READ THIS BOOK---MISSING SARAH---MAGGIE DE VRIES
BUY THIS BOOK---HEROINES--LINCOLN CLARKES
LEIGH MINER
APRIL REOCH---THE PROVINCE
Andrea Joesbury---The Province PaperWell, thank goodness that Willie Pickton won't be getting a new trial. I won't get into the details here. Suffice to say that they are available and everybody knows. Let's spare the families and the tax payers that go around.
What I want to write about is what so many people thought...why it probably took so long for this guy to come to justice. They were just missing hookers, right? I mean, it's not like they were somebody's Mom in a mini-van. They sort of brought about their own demise, standing out there on the street corner? They probably would have died from a drug overdose anyways? With so many other "real" victims, why would the cops put these women as their top priority? Sadly, I could go on. There were jokes made at the time. I won't go into some the ones that I heard.
Perhaps it was the "Missing" poster itself. Many of the shots were mugshots from arrests; black and white photos under the harshed of lighting, taken in less then ideal conditions. Imagine having your headshot taken after being skinfrisked, printed and the ride in the back of a van that smells of vomit. Most likely, it's the end of the shift and the lack of drugs are starting to kick in. There's the knowledge that there's apt to be an ass kicking from the pimp for not making enough money. Worst of all, there's the prospect of spending time in a cell without drugs or the chance of a wake-up shot. Yes, smile for the camera.
I used to walk by that poster every day at work and I'd stop to look at it sometimes. I would search it to see if there were any new additions. I was looking for one face in particular. In highschool, my friend's sister had been a prostitute and heroin addict at the age of sixteen. We were living in a small town at the time and people just didn't talk about that sort of thing. If she were home, my friend knew enough to hide her gold chains and we wouldn't leave our purses around. Yet, I found her a glamourous sort of creature; me, with my bland life. She was so pretty and savvy.
Nobody deserves to be the victim of assault or abduction. Let's face it, however. When Soccer Mom disappears from the mall, people look harder. Her missing poster features her smiling, at the Christmas party and wearing nice clothes. The picture would have been selected carefully. The news media puts the story out there and people come out because they care.
It took a long time for the media to care about the missing women in Vancouver. It's incredible that so many could just disappear. These are women who are not mobile. Anybody aware of this lifestyle understands that. They are dependant on picking up their methadone at a set time and place. They don't function without it. They have very limited lives. In more ways then one, they are creatures of habit.
When the media did get involved, it all too often initially reduced them to stereotypes. They were prostitutes. I sometimes got the feeling that they wanted to make the story as gritty and sordid as possible. They would film in back alleys, making sure that the camera would pan in on the discarded rigs (needles) or catch others in the act of shooting up.
They missed a lot. Maggie de Vries wrote a fantastic book, "Missing Sarah" about her sister. Her sister was a deep, caring woman. Sarah was beautiful. I have always felt that the good looking of the world must have it easy, but I guess it isn't always so. Sarah went to some of the finest and most exclusive schools in Vancouver. She wrote poignant and insightful passages. Then, she was gone.
Many of these women were mothers who loved their kids dearly. There was always that battle between loving the drugs and the children. On some deep level they understood that they could not raise them well until the drugs were gone. Yet, they tried to keep in contact with their kids. It wasn't like them to miss meetings. It was hard for them to form these bonds. These were often women who had been beaten and assaulted as children themselves. Their's was not The Brady Bunch, but a shuffling from foster home to group home. How they hung on is incredible. Drugs would offer an escape and a coping mechanism. They hurt only themselves, unlike Pickton.
People need to confront their inner voices. Yes, someone might have preconceived notions about others based on their skin colour or occupation or life style. But, how we treat them is what matters. We need to recognize that we must not let those judgements guide us. If nothing else, let the deaths of these women do that. It breaks my heart to read that the police could have stopped this monster. He had been confronted by the cops in the past, but it was his word (a white, good 'ol boy), against that of a known prostitute. Nothing ever happened.
Check out Lincoln Clarke's web site. Many of the women that he photographed for his "Heroines" series, died. They are beautiful. They somehow shine in their surroundings. I have a signed copy of his book and I am haunted by their eyes. Understand that some of those women you see in the backstreets, especially in the notorious "kiddie stroll" are fourteen years old and strung out. This is not a fate that they chose.
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