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Monday, March 26, 2007

Filmmaker eager for P.G. premiere

FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff

The director of the film Finding Dawn is looking forward to the documentary's debut in Prince George. Even though Metis-Canadian Christine Welsh, also a UVic professor, is in the throes of the semester crunch and has been having what amounts to weekly screenings of the film since it was released in November, she is energized about coming here in person for the PG premier.

Finding Dawn is an examination of how aboriginal women in Canada are systematically targeted for murder and violence by mainstream society. Vancouver's downtown east side is one example she highlights, another is this area's dubious history along Highway 16 West.

"I thought the Highway of Tears was pretty important, it is a big part of the film," Welsh told The Citizen from her home on Saltspring Island. "I spent a lot of time on the highway and in Prince George. We did a lot of filming up there."

In the end, the story of Ramona Wilson, found murdered near Smithers in 1994, was used by Welsh as emblematic of all the deaths along the Highway of Tears. A great many other aspects of the Highway of Tears was filmed by Welsh and her crew but did not make the final cut. She is keeping it all as fodder footage for future projects, however, so it is not lost forever on the cutting room floor.

"It probably stretched my filmmaking abilities to their limit," Welsh said if the Finding Dawn process. "It was a challenging project and one of the most challenging parts about it was to tell such a big story and so many stories in one film and still make it effective. Difficult choices had to be made. It stretched me, that's for sure, but also gave me tremendous gifts. Just the time I spent in the north was so important to me. I had never been to PG or travelled along that highway, and one of the things I wanted to do was convey a sense of the land, the places were we lost our people, so that was a really powerful part of making the film. I will always be indebted for that part of the process, and the people who opened up their lives to me and gave me good company, and all the good friendships that were made, and the people who inspired us and gave us hope, and changed my life in some way."

Finding Dawn is Welsh's fifth major film (she has worked in various capacities on more than a dozen, usually focusing on aboriginal women), and it is already brewing a storm of success. About 900 people came out to see it last week at a showing at UVic. It won a gold award at the Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver this winter. Later this spring it already has screenings scheduled for Winnipeg and Saskatoon.

The reason she makes films, Welsh said, is to draw attention to key issues. The way mainstream culture marginalizes aboriginal women and cultivates violence against them was too critical a subject to avoid her lens.

"I am really really happy these screenings have been organized in Prince George to keep raising that awareness that none of these cases has been solved," said Welsh. "We need to keep up the pressure to ensure resources are put towards solving these cases and to ensuring we don't lose any more women along that highway."

The fact Prince George knows more about the issue than most communities does not negate the importance of showing the film there, said Welsh. There will indubitably be people who can still learn from the film, and it also validates the advocacy work and grieving done for years on end by people here in the mouth of the issue.

"The other thing it does for people in PG is to place what's happening up there in a bigger context and to let people there know they are not alone, there is a bigger picture," said Welsh. "It reaches far far beyond the north and Highway 16. People far and wide are going to hear about it now."

Finding Dawn will be seen three times in Prince George this week.

-- There will be a matinee Friday at 2 p.m. at CNC's 1-306 lecture theatre.

-- There will be an evening presentation on Friday at 7 p.m. in UNBC 6-206 lecture theatre, and will include personal appearances by Welsh and Matti Wilson, mother of Ramona Wilson.

-- There will be a showing Saturday at 7 p.m. at CNC's 1-306 with Wilson and a presentation by Amnesty International.

 

©Copyright 2007 Prince George Citizen

Symposium planned

FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff

Plans are underway for a second Highway of Tears Symposium, The Citizen has learned.

This week marks the one year anniversary of the first Highway of Tears Symposium that opened unprecedented dialogue on the issue of the young women murdered and missing along Highway 16 West. The first symposium brought together families of the many victims, the highest level of RCMP in the province, several provincial cabinet ministers, hundreds of advocates and social workers from across the north, and many others who wanted to learn from the passionate discussion that ensued.

One of the results of the first symposium was the Highway of Tears Report, a document that lists a number of recommendations compiled during the symposium. They are designed to advance the investigations into the unsolved cases of murder and disappearance, to prevent more victims, and to tunnel through the mountains of cultural impasse between aboriginal and mainstream communities in Northern B.C.

