Although I have profound sympathy with much of this article, the opening line is a little much:

This is a terrible, unsupported analogy. There is not a war against women in our cities and our lonely highways. True, many women and men are victimized, and many impoverished victims of violence have not been protected by law enforcement, but this does not mean there is a "war". This piece of empty rhetoric detracted from your argument about the importance of looking at sex workers and drug addicts as human beings.

Right now we are bombarded with stories about the missing girls on highway 16.
There is a proposal to run shuttle-buses along the 700 km + long stretch, so that no young girl would need to hitch-hike.
All very admireable, but who pays for empty buses touring back and forth?
How come nobody asks why 14 year old girls are allowed to just take off as they please?
It is great that society wants to avoid murders, but how about educating the parents to their role?

Gloomy asks:
"How come nobody asks why 14 year old girls are allowed to just take off as they please?"

The reason they may do this is quite simple. Anyone age 12 and above has the right to unfettered passage. They cannot be detained against their will unless they are committing a crime, or are being questioned/arrested in connection with a crime. The only other time a person may be detained or moved against his or her will, is when the person is in immediate danger of being harmed by an animal, nature, him or herself, or by someone else. In short, it is not illegal to be out on a public road.

Anyone who has ever worked with teenagers (or can remember back to when they were that age) knows that young people often make choices that are based upon feelings and not upon wisdom. In trying to escape one problem they put themselves in danger in other ways. After all, young people are free to leave but they cannot rent an apartment, get a reasonable job, get electricity turned on in their name, etc. etc. There are few options for young people trying to support themselves. This sets them up to become victims.

Further, there are limits as to the controls a parent has on children even younger than 12.

Thanks for this article, Yasmin Jiwani.

SharingIsGood.
Thank you for updating me!
My impression was that parents had some degree of control over their kids, because as you say young people often make choices that are not too wise.
Now, if parents and authorities have no way to interfere with impeteous kids, does that not indicate we are creating a problem here?
Maybe that is why we see so many underage criminals and victims?
Is this the result of a too permissive society where we assume that kids have to learn that the stove is hot by burning themselves?
If we do not allow parents to do their job, then who is responsible?

interesting quote
"Anyone age 12 and above has the right to unfettered passage. They cannot be detained against their will unless they are committing a crime, or are being questioned/arrested in connection with a crime. The only other time a person may be detained or moved against his or her will, is when the person is in immediate danger of being harmed by an animal, nature, him or herself, or by someone else. In short, it is not illegal to be out on a public road."
Very noble and very true- however, this does not mean that I or anyone else should be forced to pay for empty buses and taxis touring up and down the highway in case some child wants to go visit Aunty up the highway. The missing women on the Highway is a big deal, its a tragedy that needs solving. What it doesnt need is empty rhetoric, blame and cubic dollars thrown at it in hopes it goes away.
As Gloomy has pointed out- where is the parental and personal responsibility in all this? Again, the ordinary person is tapped to foot the bill for endless attempts at social engineering and focussing the blame anywhere but where it may truly lie.

I'm not sure that I agree that "we" primarily look at the missing women as prostitutes and drug addicts, period. It seems much more intuitive that "we" see them as people -- people who have become prostitutes and drug addicts.
I'm somewhat uneasy with the tone of this article, which scolds the media for printing what seems to be a self-evidently relevant common factor in the disappearances. Pickton et al don't victimize people at random, they preyed on a particular population.

I'm also uneasy with this statement:
"Violence against women is rampant. All the statistics bear this out -- and even if the rates of female homicides are down, the rates of sexual harassment are up."

First, homicide is worse than harassment. I think we can agree on that. Both are despictable and examples of violence against women. However, if the rate of homicide is down then that seems somewhat encouraging, that the worst manifestation is being diminished.

Second, what is the evidence that rates of harassment up? Could it be that the rate of reporting is up? It's an important difference. There have been significant cultural and legal changes in the last couple of decade which should, you would think, allow victims to be more candid in their disclosures.

I agree-. Harrasment can be many things to many people, most forms significantly more appealing than homicide. This does not, however,justify any form of unwanted harrasment. Keeping the governments (and most feminists) own description of what constututes harrasment in mind. It is a proven fact that men are just as likely, and in some cases such as financial harrasment) more likely to be harrased than women. Again, using Stas Can as a reference, just as many men are assaulted as women. It just doent make good press or justify any extra funding from the public teat.

Wow! brace yourself for the reaction!
What you said is like being against motherhood and applepie.
Bravo to you for the courage!

Actually, I agree with the points Yammer and steveroverthere are making about harassment. Harassment is certainly not comparable with homicide and harassment is not rape.(Though, of course, certain instances of it could lead to these crimes...but it is important to rememember that they are definitely not the same thing).

