being ignored Our answers to the misconceptions are drawn from the Qur'an and Sunnah. All other approaches are insufficient: Islam is a way of life which is very firmly based on a scholarly approach, an approach which is based on knowledge. Misconception 1 Islam is `the religion of peace' because: the Arabic word Islam is derived from the Arabic word "Al-Salaam" which means peace. It might seem strange to think of this as a misconception, but in fact it is. The root word of Islam is "al-silm" which means "submission" or "surrender." It is understood to mean "submission to Allah." In spite of whatever noble intention has caused many a Muslim to claim that Islam is derived primarily from peace, this is not true. Allah says in the Qur'an (translated): [2:136] Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and that which was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have surrendered. [Arabic "Muslimoon"] A secondary root of Islam may be "Al-Salaam" (peace), however the text of the Qur'an makes it clear that Allah has clearly intended the focus of this way of life to be submission to Him. This entails submission to Him at all times, in times of peace, war, ease, or difficulty. Misconception 2 In Islam, denial of human rights is OK because: Islam is against pure democracy Islam tolerates slavery The misconception does n