(This excerpt focuses on the escape of "Ms. Anderson" from Robert Pickton in 1997--five years before he was finally imprisoned for life--and the 2012 report Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.)
Between 1989 and 2006 nine young women went missing or were found murdered along highway 16 in British Columbia. This highway, known as the Highway of Tears, runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert. All of these victims, save one, were Indigenous women.[1] In 2007 the RCMP expanded the number of women in its investigation to 18.[2] In late 2012 Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was released. Sixty-three recommendations concerning British Columbia’s missing women were made by inquiry commissioner Wally T. Oppal, who stated that the police showed a systemic bias that was, in his opinion, unintentional. He also noted, “As a system, they failed because of the bias. These women were vulnerable; they were treated as throwaways — unstable, unreliable.”[3] The fact that Canadian police officers considered women as throwaways points to something worse than sexism—it smacks of misogyny. This 2012 report named 67 murdered women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Serial killer and pig farmer Robert Pickton was responsible for a significant number of these murders, and he was arrested in 2002. When the police took heavy equipement and archeologists to excavate his properties they found enough remains of women to charge him (in 2005) with the first-degree murder of 27 women. In 2004 “B.C.’s health officer says he cannot rule out [the] possibility that human remains were in hamburger meat processed at the Pickton farm.”[4] As chilling and revolting as these facts are, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, recounts several other facts concerning Pickton that are also disturbing, namely: in late March 1997 he picked up a woman who was hitchhiking, offered her financial compensation for oral sex and drove her to his farm in Port Coquitlam where he handcuffed and stabbed her. Miraculously, the courageous “Ms. Anderson” managed to fight back and escape; “As far as is known, Ms. Anderson provides the only first-hand account from a target prey of Robert Pickton”[5]; on April 1, 1997, Pickton was arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and aggravated assault[6]; on April 8 bail was granted to him[7] (he was released from police custody); on January 26, 1998, all four charges against Pickton were stayed[8] (essentially dropped); and the Crown prosecutor’s file on “Ms. Anderson”’s assault “had been inadvertently destroyed in 2001.”[9] Between 1998 and 2002 Pickton was free to rape and murder more women. These are the facts. They present common points with Peter Sutcliffe’s story and his murdering of 13 women in England in the 1970s. [1] Highway of Tears website [2] Highway of Tears website [3] CBC news story, Pickton inquiry slams ‘blatant failures’ by police, Dec. 17, 2012 [4] Globe and Mail, Key dates in the Pickton case, Dec. 17, 2012 [5] British Columbia, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner, Nov. 19, 2012, p. 40 [6] British Columbia, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner, Nov. 19, 2012, p. 31 [7] British Columbia, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner, Nov. 19, 2012, p. 31 [8] British Columbia, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner, Nov. 19, 2012, p. 31 [9] British Columbia, Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Wally T. Oppal, Commissioner, Nov. 19, 2012, p. 31 © 2016 Alline Cormier
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AuthorThe film analyst who puts women first. Author of an upcoming film guide for women. ArchivesCategories |