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Author
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Topic: Missing/Murdered First Nations women in Canada
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waabs
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2609
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posted 05 May 2002 09:23 AM
Helen Betty Osborne was abducted and brutally murdered near The Pas, Manitoba, early in the morning of November 13, 1971. The high school student, originally from the Norway House Indian Reserve, was 19 years old when she was killed.
Four men abducted her. Her clothes, those which had not been removed earlier, were taken from her. Wearing only her winter boots, she was viciously beaten, and stabbed, apparently with a screwdriver, more than 50 times. Her face was smashed beyond recognition. The evidence suggests that two people then dragged her body into the bush. Several months later Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers concluded that four young men, Dwayne Archie Johnston, James Robert Paul Houghton, Lee Scott Colgan and Norman Bernard Manger, were involved in the death. Yet it was not until December 1987, more than 16 years later, that one of them, Dwayne Johnston, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Betty Osborne. James Houghton was acquitted. Lee Colgan, having received immunity from prosecution in return for testifying against Houghton and Johnston, went free. Norman Manger was never charged.
Johnson, the only person held responsible for this brutal murder, got full parole on October 10, 1997.
Many Manitobans asked why it took 16 years to bring people to trial for this brutal murder. It was suggested that many people in the town of The Pas learned the identity of those responsible, some within a very short time after the murder, but chose to do nothing about it. It was suggested that because Osborne was an Aboriginal person, the townspeople considered the murder unimportant. Allegations of racism, neglect and indifference, on the part of the citizens of the town, the police and of the Attorney General’s department, were made.
An inquiry into the investigation of the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the trial that followed took place.
The result was "The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission, November 1999" ( http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volume.html ) which clearly stated that racism played a big part into the Osborne case. Recommendations that this not repeat itself were made.
Eventually the RCMP apologized to the Osborne family, with promises that this would never repeat itself.
HISTORY REPEATED
Since that time it is estimated that 500 First Nations women have been reported missing or murdered in Canada. Rarely do these cases make the news. Never do they make newspaper headlines as do the cases of other missing people ( non native ) throughout this country.
Police investigations rarely remain active for long when dealing with these cases as we have discovered during our research into this matter.
It appears that there is a war against our women. One by one, our sisters are disappearing. In some cases, it is clearly a serial killer who is involved. In other cases, it may be the work of cultists who are out to get our women. Other men feel they have the right to simply abduct and torture and murder our sisters. Rarely are these cases ever solved.
Our Circle has formed to help bring these cases to the public's attention, to begin the process of holding those with power responsible for the sloppy investigative procedures of some law enforcement agencies; to insist that those who abduct, torture and murder our First Nations women will receive appropriate sentencing.
Some of these cases involve serial killers who hand pick First Nations women to be their prey. It is our belief that when serial killers are killing non native women, the media jumps at the chance to cover these stories. The local police departments work around the clock to solve those cases, but when it has historically been first nations women who are being found murdered, with facts pointing to a serial killer, little if anything is actively done to solve these crimes.
In addition, many of our sisters are reported missing regularly. Some are children simply vanishing in thin air, some may be runaways. Others might be women working as prostitutes as in the downtown eastside Vancouver cases. Regardless, historically our law enforcement agencies fail to take missing people reports seriously when it comes from our families and loved ones.
We have received little if any support or interest from law enforcement when we have attempted to seek information about these cases. We are told they dont have any missing first nations women in their files, or the cases are non active and they cannot comment. We intend to expose this fact to society, to raise awareness amongst those in our communities that our First Nations women are going missing and no one seems to be concerned. We are asking for family members of missing women to contact us so we can add their loved one to our list we are investigating.
If family members of these missing women have not had their loved ones returned home, to their communities, or if they are not given evidence that their loved one is living somewhere else and is safe, then the case is not closed. We intend to make it public that these women are still missing after all these years and nothing is being done about it.
We are bringing to the public's attention that the promises made in The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission, November 1999, are not being honoured.
We continue to research our missing women and will add them to our website ( www.geocities.com/waabzy1/native.html ) on a regular basis.
In addition we are organizing a womens memorial quilt called "Vanishe Voices - NEVER AGAIN! Project". This quilt will hold panels honouring missing ( cold cases ) or murdered women throughout Canada. We hope to have our sisters on this quilt. Once completed, the quilt will travel from community to community raising awareness about society's attitude towards missing women, the lack of investigative procedures being carried out by law enforcement agencies in some cases. We will also provide resource material for services offered in each area the quilt visits.
I can be contacted at [email protected].
We cannot allow our sisters to disappear, to die in vain. We hope to remember them in a good way, in hopes that this history will not continue to be repeated.
Miigwetch
Waabnong Kwe ( Amber O'Hara)
Ojibway / Tsalagi Nations
Wolf Clan
Toronto
From: toronto | Registered: May 2002
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jasper
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 676
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posted 16 May 2002 08:19 PM
For 10 years, from 1989 - 1999 I kept a list of women in Canada murdered by men. I only gathered the names of the victims and their murderers out of the papers and off the TV, and was sent names from Montreal Men Against Sexism) The Women's Foundation, in Toronto, who shared their lists with me. In those 10 years I recorded the murders of 1850 women and girls and about 80 boy children who were murdered in Canada along with their mothers and sisters
I had to give the list up when I became ill with heart disease as it affected my heart when I had to add names to the list. It is now being carried on by Yvonne Maes, of West Vancouver, BC, an ex-nun you may have seen on the news, when the latest priest pedophile's case was stayed by the judge. (She has written a book about her own experience, titled: The Cannibal's Wife). She was sexually assaulted by a priest over a period of years when she worked as a missionary in Africa. She has taken on the job of also creating a record of the names and numbers of sexual assault victims by priests, and other professionals; so if anyone knows of any woman or girl who has been murdered, First Nations or any other, check to see if she is on Yvonne Maes list.
And if you or anyone you know has been a victim of any professional, be it a priest, school teacher, psychiatrist, or athletic coach, get in touch with her and have it recorded, also. It is only in this way that we will finally be able to see the true magnitude of both of these horrendous issues that we think only happens to somebody else, or in some other town or country than our own. It happens in all ages, genders, social status, lifestyles, religions. And the wounds last unto the seventh generation. WE can all help by doing what we can to find out how many there are and how prevalent it is and has been in the past.
The powers that be will not save anyone. Their major function over the years has been to turn away until the type of investigation that's going on in BC right now on the Picton pig farm is necessary, but that only came about when over 50 women most of whom were in the sex and/or drug trade have disappeared. And despite many people trying to do something about it, their pleas were ignored.
The same goes for the victims of priest and other professionals. Coverups, victimization of the victims, payoffs, good ol' boys, and some good ol' girls too) protecting good ol' boys. It's time to call them on their stuff, and thank goodness it's finally beginning to happen. But first we have to find out who the victims are - ALL of them.[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: jasper ] [ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: jasper ]
From: Squamish, BC | Registered: May 2001
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