"A second symposium is really important. It is a long stretch of highway and keeping everyone involved is difficult," said Lisa Krebs, the Highway of Tears Initiative co-ordinator hired to foster the implementation of the recommendations. "The community forums that are happening, that is great, and just having the Highway of Tears Report is great, but what happens after it? There needs to be a way to keep advancing, and a second symposium is the way to bring everyone together again to talk about their parts and what the commitments are for the next year."

The next symposium is not being slated for the precise anniversary, which is Friday. A commemorative walk from Prince Rupert to Prince George is part of the event, and the March weather last year was prohibitive to the walkers. This year a June date is being touted.

The true anniversary of the symposium will be marked by three showings of the documentary Finding Dawn, including personal appearances by filmmaker Christine Welsh and Mattie Wilson, mother of Ramona Wilson murdered in 1994 near Smithers.

"Last year the symposium was a call to action," said Krebs. "This year is to urge support to continue the initiative and show support for the families. We can't let them down now, before we hardly get started."

A petition will be circulated urging government to continue funding a Highway of Tears Initiative co-ordinator as well as funding the projects that flow from the report.

©Copyright 2007 Prince George Citizen

 

Youth Forums
March 19, 2007

Prince George Citizen

By Frank Peebles

A series of youth forums will be held this year to try to prevent young people from being the next headstone on the Highway of Tears.
The provincial government announced this weekend that $85,658 was being invested in the slate of meetings. There will be 40 forums in total, in 10 communities between Prince George and Prince Rupert, all aimed at getting the input of youth on solutions for the Highway of Tears dangers and at giving youth a detailed account of the tragedies that have befallen numerous young women on the highway over the last two decades at least.
"This is designed to educate youth who may not know the history of the highway, so to try to prevent it from happening again," said Prince George Omineca MLA John Rustad, whose riding runs along a large span of the infamous road. "For some people it is as simple as raising the awareness as to what the dangers are, but the next step is dealing with distance issues, transportation for people, looking at violence, looking at poverty, looking at sexual exploitation, creating the environment among youth for thinking ahead and making plans to minimize their own risk."
This is not all the government is prepared to do to help the Highway of Tears issue, Rustad said. There are ingrained societal problems that need to be confronted.
"Over the long term there is no magic bullet," he said. "This is part of long-term ongoing work we all have to do to create the right environment so some of those underlying issues are addressed."
Rustad said he intends to attend some of the sessions for his own personal growth.
"I'm not an expert in this field, but I am aware of the socioeconomic pressures many of these communities are feeling, particularly First Nations communities," he said. "I want to hear the questions and see the reactions people have to the information presented, just for my own awareness and my own understanding."
The workshops have not been scheduled yet but will be held sometime between September 2007 and March 2008. They will be conducted by the Children of the Street Society, to whom the money was granted. The goal is to include at least 2,000 young people in the forums.

Highway of Tears Forum Funding Announced

By 250 News

Saturday, March 17, 2007 04:01 AM

Another project aimed at raising awareness and preventing murders and disappearances along Highway 16 has been given Provincial funding.

The Children of the Street Society is based in Coquitlam and will receive $85,658 to facilitate 40 workshops in 10 communities from Prince George to Prince Rupert. The forums hope to reach 2,000 participants.

The Society  has a long history of working with people  in Vancouvers downtown east side.  They  have focues on  battling the sexual expoloitation of youth.  Together with local organizations, the Society will work  to promote and implement further education and awareness projects. The total cost of the project is $241,458. The project was supported by the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, which is also supporting a special highway billboard campaign.

The workshops will run between September 2007 and March 2008.

Meantime, the Highway of Tears Symposium recommendations continue to be implemented. Coordinator Lisa Krebbs says a series of youth forums will be held in April. Those forums are being funded by Victim Services.

Families of the 11 women who have been murdered or gone missing along Highway 16 will be meeting with the RCMP again in April for a further update on the status of the investigations.

Opinion 250

http://www.opinion250.com

 

Highway of Tears task force update promising:Wilson

By Thom Barker
THE INTERIOR NEWS
March 14, 2007

The RCMP are making good on their promise to keep the families of Highway of Tears victims in the loop.

On March 2, Supt. Leon Van der Walle, head of the Highway of Tears task force was in Smithers to give an update.

"It was fairly good, actually," said Matilda Wilson, mother of Ramona Wilson who disappeared in 1994 and whose remains turned up almost a year later.

"They're still not going to give us all the details, but everything sounds pretty promising."