The harassment brush has been so thickly applied to everything now...that important distinctions are not being made...and that approach does nothing to serve the victims of crimes of a much higher and more damaging degree.

And men, I think, deserve just as much protection under the law... and funding as women in cases of harassment.

Apple pie has just never been my thing.

"rememember?"...sorry, a little heavy on the "e's" and "m's".

this is so fun to read! no sarcasm here either! i work as a counsellor for the stopping the violence counselling program, funded by the provincial government, along the "highway of tears" and infact am jumping right onto a government call in 15 minutes to strategize ways to stop the violence, and also to discuss that much anticipated report. first, i want you all to know that i didnt read the article. i thought i'd skip right down to the comments b/c they do give a more detailed view of people's takes on the issues. i want to take these words to the call. so, what i'm going to be taking, as gleaned from the above comments is that, well, we're still not all on the same page. people, not just women, are going missing, and how we classify them, and our reactions (the idea that "feminists" hold the definition of harassment for example, which this third-wave feminist shakes her binary breaking sticks at! sure, we "feminists" have created the definition of harassment--intentionally treating anyone in any sort of detrimental or violent manner--but its ignorance and sexism and gender bias that keeps this idea that harassment is only against women!) are holding us back from actively, as a nation, being able to heal from these violent crimes and losses we face daily. yes, its true. homicide is down. and "harassment" is up, but it is because more people are reporting, and more people (both genders here) are standing up and not taking the abuse (what wasnt mentioned is that while assaults are pretty much the same for both genders, violence against men is more often from a male perpetrator, and violence against women is also often from a male perpetrator).
and, i feel a need to ascertain that i'm not some crazy "man-hating feminist" like i've been so labeled, and my agreeing with you that "hey, empty busses is a cost that a society does not need to bear" does not make me "un-feminist" but, it does mean that i know a bus wont solve the issues of sexism, racism, and poverty that this highway sees, and that people may never see, work with, or ever being to understand. it must be so nice when it seems so "packaged" in the downtown east side, and that by just changing neighbourhoods, one may not be so "haunted" by all the "riff-raff" they see. but up here it's different. this highway cuts through our communities. cuts through our communities!! (and, as for 14 year olds out on the run. one of the 11 missing women on highway 16 is actually 14. the young girl that went "missing" from downtown prince george a few months ago. she was found within a week. and probably not hitch hiking, but regardless, shes been killed by the same issues that haunt this highway, that haunt the north, and that are sadly haunting these comments). xoxo.

ohsweetie:
I am sure that you mean well, and that your input has to confirm with existing laws.
Yet, once all the talk has died down, the problem keep happening because young girls "wanna have fun".
The only people who have some sort of a chance to interfere are the parents, and it seem we have taken authority away from them to do anything about it!
Adding band-aids is not a solution, solve the problem instead, by allowing parents to act like parents!
We are in a strange society where kids mature at 12, and still hang around home til they are 40.......yeah with the occasional few weeks away from the nest.
That is where the think tank must head.

ohsweetie- I think we have more in common than you might think. I grew up and live in the very areas you speak of and Ive seen the racism from both sides of the fence. I've also seen bad parents of all colours and stripes treat their children as though it were societies role to raise them. I spend many hours on that same highway and see the same kids you do hitching from Fraser Lake and Burns Lake to PG and back on Sunday afternoons. Same as from Moricetown and Hazelton going to and from Smithers and Terrace. I also have a teenaged daughter who went through a rough patch of her own. Like Gloomy says, as a parent, we have no rights to do anything other than to hope, wait and pray that they will safely emerge from the other end of that dark tunnel. Our children know that we cannot enforce what we know is bad and dangerous behaviour. An army of buearaucrats awaits those who attempt to do so. If those of us who know whats wrong can't keep our children out of danger, what hope do those parents who don't know and/or don't care have?
When does the race card stop being played? This is a human issue, not a native issue- yet the response I see involves the usual list of apologists, advocates and issue "pimps" that jump up on a regular basis. Marching, drumming and solicting funding from the usual sources for the usual studies does nothing to fix a horrible situation. I don't know what the answer really is....I do know however, that it is not " more of the usual"

What is this -- the CBC!? Let's conjure up some fanciful, gingerbread image of the Victims and glorify they and their friend's and lover's humanity -- and vilify the Known Enemy. Only someone entrenched in academia could come up with a fairytale like this (note I have two university degrees myself but do not live or work in that world). This writer has pulled together the standard and long-standing dogmas on evil men and innocent women. But YES, she has a coup. Brilliant -- well worth a paper. The hard-won status of women (and other recognized-victim groups) are actually additional limitations on these women's humanity. Perpetuated by who? Bad men, presumably (since it is highly unlikely this writer would fault the driving force of feminist, gay-rights and other factions supporting the recognition of their groups as distinct humans). But the truth is that the entire process of specializing select groups of humans has been accomplished by leftist and liberal causes. I agree that it compromises the evaluation of the humanity of people -- but it is the people who do not fit into a special group that are de-humanized. Just examine the rights laws. They accord more importance to the humanity of the visible suspects -- women, minorities, gays -- and leave the indistinguishable mass of white, male bodies with a lesser human status. This writer has come up with remarkable spin, and no doubt believes her little intelligent coup.

