The Highway of Tears
Highway of Tears (definition from wikipedia.com):
An unsolved series of murders and disappearances of young women in the vicinity of Highway 16 has earned the route the nickname the “Highway of Tears”. Since 1988, at least 32 women, 31 of them aboriginal, have been killed or have suspiciously disappeared along the 800-kilometre (500-mile) section of highway between Prince George to Prince Rupert. These crimes have remained largely uninvestigated.
As the result of a symposium held in Prince George in March 2006, aboriginal Canadians along the route are advocating better rural bus service that would help reduce the number of young native women hitchhiking. In addition, spurred on by native leaders, the RCMP is officially investigating the unsolved murder or disappearance of nine women between the ages of 14 and 25 since 1974, most of whom were hitchhiking along Highway 16.
With so many missing women you would think that the RCMP would have started looking for information about the mysterious disaperances along time ago. It took many rallies, fights and determined family members to make the police realize that maybe these weren’t just “missing” people. Maybe there were actually some murderers out there preying on these poor, innocent women. The mass majority of the missing women are of aboriginal decent. Which brings up another point, maybe the reason these cases weren’t looked into more is because of the ethnic backgrounds of the victims? Why should they be any less important than any other ethnicity? Many others believe that the women who went missing were “working the streets” at the time of their dissaperances. This still doesn’t make it right for the RCMP to put them on the back burner. They are all humans like us, just have made a few bad decisions in their lives. I heard about the highway of tears, not through the news but through a friend a few years ago. She had been doing a project on murders in BC like the Robert Picton trial and a website came up, http://www.highwayoftears.ca/. It was made by the families of the missing woman. I found it very interesting that our news didn’t say anything about these missing women. Maybe because they didn’t know or maybe for the simple reason that these young girls were aboriginal and possible prostitutes.
I say, what does it matter if we have different skin colours, or have different morals of what is right and whats wrong, every person should have the chance to be treated as an equal. I know that if it were me who had gone missing, I would expect that my local authorities along with my community would do whatever they possibly could to find me!
Child Poverty in Aboriginal Peoples
A report from 2006 from CBC explains how “Aboriginal Children are the poorest in the country”. First Nations people of canada already face poverty, but since their communities are growing so rapidly, more and more children entering schools on and off the Indian reserves are living below the poverty line. The report says “one in four children in First Nations communities lives in poverty”. While in children not of Aboriginal ethnicity the child poverty rate is 1 in 9, still not a good number but much less that what the Aboriginal children face. “With an increasing First Nations and aboriginal population that is both rural and urban, young, vital and rapidly expanding, Canada must address the extremes of poverty that First Nations face on a daily basis. This poverty is systemic and long-standing, and requires concerted action from all levels”. The Canadian government must work with the band leaders of the Indian reserves to help these children live healthy lives. Some of the challenges that these children face day to day include:
- One aboriginal child in eight is disabled, double the rate of all children in Canada.
- Among First Nations children, 43 per cent lack basic dental care.
- Overcrowding among First Nations families is double the rate of that for all Canadian families.
- Mould contaminates almost half of all First Nations households.
- Almost half of aboriginal children under 15 years old residing in urban areas live with a single parent.
- Close to 100 First Nations communities must boil their water.
- Of all off-reserve aboriginal children, 40 per cent live in poverty.
“Now is the time for governments at all levels to collaborate with First Nations governments and aboriginal organizations to ramp up social investments that enable young aboriginals to succeed”. Since most of these childrens parents also came from families living in poverty, it becomes a vicious cycle that none of them are bale to get out of. If enough people have concerns about what these children face day to day, we can work together to help bring it to the governmnet. With our help, these children can break the cycle and live the lives that we were lucky enough to live.
#6 Fighting for Invisible Children
In my Social Justice class I had an assignment where I had to look at children’s rights. We got given a sheet with all of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. It displays what every child in Canada is guaranteed to. It made me realize how lucky I am to be living in a place where I have my own rights, rights to good and free eductaion, no abuse, my own identity and being able to live in a place where I am accepted for who I am.
