The 56 year old stood quietly in a bullet-resistant prisoner's box as lawyers began technical arguments over evidence.
Security for the highly anticipated trial is so tight that spectators and journalists remained outside of the courtroom when it began, waiting in lines to pass through metal detectors, before being allowed in.
The defendant arrived from jail in a convoy of sheriff's vehicles and was escorted into the court from a secure underground parking lot.
Mr Pickton was arrested four years ago at his family's pig farm in Port Coquitlam, 35 kilometers east of Vancouver, where he raised and butchered pigs for a living.
He was an early suspect in the disappearance of more than 60 women, all of whom vanished from Vancouver's squalid Downtown Eastside.
The area is Canada's most impoverished neighbourhood, a place where drug dealers and sex trade workers sell their wares on the sidewalks.
The crimes received little attention until 2001 when a special police task force was formed to solve the disappearances amid a growing public clamour over police and government neglect in the matter.
The investigation, which had at times involved more than 100 police and forensic scientists, uncovered the personal effects and remains of 31 women on the property.
Health authorities have issued a public warning that pig meat sold by Mr Pickton may have been contaminated by human remains.
Media blackout
The judge imposed a media blackout on the first part of the trial during which prosecutors and the defence team will argue over what evidence can be admitted in court.
At this stage of the trial judges routinely impose bans so that potential jury members will not hear details before the trial.
"We do not want to have evidence known to a jury poll that hasn’t met the scrutiny of the courts," Stan Lowe, spokesman for government prosecutors said.
The public portion of the trial is expected to begin in September.
Mr Pickton has not indicated whether he will choose a trial by judge and jury, or judge alone.
Police are still investigating Mr Pickton for the disappearances of 20 women who remain missing.