Lost In Translation

The first witness to take the stand today was Chi Sing Leung, who through a translator, told the court that he was a maintenance man and hotel doorman at The Roosevelt, a seedy hotel at 166 East Hastings. He started working there in 1992 or 1993, when one of the victims, Andrea Joesbury, was living there. He spoke of a conversation with Andrea in which she told him she was going out to Port Coquitlam and that she had no money. Their brief 15-second conversation would be the last time he was to ever see or talk to her.

The language barrier clearly drove the defence team crazy; the witness would answer questions that were not questions, and at one point when asked if the sheets before him were sheets from the hotel log, he answered "If pages missing, no my fault, I give all sheets to police." There was frustrated laughter by all.

He was shown a photo of Dinah Taylor and asked if she also lived at the hotel. He answered affirmatively. He stated the residents of the hotel were a very transient population. Mr.Leung estimated 60% of the females were engaged in the sex trade and 199% of the residents had drug issues.

During his testimony he was asked about the phone that is in the hotel office.

In all of the Single Resident Occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside, none as far as I know, except for the apartments on the top floor of the Balmoral, have phones in their suites. So, it is quite often that residents ask to use the phone. Most get a "No."

In the Roosevelt Hotel, we were only allowed to use the phone if it was to call police, ambulance or a social worker.