Where the book stands today: Indigenous women

I spent all of yesterday editing a section of my book that focuses on sexism and misogyny in Canada. I had a look at a 2012 report entitled Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (as one of the many reports I discuss). This report lists 67 murdered women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and covers the case of Robert Pickton, the serial killer and pig farmer who was responsible for a significant number of these murders. In the report inquiry commissioner Wally Oppal also recounts the case of 'Ms. Anderson', who is likely the only woman to have ever survived an attack by Pickton. Unfortunately, after he handcuffed and stabbed her on his Port Coquitlam property in 1997 and she miraculously managed to escape him the police failed to conduct proper follow up. Astoundingly, he was released on bail and later the charges that had been brought against him were essentially dropped (they were stayed). He was not arrested again until 2002, which means that from 1998 to 2002 he was free to rape and murder more women--and he did.

The inquiry commissioner focused on police failings in the deaths of these 67 women. This was what drew me to the report because one of the things I discuss in the section of my book that covers sexism and misogyny in Canada are the ways in which the police (including the RCMP) fail women and girls by not protecting them. 

​© 2016 Alline Cormier