How media and government
fail to provide the answers

Mercedes Deutscher

 

For her safety, Perrier dyed her hair and lightened her skin to
pass as non-indigenous, as she recalled that indigenous women
were paid minimally and treated poorly.

Perrier made it out alive, a fate that was not awarded to so
many other girls. She now advocates for more police patrolling
around the lake, where this trafficking is still suspected to occur.
Up until recently, these reports were dismissed by the local police
as little more than a myth.

“First Nations girls are targeted and my biggest concern
is that there are bull’s eyes put on them and no one is doing
anything,’ Perrier said to CBC.

Why so often do the media, police, and government disregard
these cases—or worse, use the circumstances to blame the victim?
In my research, I experienced difficulty finding current statistics
on the violence against the women, but it was easy for me to find
information that painted them as irresponsible women with high-
risk lifestyles.

Women, or anyone for that matter, do not deserve to die or
to suffer because they are addicts or prostitutes, nor because they
belong to a traditionally marginalized population. We need to
work to stop the victimization of these women, but we have to
overcome sexist and racist preconceptions that some lives are less
valuable than others. The police and the public sector need to look
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What if these women had access to services such as
counselling, rehabilitation programs, or safe houses? What if
that struggling teenager had better support to finish school? How
many of these women could we have saved? How can we prioritize
solving the mysteries surrounding these women when they are so
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Shortly after the announcement of the federal government’s
inquiry, CBC created profiles of 252 missing and murdered women.
For many of the cases, this was its first exposure in the media. Yet,
even with CBC putting their best effort into portraying the women’s

stories, there were many cases where there were no known details

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a photo of the victim could be found, portraying her as little more

than a statistic.

Even within the current Liberal government, which
campaigned on a promise of an inquiry, I question how much
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and her ministry is
doing for these women and their families. Mid-November saw a
lot of media attention to the announcement of Bennett’s inquiry,
which centres on reconciliation and family at its core.

“The more I listen to families, the more I understand they have
many instincts and much knowledge about the way we go forward
in order to get this right,” Bennett said in a November conference,
as reported by CBC.

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on it since. It could be that, over the past two months, investigators
have been taking lots of time to speak with families and to put
together pieces. But why not even an update?

The complicated mystery of these missing and murdered
women has remained unanswered for far too long. So, how do we,
as a Canadian society, make up for the injustices faced by over a
thousand of our own women? Although we cannot bring back the
deceased, we can ease the burden for their loved ones and still save
the some of the missing.

We need to listen to the stories told by the victims—like
Bridget Perrier— and their families, rather than disregarding
them. We need to detect the common themes, like the high
occurrences in BC and among sex workers, and question why they
exist. We need to recognize the stereotyping that occurs toward
the aboriginal community that allows over 1,000 missing and
murdered women to be ignored. Then, and only then, can we begin
to move forward and heal.

The 26th Annual Feb 14th Women’s Memorial March starts at
noon from the Carnegie Centre in Vancouver (Main and Hastings)

News Editor