While I was working on the project, I watched a movie on a group of children in Africa known as ‘Invisible Children’. The movie was filmed by a group of guys who wanted the world to see what the war in Africa was causing and how it wasn’t only affecting the governments, but the families and children living in there as well. The children were considered ‘Invisible” because children in Africa are considered no ones. The government’s keep no records of their existence, therefore when they go missing nobody except the families would know. Having no records also makes it easier for the armies to kidnap the children and turn them into child soldiers. Since most of these kids are working for the army or in hiding, they have no time to go to school. This makes it hard for any of them to get an education and a good job. Without their proper education, none of the children know their rights which then causes them to be ignored and have no voice. Though all of this was very surprising and made me think about what I could do to help, the one thing was a little boy who was interviewed througout the movie named Tony. Tony lived in hiding with his brother and a few other boys in the community. At the end of the movie one of the film guys asked Tony what he wished for and Tony just said for them to come back. He explained how people always come and visit them and try to help them. They always say that they will come back and visit again, but never do. So the answer to the question was for the film crew to come back. All he wanted was for one person to live up to their promise and come back to help them. When I heard what Tony said, it made me want to help as well. I want to help these children get their identities back. With the help of more people, they can have a life that we take for granted. My friends and I have been looking into more ways to help them. I know that I am not the only one who wants to help, especially when I hear of events in my neighbourhood that help them too. Like the walk for Justice in Vancouver. It was a walk where the people rallied and pretended to be kidnapped. They had to be rescued by someone in the government. There are also other things like donating. The link below is a link where you pay $3.00 a week to help the children in Uganda. That is only $12.00 a month, which if you think about it isn’t that much out of your pocket. It’s like going to one movie, but this $12.00 can help save many children. I hope you will feel the same way, if not I recommend watching the Invisible Children and I know your attitude towards the idea will change!
Mexico ‘Hopes of Justice’ Vanish
PRESS RELEASE
March, 27 2009
Mexico: ‘Hopes Of Justice’ Vanish
By their failure to hold those responsible to account for virtually any of the hundreds of disappearances, killings and cases of torture committed during Mexico’s “dirty war” during the 60s, 70s and 80s, the Mexican authorities are effectively condoning the abuses, Amnesty International said today.
The statement came as a Mexican federal court upheld a ruling in favour of Luis Echeverria, a former Mexican President, which found there was insufficient evidence against him to continue his prosecution for genocide in relation to the 1968 massacre of students in Tlateloclo Square, Mexico City.
“The grave human rights violations committed in Mexico’s recent past continue to haunt the present,” said Kerrie Howard, Americas Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “The denial of justice, truth and reparations to the victims is repeated every day as impunity for human rights violations continues to be the greatest obstacle to Mexico establishing credible justice institutions capable of upholding international human rights standards and protecting its citizens.”
The collapse of this latest case is a symptom of the failure of successive Mexican governments and legislatures, as well as the courts and prosecutors, to live up to and deliver on Mexico’s international human rights commitments. The grave crimes of the past do not simply evaporate with the State’s failure to effectively prosecute them, but leave a legacy of impunity and injustice which flourishes in today’s climate of violent crime and insecurity. Mexico will not be able to move forward without addressing its past.
The government of President Calderon has failed to acknowledge or address the legacy of human rights violations. It is time for this to change and for a concerted effort by the powers of state to ensure truth, justice and reparations for the victims and their families.
for more info: http://www.amnestyusa.org/index.html
I found this interesting because it shows how long the human rights violations have gone on for in Mexico. It is not just one thing either, the violations go from womans rights to drug abuse and the mexican troops being sent in. The government doesn’t seem to be helping the problems but making them worse. “The grave crimes of the past do not simply evaporate with the State’s failure to effectively prosecute them, but leave a legacy of impunity and injustice which flourishes in today’s climate of violent crime and insecurity. Mexico will not be able to move forward without addressing its past”. This quote from the above article basically sums it up. It reminds me of George Orwell’s novel “1984″ because they government in the book changed the past so they could make up their own future. If the mexican government does not address the problems of it’s past, they will not be able to solve any problems they have right now because our past makes up our future.