Wilson said she realizes making headway on her daughter's murder is a long shot, but the police force's new commitment to communication gives them hope.

"That's a plus for us because now we know they're working hard at what they're doing," she said.

Wilson told The Interior News the families were informed of several initiatives the RCMP are undertaking including profiling, investigating locations and putting out the word to anglers, hunters and people who work in the bush to be on the lookout for potential clues.

"It takes a long time because there's so many logging roads that need to be looked at," Wilson said.

Meanwhile, Ray Michalko, the Surrey private investigator also continues to work the case.

"I just spent some time in Kamloops chasing down some Tears leads and am going to be working in Smithers sometime between April 14 and 18," he told The Interior News.

Michalko said he has several people of interest to talk to and will pass any information he gathers on to RCMP investigators.

© Copyright 2007 Smithers Interior News

Thursday, March 1, 2007
 

Hitchhikers warned

by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff

The Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine has become the first municipality to display signs, posters and T-shirts warning hitchhikers about the dangers of the Highway of Tears.

The idea of creating materials to help raise awareness came out of the Highway of Tears symposium in Prince George last spring, and the Kitimat area is the first community to get the ball rolling.

"I was so impressed," said Highway of Tears co-ordinator Lisa Krebs, who didn't know about what the regional district was doing until a recent visit to a government office in Burns Lake where one of the signs was displayed. "Here is a municipal entity stepping a little outside of the usual range of actions most regional districts take. They are recognizing a social issue in their community and are taking action to help the people they serve."

Kitimat is taking the additional step of approaching other municipalities and regional districts along Highway 16 for financial contributions to the cause of manufacturing and installing the billboards in strategic areas between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

In a presentation to Prince George city council, the regional district said that 10 aluminum billboards (about eight feet by 12 feet) and 10,000 accompanying backpack decals for children would cost $33,888. However, three corporate sponsors and confirmed in-kind contributions had whittled that total down to $20,225. The municipal governments along Highway 16 are being asked, along with corporate sponsors, to cover the rest of bill.

"It is good to go civic government to civic government," Krebs said. "This shows leadership, it asks for more leadership all along the highway, and it demonstrates the commitment of the affected communities for the provincial and federal governments. They will be approached for a number of other items on the list of recommendations, the provincial government certainly has made some commitments to help and we will hold them to that, so this is a very appropriate way for local government to step in and start that off."

The proposed artwork for the signs is a painting donated by Hazelton artist Tom McHarg and RDKS director Alice Maitland. It is already in use via the initial awareness campaign the RDKS has co-ordinated at the western end of the Highway of Tears.

The land to place the billboards on is another aspect which needs attention.

"I don't think the land is a stumbling block," Krebs said because indications from municipalities, Crown and First Nations along the highway are that space they own will be made available alongside the highway.

The signs are needed, Krebs said, to warn all hitchhikers from outside the area and remind all potential hitchhikers within the area that death and disappearance has befallen an alarming number of hitchhikers in the area and the risk is not worth the ride.

©Copyright 2007 Prince George Citizen

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Highway of Tears meeting planned

by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff

The top cop in the Highway of Tears cases is coming to northern B.C. Friday to

meet with the families of the many missing and murdered women.

RCMP Supt. Leon Van De Walle will also talk with the governing body working to implement the recommendations of the Highway of Tears report.

Van De Walle, who is in charge of the E-Division major crime section and the lead investigator in the Highway of Tears disappearances and murders, will be in Smithers on Friday, according to meeting organizers.

"I find it hopeful," said Lucy Glaim, whose sister Delphine Nikal and cousin Cecilia Nikal are both among the missing. She said she has some blunt questions for Van De Walle.

"My sister's case in particular has been put on hold due to budget constraints," Glaim said. "I'm hoping to get some answers about that excuse. I was told that two years ago by one of the investigators, and there have been so many of them. I've been told they even think they know where her body is, but they can't afford the backhoe, so it has been put on hold. I definitely want to discuss that with Mr. Van De Walle."

Glaim is in contact with other families of Highway of Tears victims in the Bulkley Valley area and she said it is a sign of good faith to have Van De Walle come to Smithers to meet with them. A similar meeting last June between Van De Walle and victims' families was held in Prince George as was the Highway of Tears symposium last March.

"Extended family can be there and maybe then Mr. Van De Walle will see exactly how the community has been affected, as well as the family," Glaim said.

