While Canadians naturally recoil on horror when confronted by the recent new of widespread rape and murder in India, they would be well advised to look closer to home. The widespread violence against Aboriginal women in BC is well documented and hardly a week goes by when more harrowing news is released to the media by various authorities.
The issue is a complex one, but unlike the challenges facing women in distant countries, we can easily make a real difference here in BC. Wally Oppal outlined one simple solution in his report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry: provide safe transportation between the small communities along BC’s highway of tears. While private, for profit transportation options exist, the deep poverty endemic to these communities ensures there will always be women hitchhiking despite the danger. They simply have no other option.
Given the huge numbers of women that have gone missing along that highway, it’s absolutely crucial that the government provide safe and free transportation for these women. If white women in the suburbs were experiencing the same fate, Christy Clark’s government would be moving heaven and earth to stop the disappearances. But because they are Aboriginal women, far from major populations, they seem expendable. Mr. Oppal suggested an easy solution, the government ignores it, and women continue to disappear. Doesn’t that make the government culpable?
Nathaniel Poole
Victoria BC