How my beliefs impact others
Every person has different beliefs. Whether they have beliefs in religion or in what life should be like, everyone believes something different. A belief can be of a person, place, thing or idea and people can have more than one. I believe in following your dreams and not letting people get in the way of that. That is a personal belief that no person has forced me to have. My beliefs impact the people around me because by spending more time with people you begin to have similar beliefs and morals. For example having a family. When you are young and free you tend to be less responsible, as soon as you have a family you are responsible for more than just yourself which causes your morals to change. You may have believed something that isn’t appropriate for your new lifestyle. I know that in my family we have very similar beliefs and morals but none of us push them on each other. It is the same with friends. I also think that you tend to hang around the people who have similar thoughts as you so you won’t feel the need to change your own. Personally, I don’t have a problem if one of my friends thinks that what I believe in isn’t right. My beliefs are mine and no person, no matter how important they are to me, can change what I believe in.
how “Homophobia Hurts Everyone”
On February 20, 2009, I attended a Social Justice conference at UCFV with my social justice class. At first I was not looking foward to it since it was a pro – d day but once I got there my opinion changed. The “theme” of the conference was ‘ “Thats so Gay” is not okay’. Alex Sanchez was the first to speak to us. He is an award winning author who writes about homophobia and how people grow up being afraid to let others know who they truely are. He read inscriptions from his newest book and also read e-mails from teens in the same situations that his books portrayed. As I was sitting and listening to Mr. Sanchez reading the e-mails, I realize how much I use the phrase “thats so GAY”. I never thought of it as hurting anyone. It taught me that even if I don’t directly say it to a person, I may still be hurting them.
Alex gave the quote “Homophobia hurts everyone” . I partially understood what he was saying but couldn’t fully get it. That is until I was watching re-runs of One Tree Hill. There was an episode when a charcter, Anna, is not quite sure of her sexuality and becomes homophobic. She avoids the problem instead of facing it. At the same time her friend, Peyton, is being accused of being a lesbian. Instead of ignoring the rumours, Peyton takes a stand and lets the other students know that she is not afraid of being called gay. By taking a stand, she gets in trouble from their principle. He tells her that it is not okay to behave in such a bad manor, and that behaviour like that is not accepted in the school. Peyton replies by telling the principle that she is only taking a stand for those who can’t and tells him she will not stop because she is doing it for the people who are afraid to do it themselves. She ends up being suspended.
Anna later asks Peyton why she did it? Peyton gives Anna a poem that says:
“First they put away the dealers, Then they put away the prostitutes. Then they shooed away the bums, And beat and bashed the Queers. Turned away asylum seekers, fed us suspicions and fears. We didn’t raise our voice, we didn’t make a fuss. It’s funny, there was no one left to notice when they came for us.”
After she finished reading the poem Peyton told her, “It’s not about who I am, it’s about who they are. They are the people who hate and they divide and they feed off the people who don’t fight back.” “Yeah, I could laught his off, but what about the girl who can’t? Who’s going to help her? Silence only makes them stronger!”
This helped me understand more what Alex’s quote meant. It doesn’t just hurt those who are gay, it also hurts the people who are not open to the fact that some people have different sexual orientations. Homophobia creates a “wall” between different beliefs instead of making it so everyone is equal.
At LSS, I hope this problem would never happen – a student being suspended for their opinion. By allowing us to take a course like Social Justice, our teachers and principles are telling us that it is okay to show how you truely feel and to not let it break you down. Together we are breaking the silence and helping those students who can’t do it themselves.
At the end of the day, I was glad to have had such a great experience.
Difference of views on gang violence
B.C. gang war sees sixth shooting in six days
Updated Mon. Feb. 9 2009 8:02 PM ET The Canadian Press VANCOUVER –
Following a week in Metro Vancouver punctuated by gunfire, the province’s top politicians and police are finding themselves under the gun. B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal appealed for public help in curbing violence in what police have stopped short of calling a gang war. But there have been six shootings in six days, four of which police believe have drug and/or gang links. Three of those — including one late Sunday evening — happened in shopping centre parking lots, two in broad daylight. And four of them were fatal.