Before the private session with families, Van De Walle will sit down with the governing body, a collection of stakeholders directly affected by the issue that meets on a regular basis to gradually implement the many recommendations contained in the Highway of Tears report.

"I think having Mr. Van De Walle at the meeting will be helpful and bring up some important dialogue, especially on the prevention side," said Highway of Tears co-ordinator Lisa Krebs. "Many of the victims have been at the western end of the highway so their families will have an easier time being included in this dialogue, and a lot of the action stemming from the recommendations is going on at the western end, so it is important for a number of reasons for this meeting to be in Smithers."

Van De Walle and provincial RCMP spokespeople couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

©Copyright 2007 Prince George Citizen

 

By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, November 17, 2006

A 60-year-old Fort St. John man has been charged with a murder that took place in Dawson Creek 16 years ago, the RCMP announced today.

Paul Russell Deleno Felker has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of 21-year-old Cindy Agnus Burk, whose body was found on July 24, 1990 near Kiskatinaw Provincial Park.

The young woman was last seen in July of that year in Prophet River, north of Fort St. John. At the time, she was thought to be heading to her native Saskatchewan.

Burk was raised primarily in Regina and had later moved to Carmacks, Yukon Territory.

The unsolved murder file remained active over the years and ultimately led to the identification of a possible suspect. police said.

Investigators within the RCMP’s Unsolved Homicide Unit, acting with the assistance of other police units, acted upon that information and a charge was approved by the Crown on Thursday, police said.

Burk fit the same profile -- a young native woman hitchhiking -- of a series of nine unsolved murders along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, often referred to as the Highway of Tears.

But Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lamaitre said Friday that investigators compared the latest murder with the Highway 16 unsolved murders and found no connection.

“This case is not connected with Highway of Tears,” he said. “It’s been reviewed and there is no connection.”

nhall@png.canwest.com

© Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Charges laid in connection with 16-year-old Dawson Creek Historical Homicide

Note: Burk fit the same profile -- a young native woman hitchhiking -- of a series of unsolved murders along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, often referred to as the Highway of Tears. But Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lamaitre said Friday that investigators reviewed the latest murder with the Highway 16 unsolved murders and found no connection.
 "This case is not connected with Highway of Tears," he said. "It's been reviewed and there is no connection."

Friday November 17, 2006

Vancouver, BC: "E" Division Major Crime can confirm today that a 60 year old male was arrested on Thursday November 16, 2006 and charged with one count of 2nd degree homicide in connection with death of 21-year-old Cindy Agnus Burk in Dawson Creek back in 1990.

The 16-year investigation began on July 24, 1990 when the body of 21-year-old Cindy Burk was located near Kiskatinaw Provincial Park. Cindy Burk had been raised primarily in Regina, Saskatchewan and she later moved to Carmacks, Yukon Territory. Cindy was new to Northern B.C in the summer of 1990. She was last seen around mid-July in Prophet River, north of Fort St.

John and at that time was thought to be heading to Saskatchewan. At the time of the discovery of Cindy's body an extensive search of the area was conducted, numerous people were interviewed and forensics were gathered and analysed. Despite exhaustive efforts by the Dawson Creek General Investigations Section, with assistance from Fort Nelson RCMP, Fort St. John RCMP, North District Major Crime and "E" Division Major Crime, charges were never laid.

The file has been subject of routine follow-ups and periodic reviews and has remained active over the past 16 years. Those reviews and follow-ups ultimately lead to the identification of a possible suspect and investigators within "E" Division Major Crime's Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit, with the assistance of other Detachment and Provincial units within BC, acted upon that information quickly and thoroughly.

As a result, a report of all the investigative findings was forwarded to Crown Council and they approved the charge of 2nd degree murder against 60-year-old Paul Russell Deleno FELKER. FELKER was arrested in Fort St. John on November 16, 2006 without incident and is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Fort St. John on Friday November 17, 2006 in the afternoon.

"This case is an example of how the RCMP remain committed to the families of victims and the communities we police to thoroughly investigate each unsolved case, actively follow-up any and all leads, and use any an all investigative methods to find out what happened and bring anyone who may be responsible before the courts", says Supt. Leon Van De Walle, Officer in Charge of "E" Division Major Crime Section.

The RCMP has been in contact with the family of Cindy Burk, who currently reside outside of BC, and advised them of recent developments.