Whore In The Eddy

Gazes up at ballooning clouds as if imagining
frogs, giraffes, Corvettes and barns, as if
Neptune’s head has heard her pleas, sent me.
She looks like a mannequin. As if
by law of nature, a stripped woman’s body
looks like a mannequin after it floats
to the surface in a rainforest
denuded by timber sales. All matter
from the depths is netted by log jams.

She stares at me, cannot see
the pebbles embedded in my knees,
or my face, not so sweet.
No bubbles, just the stillness
of standing water. No trace DNA
or hard earned cash, only cool airstreams
of aspen leaves. My grasping hand
takes hers, skin gliding onto my fingers
like a glove. A device. We share features
any porno masticating, regular working
stiff joe wants in his garage
between the red pickup and the Crestliner.

We watch the rim of night, a spiral
arm of stars, their slow light two million years
too late. Naked eyes detect
Orion the hunter, Cassiopeia, the bright knots
of the Double Cluster. Mars appears.
I look the other way, to the North Star.

from "Princess Nut"
by Heather Haley
© 2006

yeah- that'll help find the missing. More poetry to save the world. Your tax dollars at work

Hello, you all,
i'm sorry there is such a lack of feminist analysis here. Just because women have been saying that we are in danger from (mostly) the men we know (in fact, it's true that men are also in danger--from men they know), and that it isn't really fair that we make about 70 cents for every dollar men make, and that the overwhelming majority of elected political leaders and business leaders are men, and that we are becoming impatient with the way the power shakes down around here--just because we've been calling it like we see it and agitating for change--does NOT mean we are 'playing victim' it means we are naming our oppression, and resisting same. pretty much the opposite of victim, i figure.

We all make choices about how to behave, what to do, with whom, how often, etc, etc. But, our choices, all of our choices, are constrained or enhanced by our social positions. We live in a world that is pretty rigidly structured, and we often don't see those structures, we are so used to navigating through them. But they're there. And these structures and the institutions which uphold them reward men, and "white" folks, and the middle class, just for being born into those categories.

It's not our fault we have all these we're gonna fight tooth and nail to hang onto them, and get all chippy when people mention that, hey, maybe we've got more than our share, well...that's to be expected. But don't hang onto the defensiveness. What are we defending? the right to use way more than our share of the world's resources? The right to not miss the disposable women who are prostituted from our neighbourhoods? The right to buy those women when you feel like it? The right to claim that you are a victim, too?

if men were as hard-done-by as women, why are there not more men of every age selling themselves from street corners or massage parlours? why are there not men going missing in huge numbers from our impoverished neighbourhoods and lonesome highways? why are there not more men making the coffee and fetching the faxes in the politicians offices?

i don't want men to be as poorly treated as women, by women or by other men. i think we are all worth more and capable of much better. if we can get to "we are all human", maybe we can get to "we all deserve a life of dignity and justice". But we sure aren't there yet. Feminism is still our best hope, i think, for us to reach our potential.

Like the old feminist poster from the 80's says, "never give up!"

argh...i meant to say, "it's not our fault we have all these unearned privileges" beginning of the third paragraph
bye bye

The missing women and their murders reminds me of Bluebeard's Castle, the tale, and also Bartok's opera, which is scary if you can believe opera can be scary. As all fairy tales are ultimately instructive, Bluebeard's Castle tells us to be suspicious of men, particular characters, to attune our radar to sense out something not quite right...our feminine 6th sense... I don't mean to sound naive or to diminish in any sense our current tradegies, but I do think we do our daughters a great service by reading them the old fairy tales.

I think the author's attempt at remarking on the lack of humanity is a valid and just comment. Of late, there is an odd addition about the women's life that has gone missing or has been murdered, by stating her designated roles as mothers, sisters, or aunts.

But saying this, also states the problem the author is addressing. The mere fact that as citizens of this country, these woman's humanity has been placed in a category which somehow demonstrates that her worth is justified, not as a citizen of this land, or as a human, but justified only with the additions of her being a mother, sister or aunt.

The humanity issue is all too important for if one considers how generalized one gets with certain fears (spiders, or black furry things they mistake for spiders), it's easy to see how by not focusing on this group of woman's humanity, we can carry it over to other sectors of society.