“We’re very concerned, very, very concerned with what’s going on,” said Oppal, who has had to defend the government’s gang strategy. Premier Gordon Campbell, who has been largely silent on the issue, said Monday the government is doing a number of things to counter gangs “but obviously we have to do more.” The province has funded additional police officers, helped set up the Integrated Gang Task Force and Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, and lobbied Ottawa to toughen gun-crime and organized-crime laws, he said. “I think this is just not something any of us ever imagined would take place in Canada,” said Campbell, who faces a provincial election in May. “We’ve got to do whatever we can to stop it.” Oppal, a former judge, blamed the violence on rivalry for the lucrative illegal drug trade. “They are fighting for territory,” he said. He echoed police calls for help from friends, relatives and even gang cronies. He said people know what’s happening but don’t help police. “Everybody abides by this code of silence.” This isn’t a war over a few square blocks of turf. The fighting has ranged from Abbotsford, to Kitsilano.
Gangsters are using parking lots to do business and settle their differences, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said after two gunman fatally riddled Kevin LeClair’s pickup truck with bullets at a Langley mall Friday afternoon. Police have linked LeClair to Abbotsford’s Bacon brothers, who police say are being systematically targeted by rivals. They’ve issued a rare warning to the public that associating with the brothers could put them directly in harm’s way. Raphael Baldini, who leased a Surrey apartment where six people were executed in October 2007, was shot to death last Tuesday sitting in a luxury SUV outside a Surrey mall. “There is frustrationand there is a sense of urgency, not only with the public but within our own agencies, ” Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said Monday. Solicitor General John van Dongen came under fire in the legislature Monday when Opposition public safety critic Mike Farnworth demanded the minister release a consultant’s report on combating illegal firearms. “The public deserves to know what those recommendations are; they deserve to know now,” Farnworth said. Van Dongen said last week he was waiting for comments from police agencies and other officials before releasing the report commissioned last summer. The surge in violence comes as Vancouver begins its one-year countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics, when the city will be in an international media spotlight. John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, declined comment and no one from the RCMP-led Olympic security unit responded to an interview request. But McGuinness pointed out that Vancouver has much less crime than most other big North American cities. She said there have been 10 killings in all of Metro Vancouver so far this year, compared with 58 murders in the region all of last year and 41 in 2007. “There’s other major cities that have considerably higher rates of violent crime,” she said. “So in that regard I think the world will still see us very favourably.” Police have identified 129 organized-crime groups operating in British Columbia, said Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Integrated Gang Task Force. While the figure seems large, some have only a handful of members. He said police have gotten better at identifying the groups earlier. Quebec police broke the Hells Angels in the province after years of infiltrating the gang to build cases against members. But Kirk said the B.C. gang situation is unique. While often ethnically based, they don’t wear gang colours or hang out at a clubhouse. “Even though it’s a small percentage of the population, there are faceless and nameless people that are engaged in this lifestyle,” said Kirk. They’re also not territorial. “They will go to any community, travel any length of distance to carry on their business,” he said. McGuinness said police are starting to make inroads and getting an unprecedented amount of intelligence from sources. “There are some projects and some initiatives underway that we’re not able to reveal to you today but we hope that very soon we’ll have some information on some strides we’re making in our efforts to tackle gang violence,” she said.
My Perspective on the recent shootings:
As a student and teen I understand the dangers of getting involved with drugs and gangs but I never thought it would be a problem this close to home. With the recent shootings it has made me realize that I don’t have to be directly linked with these gangs. If I happen to sell them something from a store or drive by at the wrong time, I could also be a victim. I never thought that I would have to deal with problems such as these. I believe that if the police had started working to catch these “gangsters” before the violence, we wouldn’t be having the problems now. I hear people say to let them kill each other off, but in the meantime, many innocent people are being wounded or killed.
Police Perspectives:
Police see this as a huge problem and are doing their best to stop it, since it is their job to ensure our community’s safety. Police and government have been saying that they have never had to deal with problems like this in Canada. They have now put in anti-gang programs and gang awareness lines to call if you have any information.
