A friend of the woman who fell to her death Friday from a sixth-floor room at the Regent Hotel plans to start a petition to require Downtown Eastside hotel owners install safety bars outside windows.
Sharon Hall said the death of her friend Verna Simard, 50, might have been prevented had the single-room occupancy hotel on East Hastings had bars outside the window of her room.
We need to protect our people, said Hall, who stopped outside the Regent Monday to pay her respects at a memorial for Simard, a former waitress in local bars. This is just heartbreaking for me.
Police have not concluded whether Simard was murdered, committed suicide or was the victim of an accident. Investigators interviewed Simards long-time boyfriend, who was in the hotel room when Simard fell.
Hall left the memorial in tears and planned to visit the Aboriginal Front Door Society near Main and Hastings to get help with starting a petition.
She would have to deliver the petition to city council, where Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang said he would have city staff review the request and see what was feasible to make single-room occupancy hotels safer.
I honestly dont know what you could do, he said, noting installing bars might present a fire code problem. These are the problems with these old buildings.
The Courier visited the Regent Monday, where the front desk clerk referred inquiries to owner Paul Singh. The clerk provided the Courier with a pager number for Singh that was no longer in service.
Halls call for safety bars comes one year after Ashley Machiskinic, 22, fell to her death Sept. 15, 2010 from a room at the back of the Regent.
Police are still unable to conclude whether Machiskinics death was a homicide, a suicide or an accident, although many in the community believe she was murdered.
Mona Woodward, executive director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, was a cousin to Machiskinic and attended a memorial Sept.15 in the alley behind the hotel to remember her relative. Members of the police department also attended, she said.
Woodward said people with information about Machiskinics death that could help police solve the case fear retribution from the person or persons responsible.
Im very familiar with the people that access the drop-in centre and Im in good communication with them and I hear things and I see things, she said. But its really difficult to break that code of silence.
Last week, the Vancouver Police Board renewed a $10,000 reward for information regarding Machiskinics death.
Im very happy about [the reward] but Im not hopeful that itll yield anything because the longer the time goes by, people forget details, Woodward added.
When the VPD announced the reward in November 2010, the department set up a telephone tip line for people wanting to report crimes against women in the Downtown Eastside, including any information related to Machiskinics death.
The tip line is part of the VPDs so-called Sisterwatch program, which aims to combat violence against women in the Downtown Eastside.
The program has included regular town hall meetings with residents hosted by Police Chief Jim Chu and several police officers who work in the Downtown Eastside and in the departments sex crimes unit.
Woodward had a hand in helping create the program which she says has helped improve relations between the police and female residents, particularly those from the aboriginal community.
The VPDs Sisterwatch tip line is 604-215-4777.
mhowell@vancourier.com
Twitter: @Howellings
