
UPDATE 2:25 p.m.
Cynthia Cardinal says she was "overwhelmed" with happiness when she received a text message on Monday with the news that serial killer Robert Pickton, who murdered her sister Georgina Papin, was in a life-threatening condition after being attacked in prison.
She calls it "karma."
The text came from a cousin of Tanya Holyk, another missing woman whose DNA was found at Pickton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
“I don't think anybody that evil should be walking on Earth, as far as I'm concerned,” Cardinal said on Tuesday. “I have happy tears. Very happy tears.”
Correctional Service Canada confirmed Tuesday that the B.C. serial killer was the inmate injured in a "major assault" Sunday at a Quebec prison.
Quebec provincial police said that 74-year-old Pickton was taken to hospital with injuries that were considered life-threatening.
Police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu added that a 51-year-old suspect was in custody.
Federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he was informed late Sunday and his thoughts immediately turned to the families of Pickton's victims in British Columbia as well as the officers at the Quebec correctional facility.
LeBlanc called Pickton "one of the most dangerous criminals in the country” but said he could provide no further details about the incident or Pickton's condition available due to privacy laws. The minister did not name Pickton, but responded when asked about him.
"When we think about the inmate who was assaulted, when we say his name, we think about the victims, about the families," LeBlanc said in French, adding Correctional Service Canada has a process in place to review such circumstances.
"One of the primary concerns I have obviously is around the security of these institutions and the men and women who work in these prisons," he said in English.
ORIGINAL 9:35 a.m.
Correctional Service Canada has confirmed that B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton was the inmate injured in a major assault Sunday at a Quebec prison.
Quebec provincial police said Tuesday that 74-year-old Pickton was taken to hospital with injuries that were considered life-threatening.
Police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu added that a 51-year-old suspect was in custody.
Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2007, with the maximum parole ineligibility period of 25 years, after being charged with the murders of 26 women.
The remains or DNA of 33 women, many who were taken from the Downtown Eastside, were found on Pickton’s pig farm in Port Coquitlam, and he once bragged to an undercover police officer that he killed a total of 49.
Pickton's confirmed victims were Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
At the time of Pickton’s sentencing, B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams said it was a “rare case that properly warrants the maximum period of parole ineligibility available to the court.”
The correctional service first announced on Monday that an inmate had been sent to hospital after a serious assault at the maximum security Port-Cartier Institution, about 480 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
It said Tuesday the assault did not involve any of its staff.
Police began searching the Pickton farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam more than 22 years ago in what would be a years-long investigation into the disappearances of dozens of women, many of them from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver police were criticized for not taking the cases seriously because many of the missing were sex workers or drug users.
Pickton became eligible for day parole in February, which sparked outrage from advocates, politicians and victims' family members who criticized Canada's justice system, saying he should never be released from prison.