Now retired Cst. Bob Blahun, who was a primary investigator on the file when it started, worked for eight years on the case. While he prepares for the judicial process, Blahun agreed that initial work done on file benefited by the reviews and follow up. Blahun says, "It's that perseverance that will hopefully provide some closure to Cindy's family."

The ability to lay is charge is a direct result of the combined efforts by the various investigators, units, sections, Detachments and Policing Services in BC, Yukon Territory and as far east as Saskatchewan.

Investigators will now work with Crown through the judicial process and if anyone has any information in connection with this case they are strongly encouraged to contact the Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit toll free at 1-877-543-4622.  

A photo of Cindy Burk is available below as Image 1.

Released by:

Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre

"E" Division Strategic Communications

Phone: (604) 264-2929

 

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-RCMP to use new database on Highway of Tears cases
Prince George Citizen
October 8, 2006
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Provincial RCMP have a new computer database that will allow them to scan unsolved cases -- such as the Highway of Tears -- for possible connections. RCMP said Tuesday they are going beyond the nine specific Highway of Tears cases to draw clues from. "We have looked at incorporating other homicides from Kamloops, north, all the outstanding files we have," said provincial RCMP spokesperson Staff Sgt. John Ward. He did not know how many homicides that would be. Highway of Tears victims include: Ramona Wilson, 15, Lana Derrick, 19, Roxanne Thiara, 15, Alishia Germaine, 15, Alberta Williams, 27, Delphine Nikal, 16, Nicole Hoar, 25, Tamara Chipman, 22 and goes all the way back to Monica Ignas, who was last seen Dec. 13, 1974 near Terrace. This was the case group RCMP identified at the Highway of Tears Symposium in March as the ones being cross-referenced first by the computer. "Our first step is to collect all the information in all the files, and it is being put into a computer database," RCMP Supt. Leon Van De Walle said at the time. "The database will make comparisons from file to file, and also to ones in (other jurisdictions) ... We are recruiting specialists in each phase of this (new approach) ... and we will have eight skilled investigators dedicated to the Highway of Tears cases. This is all they will do. It will be their only job." Ward said he did not know what the progress has been on inputting the volumes of data associated with those nine cases. Each one has boxes of police notes. The other files being poured into the database would not take away from effort for the original nine. "They are the priority, they are the first to go in, but these others will be added for this electronic review," said Ward. "They are including the other homicides to look at things with a fresh set of electronic eyes, if you will, to see if there might be anything that is linked."

©Copyright 2006 Prince George Citizen

 

New film looks at Highway of Tears

By Gina Clark
The Northern View
Nov 8, 2006

The stories of the women who went missing on the "Highway of Tears," as well as those of other First Nations women in this country who have gone missing or been murdered, will be immortalized in a new film called "Finding Dawn" by Metis writer and director Christine Welsh.

The film, which was only released this year, has already been screened at The Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver, and at The American Indian Film Festival and ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival in San Francisco. It has been described as "an epic journey into the dark heart of Native women's experience in this country, from Vancouver's skid row to the 'Highway of Tears' in Northern British Columbia, to Saskatchewan, where the murders of Native women remain unresolved.

While honouring those who have passed, she found inspiring stories of strength, courage and resilience, as communities came together to stem the tide of violence.

The point of the film is to illustrate the deep historical, social and economic factors that contribute to the epidemic of violence against Native women in Canada, as well as to present the message that stopping violence is everyone's responsibility.

Christine Welsh is a Women's Studies and Indigenous Cinema professor at The University of Victoria. She is originally from Lebret, Saskatchewan and now lives between Salt Spring Island and Victoria.

Individuals who would like to screen the film can contact Jane Gutteridge at The National Film Board of Canada. They must give her a minimum of two weeks notice and include their name, organization/community, snail mail address, screening date, screening time, screening location and whether they require a DVD, or VHS copy. She can be contacted by phone at (416) 954-3396, or by e-mail at s.gutteridge.nfb.ca

The Northern VIEW
http://www.thenorthernview.com/  

RCMP to use new database on Highway of Tears cases

PRINCE GEORGE - RCMP have a new computer database that will allow them to scan unsolved cases such as the Highway of Tears deaths and disappearances for possible connections.

Police say the database will allow them to look for clues beyond the nine specific cases along a stretch Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, B.C.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. John Ward said police have looked at incorporating all other outstanding homicides from Kamloops northward.

