EDMONTON - The trial of an Edmonton man accused of murdering two prostitutes begins Tuesday, but already advocates for women who work the Alberta capital's streets are calling the proceedings against Thomas Svekla a victory.

"We're really happy to see charges get laid,'' said JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton vice officer who now works with prostitutes.

"Not a lot of these kind of cases get solved. If he's not guilty then certainly we don't want a conviction, but if he is guilty we certainly want to see someone held accountable for that.''

Svekla, 39, is facing murder charges in the deaths of Rachel Quinney, 19, and Theresa Innes, 36. It was Svekla himself who directed police to Quinney's body in 2004; Innes's plastic-wrapped body was found inside a hockey bag in the back of Svekla's truck two years later.

Police say he is a suspect in six other deaths and two other disappearances of women involved in the sex trade.

His trial will be a defining moment for Project Kare, a massive RCMP investigation that has been working since the fall of 2003 to close dozens of unsolved murder and missing persons cases, some dating back decades, involving people with high-risk lifestyles.

The investigation has about 35 Edmonton-area missing persons files and 18 unsolved killings of prostitutes. Since 1988, the bodies of eight women have been found east of Edmonton and police have said that they suspect a serial killer is responsible for at least some of the murders.

Just this past weekend, RCMP said two more women who were last seen three years ago have been added to the missing list.

Whatever the trial's outcome, McCartney said the publicity around the investigation and charges has gone a long way toward raising public awareness about the violence that accompanies life on the streets.

"Ever since Project Kare came into being, it put it more into the forefront that it's a legitimate issue, that these women are being hurt and going missing and being murdered,'' she said. "It made it a more acceptable topic of conversation.

"And you have to talk about it. You can't just say, `It's those women' and kind of write things off.''

Both of Svekla's alleged victims were aboriginal prostitutes, a group that Muriel Stanley Venne of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women says is the most vulnerable of all.

"There is an underlying, insidious hatred toward aboriginal women,'' she said. "We have been -- and are -- extremely concerned about the deaths of the women. It is very hard to take. These are our sisters and cousins. These are people that we know or know of.''

For a few years, it seemed that melting snow every spring revealed more bodies of murdered aboriginal women, Venne said.

"I hated the spring.''

Venne said resources are still thin as people try to help women get off the streets, and the results are seen in the courts.

"Police have ended up with a serious, serious societal problem. They're now having to deal with the murders of the women.

"It's not the police that do it, but it's the whole attitude toward aboriginal women.''

Meanwhile, life on Edmonton's streets continues. The women McCartney tries to help know the trial is going on, but most have more pressing issues in their lives than following the tangles of the justice system.

"They're aware that the trial is happening. But addictions is such big thing for those women, it's hard for them to know that it's Tuesday.''