Gang Members Perspective:
Since I am not a gangster I can not directly say how they feel. Last night I was watching a show on TV and they interviewed two young guys who were involved with a gang in Toronto. They said that they had been involved with these issues since they were young and just never had the thought of leaving. That was until one of the boys whose brother was also involved with the gang, got shot right in front of him. He keeps looking back and says that it could’ve easily been him. He since has been trying to get out of “the ring”. Everytime he tries to leave, some other problem comes up. This is because his whole family is involved now, including his mother. Every night she has to sleep with one eye open, scared for her life, because her house has been invaded so many times. This shows that it is not just the gangster who get affected by the violence, but the family members as well. This shows how not all gang members are trying to hurt people. They are doing the only thing they know and trying to stay alive.
2010 Olympics Driving up Homelessness in Vancouver
It is estimated that there are over 1,200 people sleeping on the streets and this number is expected to triple by the time the Olympic Games takes place in February 2010. Before the Games were awarded to Vancouver there was great concern that the Games would increase the numbers of homeless people. Many people had memories from 1986, when Vancouver hosted Expo 86, an international world event. Many Single Room Occupancy Hotels evicted many of their long term clients in order to rent the rooms out at an increased rate. Some people died on the streets. In fact as part of its Inner-City Commitments the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee guarantees to: Protect rental-housing stock to ensure no residents are displaced, evicted, made homeless or face unreasonable increases in rent as a result of the Games. However what has been occurring is the exact opposite of what was promised and what many people had feared is now taking place. Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels have had their value driven up by the boom in real estate prices in Vancouver, fueled partly by the upcoming Olympics. They are being sold, the tenants evicted and being boarded up to await demolition or renovation. For the former tenants in these rooms they are forced to eke out an existence on the streets and alleyways as there is no other affordable alternative especially if you are living on welfare with a $350 shelter allowance . What has been the response of Government? Despite their large surplus the federal government refuses to shoulder their responsibilities to provide social housing that was abandoned in the Liberal budget cuts of the ’90s. In fact the present Conservative government is continuing to cut social programs in order to deliver tax cuts. The Provincial Government has a $2 billion surplus built on cuts to programs for the most disadvantaged but shows no desire to help the homeless. Mayor Sam Sullivan and his council after cutting the social and non-market housing aspects of the Olympic Village Project points the finger of blame at the senior levels of government. In response activists in the Downtown Eastside, Canada’s poorest neighbourhood have adopted a program called “Buy it or Guard it” which targets government owned buildings which are squatted in an attempt to have them converted to social housing. So far three buildings have been targeted and the government’s response has been a massive police repression and arrest of the squatters and their supporters. The City is also in the process of discussing a proposal from Mayor Sam Sullivan called Project Civil City which calls for crack downs on open drug use, aggressive panhandling and increased by law enforcement. It will attempt to reduce homelessness by 50% by 2010. It plans to do this by lobbying the provincial and federal government. This is similar to programs that operated in Sydney during the 2000 Games and in Atlanta in 1996 where homeless were removed from the scene in order to present a sanitary facade for visitors to the city during the Games. Although effective in cleaning up the city for the duration of the Olympic Games programs like Project Civil City offers little in concrete long term solutions. Project Civil City, like the previous response by the city to recent actions by anti-poverty activists show that the only real solution the city has to the problem of poverty in Vancouver is using the police to repress the poor. When you see the city using over 40 fully equipped members of the riot squad to evict 8 activists from a squat you can see where their spending priorities lie. What many people are questioning here in Vancouver’s is the priorities of all three levels of government. How can we afford to spend billions of dollars on a seventeen day party when so many of our citizens live in abject poverty and have no roof over their heads? How can we spend billions on infrastructure for the Games when we face such major social issues like drug addiction? Many activists question exactly whose interests are elected officials representing? It is certainly not those of the most vulnerable in our society.
I completley agree with this article. Yes the Olympics is a huge thing and could be great thing for Vancouver, but it is only a seventeen day event. 2 weeks of games that has cost our province billions of dollars. The government has said that we do not have enough money to help with the many problems of the DTES but yet they have enough money to hire the police officers that have been kicking the people of Vancouver out of their homes. Homelessness is one of the biggest problems of our city today and it seems as though our government hasn’t done anything to help it.
