Missing and Murdered
By: Rachel. W
Imagine yourself making a routine trip to the grocery store or even going to a friends house. You probably didn’t think about the likelihood of not making it back home, did you? For many people of indigenous descent this is a constant thought. More than 1,200 indigenous women have “disappeared” over recent years. The majority of these missing persons cases have unfortunately, become murdered or homicide cases and, many are unresolved or have no current or past investigation of any sort. Hate crimes against indigenous people have gone on for years with no real resolution in sight. Although an inquest was started on this topic, it has not been very successful as people involved reach a certain point and, then seemingly give up. I feel that in many cases hate crimes go unresolved due to racism towards people of indigenous descent and, investigators seem to inadequately use their resources. Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada has the highest rate indigenous hate crime across Canada. Most of the victims of these crimes had things thrown at them from passing cars. Also a location in British Columbia Canada, that is known for all of the indigenous women who disappear from and, are often later found dead along the same route. This route is known a The Highway of Tears or otherwise known as highway 16. This highway has warning signs when entering the stretch of highway to inform drivers about all of the women who have gone missing on the highway. The signs also urges girls not to hitchhike on this route due to the number of missing and murder cases linked to this highway. It is believed that highway 16 is the location for more than 50 missing murdered cases.
How can we let so many people get mentally and physically attacked? Why aren’t more of these cases being solved? Will justice be served for the families of the victims? And, why are these cases going unnoticed? These are just some of the many questions that come to mind when discussing this topic. I can’t help but think that the circumstances would be different for people of white skin. All victims of these crimes are innocent and deserve way better circumstances than what they are given. I honestly believe that if the majority of victims of these hate crimes were white then, they would would all have been looked into if not solved. In fact I personally think that the victim count would be less than half. Another thing to consider is, no thanks to the “Indian Act” the english came and took this land from the indigenous community. The english also later took their (indigenous) children and tortured and forced a new language on them.
So I leave you with the following questions; Haven’t the indigenous communities lost enough? Why do people continue to get away with all this hate? How many more people have to die before something actually gets done? What if this was your family or community?
References
Car mirror - Highway of Tears: A Review. (2015, May 07). Retrieved from http://www.thefeministwire.com/2015/05/highway-of-tears-a-review/
sign- I. (2009, October 15). Highway of Tears. Retrieved from http://flickr.com/photos/40907779@N04/4014056201
stats- Kameir, R. (n.d.). Canada's Highway of Tears and the Women We Forgot. Retrieved from http://gawker.com/canadas-highway-of-tears-and-the-women-we-forgot-1579002464
Missing women -Trumpener, B. (2016, October 24). RCMP say Highway of Tears killers may never be caught. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/rcmp-say-mmiw-highway-of-tearsmissing-and-murdered-women-cases-may-never-be-solved-1.3805609
Slide-hwy16-03.jpg. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.highwayoftears.ca/
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