To what end will the lack of humanity afforded to one group of citizens be carried over to other groups? Is it not easy to think, hypothetically, that by easily dismissing one group of females (young or old) as having chosen their fates by being in certain conditions which resulted in their demise as their own fault, how easily dismissed we can view [B]any woman who dies at the hands of another as being her fault?

The use of the harrassement issue really does detract from what is going on with ABoriginal woman. Do not think for one minute that you can speak for someone who has brown skin, for the treatment at the hands of Canada's laws and tactics have taken much of what you discuss as solutions away from those with brown skin.

Parenting skills are vitally important, but unless you can justify what is occuring with the lack of parenting skills passed down through the generations resulting from the imposed laws and tactics imposed on the Indigenous people of this land, your reactions are merely biased on the side of ignorance.

Humanity - plain and simple extends to all people who can be affected by crime. However, what the author is merely pointing out, is that there has been a lack of it appointed to these woman, and the 500 missing/murdered ABoriginal woman in Canada.

Without looking at the history of Canada's treatment of the Indigenous people of this land, all solutions are rhetorical without sound arugements on how to end the damange wrought by such actions.

hi, i didnt mean to say that parents dont have a role in stopping this behaviour. "parents" or the immediate support communities around these youth that are going missing do have a major role in ending this behaviour and advocating for change. The government more than likely doesnt want to sink its money into "legacy" issues such as being pro-north, or even analysing the government structures that lead to parents with misinformation. the worst part in all of this though is that so many people hitch hike effectively and successfully. if not thirty to forty people go missing a day, and its that success that indicates there's not *that* much of a danger in hitch hiking. i cant really share anything from my conference call, but i do want to say that with all of us "professionals" and "community supports" on the phone, we didnt really seem to get that far, primarily b/c this issue is so big to tackle. where to begin?

One more time begin by allowing parents to decide for their kids!
It is absolutely crazy that parents are responsible but have no "tools" to guide/command with.
Another thought is that native groups keep telling us that their culture allows them to act differently on many aspects of life.
So why are natives not simply taking the upper hand and restrain wayward children?
This issue belongs squarely with the parents! I am sure that the authorities would not make a fuss if a kid came complaining about being forcefully restrained from hitchhiking!
It is a crime after all, to hitch a ride on a highway!
Nobody are surprised that your group give up before beginning, you lack the guts to tackle the real problem!

who said anything about giving up? did i say anything about giving up? if im still turning up to work and doing my job, i'm definitely not giving up. please educate me on the ways that we can give power back to their wayward kids so we can stop them from making decisions that lead to high-risk lifestyles. because, obviously i've "given up" and lack the "guts to tackle the real problem".

but, i thought that taking the upper hand and restaining wayward children was the "western way" of dealing with issues? hm.

Im tired of trying to explain- this is not a race issue- this is a basic human being issue. Nicole Hoar wasn't native was she? Women went missing-lets do the following
a) find the bastard(s) responsible. Instead of paying lip service, lets get it done-instead of paying the cops to sit around and chase speeders all day and equipping our "peace officers" at the scales with guns, vests and nifty new SUV's- lets put some $$$ into investigation.
b) continue to improve the economy so these kids dont have to hitch. A rising tide floats all boats
c) work with the people in charge of the small town and villages along the highway to educate their own citizens, red brown blue or white. Dont expect someone else to do the work for you.
d) Stop being the victim and take steps to change your own life. The state is not responsible for your poor choices.

As far as continuing to blame the past for the future- I ask again- when do we stop blaming past mistakes? If we were to give an obscene amount of cash (say- oh half a million dollars)to each person of native descent in a one time settlement, eliminate any special grants and subsidies and introduce true democracy to bands and eliminate reserves, would that be it? Would that magic pill (cash) simply make our problems go away? I wonder? What would all the lawyers and consultants and poverty pimps do?
Its quite simple really, to quote an old Trooper song "If your world is all screwed up, rearrange it"
Too simple to work?

Actually i have great respect for the native culture and system of justice.
They are (or claim to be) in touch with nature, great om family and tradition, respect for their elders and so on.
Could it be that the kids who flee are from families that are dysfunctional already?
What offend me is that the parents play the victim role, when in fact they themselves could and should have stopped things from happening.
So, as I see it the parents are the ones need education! Trying to teach a teen about restraint (of any kind) is a waste of time!
Restraint has to come from the top down!
We are talking kids here, if they were sensible they would not be considered kids.
The parents need the legal authority to forcefully stop a kid from running off, and the police need to respect that parents decisions.
Should the parents themselves be oblivious to what is going on, then the police should have the rigth to apprehend kids who try to hitch, (not merely to give them a free ride to whereever), but in fact give them a ride to jail!

yup, you and a zillion others who make a living, protecting the stauts quo.
If you actually fixed anything, then you would be out of work.