The "Highway of Tears" are three connected roadways stretching 750km across British Columbia, from Prince George to Prince Rupert. It is the area where 18 aboriginal women have been found murdered, or are suspected to be missing.Sounds like the opener to a spooky new serial killer movie or novel…
Since the discovery of Maas's body, the media have fixated on the fact that Maas was a sex worker, rather than giving voice to the family and friends mourning her loss.Even more like a plot for a serial killer dramatisation. After all, who are the usual victims of predators?
The vulnerable, of course…
RCMP Staff Sgt Bruce Hulan, who is a member of E-Pana (the taskforce assigned to investigate the missing and murdered women), described the victims as being involved in high-risk activities: "hitchhiking or [involved in] street trade [prostitution]." The continued mention of supposedly "high-risk" behaviour, by both the police and the media, is enough to cause the public to disregard what is happening to these women.Really? I find that hard to believe. The hunt for the Ipswich killer was no less a huge manhunt, even though the victims were, as here, prostitutes.
The Highway of Tears demonstrates our failure to stem the tide of violence that aboriginal women face.Does it? So, what does Ipswich represent for us, then?
Ellen Gabriel, the former president of the Quebec native women's association, is quoted by Amnesty International as saying that "there is no such thing as an isolated act of violence against aboriginal women. Every attack takes place in a context of a long history of prejudice, discrimination and marginalisation that has denied aboriginal women full equality in Canadian society".Oh, wait, I see where this is going...
How many women must go missing and how many women must be returned to their families dead before Canada starts to realise that violence against indigenous women is not only a crime, but a reflection of Canada's refusal to repudiate its colonial history?So says Renee Martin (a ‘critical anti-racist, feminist blogger and freelancer’, according to her CiF bio). Because predatory serial killers are completely unknown in countries that have had no colonial history, I suppose?
Still, we should be thankful that artists are on the case:
Métis artist Jaime Black is working hard to raise awareness around the crises of missing and murdered women with the REDress Project. The terrifying statistics have caused her to move from a history of political cartooning and teaching to directly interacting with the public. In the installations that she has organised, red dresses are hung to symbolise the lives of these women. "They … have kind of a ghostly presence, so it feels as though my room is filled with people who are no longer here", she said to CBC news.I'm sure that'll be almost as effective in catching a killer as 'repudiating Canada's colonial history'....
Thank God for 'The Artists'. Another bunch of people who, in reality, want the 'problem' - whatever it is to continue. Without 'the problem' they have no legitimacy or purpose.
ReplyDeleteWell yeah, but what why did those Aborigines go from Australia to Canada in the first place?
ReplyDeleteI must have missed something. Has it been established that this is a case involving a pervert preying specifically on Aboriginal, Inuit, First Nations or Metis women? I take it that it was nothing to do with them being an easy target as lone women or in some other way vulnerable in circumstances where they were easy prey for a violent, sadistic or otherwise generally perverted predatory male - If the former is the case it is, indeed most unusual. I assume the RCMP have established that the perpetrator is male because of the analysis of samples from the crime scene/victim. I will keep an eye on this one as it could turn out to be one of the most unusual criminal cases. Poor victims. Lets hope they are not forgotten in the search for the reason.
ReplyDelete'repudiating' means 'needs support' which then means 'needs compensation'.
ReplyDeleteBut... what happens if the bad person is another aboriginal?
ReplyDeleteWhich brave artist will create a street sculpture (registered trade mark of non-creativity) to depict the horrors of one abo doing something to another abo?
Which exciting controversial playwright will put on a street theatre production (registered trade mark of idiocy) that shows, er, people the world over more or less do the same and in fact, were doing things much like this even before nasty old whitey came along?
Which groundbreaking urban poet (registered trademark of misuse of language) will pen an ode to the non-white victim who attacks other non-white victims but, shock horror, turns out to be in fact not any sort of victim at all, but a nasty minded bit of scum all on his own?
I think the artists of the world need to unite.
"Another bunch of people who, in reality, want the 'problem' - whatever it is to continue. Without 'the problem' they have no legitimacy or purpose."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
"...why did those Aborigines go from Australia to Canada in the first place?"
They were misinfomed..? ;)
"I must have missed something. Has it been established that this is a case involving a pervert preying specifically on Aboriginal, Inuit, First Nations or Metis women? "
Nothing in the article states that it is, and I can't see anything else on the web about it.
Which throws up a problem, since serial killers usually stick to their own race. Or so 'Criminal Minds' tells us...
"...but, shock horror, turns out to be in fact not any sort of victim at all, but a nasty minded bit of scum all on his own?"
Should that happen, I've no doubt at all that these very same people will either vanish without trace, or declare HIM (or her) a 'victim' of colonialism too...
That swine Wadsworth got in first, but may I suggest that perhaps they had a word with Thor Heyerdahl, and were going for the round trip record?
ReplyDeleteJuliaM: You've just come up with a new plea in mitigation: "I was mistaken your honour, I thought she was just a woman".
ReplyDelete