And so it's finally over. So many years after they went missing, were murdered by a monster, and all but traces of them destroyed.
The police have apologized, again, for not catching the killer sooner.
And an inquiry has told us what we already knew.
The police failed the women, because they were biased.
"The women were poor, they were addicted, vulnerable, aboriginal. They did not receive equal treatment by police."
But society must share the blame.
"I have found that the missing and murdered women were forsaken twice: once by society at large and again by the police," Oppal wrote. "What we're here to discuss is a tragedy of epic proportions.
"Even though Pickton is in jail, the violence against women in the Downtown Eastside and other areas of this province continues. It's time to end this violence," he said. "It's the inequality and the poverty that breeds the type of violence we're talking about here," he said.
And although some in the MSM are calling the inquiry a waste of time and money, and others are calling it flawed, I'm glad it was held even if we didn't learn anything new.
Because those poor marginalized women were ignored for so long they deserve every last word and more. And as far as I'm concerned Canadians can't hear their story enough times.
For as I wrote almost six years ago in a post about one of the murdered women, the beautiful and gentle Sarah de Vries, the other horror was the indifference.
And it still horrifies me. How something like that could happen in Canada. How so many women could go missing, and so few people care.
But at least now their story has now been officially recorded, so they won't be as forgotten in death as they were in life. And hopefully it will help heal the pain of those who loved them, and lead to action.
So some good can come from this monstrous and shameful Canadian tragedy.
So Sarah de Vries' diary of despair doesn't haunt me forever.
"Will they remember me when I'm gone...or will their lives just carry on? Will the tears fall from their eyes? When they try to say their goodbyes..."
So it never happens again...
Vote here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers
And harper's response was to cut funding for Sisters in Spirit and gave the missing women database to the sexist cretins at the RCMP.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting.
All the crocodile tears from these enabling psychopaths.
Sickening.
hi thwap...yes it was a horror show from beginning to end. And let's not forget that the Cons tried to kill the Insite clinic, which in my opinion is tantamount to murder. As you say enabling psychopaths all of them...
DeleteThanks for remembering our lost and murdered women, Simon..here in BC we hold annual ceremonies to remember the Montreal Massacre of women..it's nice to know that somewhere out there in Canada, there is an acknowledgement of these lost lives..
ReplyDeleteBut our horrors continue, in the interior, on the Highway of Tears, where still more women, murdered and missing, are lost to us and no perpetrator found..
The fact that these women are mostly First Nations seems to add to the indifference to their plight..
we must keep their feet to the fire.
Thank You
WendiG
hi Wendi...A few years ago I spent a few months in Vancouver, studying the delivery of frontline medical services in the Downtown Eastside for a project in Montreal. And I never forgot the people I met there. So when I think of what happened it absolutely horrifies me. As I said in the post I'm hoping that the inquiry will do some good, and that places like the Highway of Tears can be made safer for women. But of course the real progress will come when the racists are beaten, and native women and others are treated like human beings. For I met some fine ones there....
Delete