Ward did not know how many homicides that would be.

RCMP Supt. Leon Van De Walle said the first step is to collect all the information in the files and put it into a computer database.

The database will make comparisons from file to file, as well as cases in other jurisdictions.

Since 1974, there have been nine unsolved deaths or disappearances of young women along the stretch of road that has become known as the Highway of Tears.

The victims include: Ramona Wilson, 15, Lana Derrick, 19, Roxanne Thiara, 15, Alishia Germaine, 15, Alberta Williams, 27, Delphine Nikal, 16, Nicole Hoar, 25, Tamara Chipman, 22 and Monica Ignas, who was last seen Dec. 13, 1974 near Terrace.

"We are recruiting specialists in each phase of this (new approach)," said Van De Walle. "And we will have eight skilled investigators dedicated to the Highway of Tears cases. This is all they will do."

Last month, the government hired a co-ordinator to implement recommendations in last June's Highway of Tears Report to improve the safety of women who travel the highway.
Many are aboriginal women hitch-hiking between communities.

Among the 33 recommendations were to set up a shuttle bus service between the Highway 16 communities while another suggested expanding Greyhound's free ride program for those in financial need.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Scope is expanded

Nov 03, 2006

The RCMP is adding every unsolved murder, suspicious death and suspicious disappearance north of Kamloops to a computer database containing information on murdered and missing women along Highway 16.

The goal is to find out if there is anything in common between any or all of the cases that could eventually lead to an arrest, says RCMP media relations officer Staff Sgt. John Ward.

He did not know how many new cases were being added or over what period of time but said the new computer program being used will enable officers to sift through more information than ever before.

"The decision was that now we have people entering information into the database, we should see what else is out there and group them together," Ward said.

"You could characterize it as an expanded investigation but it is more of a review of files using new technology to see if there is a commonality," he said.

"It certainly will be comprehensive," Ward added of the new effort.

Ward said the new files being added to the Highway16 database come in many forms, some of which are already in an existing sophisticated database called the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS).

It contains information on nation-wide solved or unsolved homicides, attempted homicides, sexual assaults, suspicious missing persons cases, still unidentified bodies where homicide is either known or suspected and non-parental abductions or attempted abductions.

Information is entered into ViCLAS using a standardized questionnaire, which then allows investigators to search for links using key words or a combination of key words.

Ward cautioned that people should not assume RCMP have never before looked for connections into missing persons cases or unsolved murders.

In and by itself, the RCMP's Highway 16 list of missing and murdered women contains nine names, beginning with Monica Ignas, who disappeared outside of Terrace in 1974 to Tamara Chipman, a Terrace resident who was last seen hitchhiking outside of Prince Rupert in September 2005.

The nine cases reach from Prince Rupert to Prince George and that stretch has now been dubbed the Highway of Tears by relatives and others who fear there is a serial killer or killers at work preying on young women.

RCMP first announced a major review of the cases this spring at a Prince George symposium held to discuss what needs to be done to prevent more women from going missing and being murdered. It's the third such review over the years.

This time RCMP said they were assigning eight investigators to the review under the overall command of Superintendent Leon van de Walle, an experienced homicide investigator who has spent time in the northwest.

Ward said RCMP investigators have never confined themselves to the nine women on the Tears list.

-- Black Press

© Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

www.pgfreepress.com

 

Film goes beyond missing women's case

Film goes beyond missing woman's case

Debuting at the 11th annual Amnesty International film festival, NFB documentary examines violence against native women

Kevin Griffin
Vancouver Sun

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Of the 60 missing women from the Downtown Eastside, almost half were native. Number 23 was Dawn Crey, one of the People of the River, the Sto:lo from the upper Fraser Valley around Chilliwack. Her remains were found on Robert Pickton's farm but there wasn't enough DNA to include Crey as one of 26 women he's charged with killing.

In the National Film Board documentary Finding Dawn, Crey becomes much more than a number. She becomes a daughter and a sister who was on methadone and trying to turn her life around when she disappeared.

But as her brother, Ernie, says, Dawn didn't live in a tony west-side neighbourhood with political connections. Because she lived in one of the country's poorest urban areas, he says, Dawn's disappearance along with the other missing women wasn't given the attention by police that they deserved.

"These are not powerful people in this society," said Ernie Crey, a policy adviser for the Sto:lo Tribal Council.

"We cannot pretend that police are equally responsive to different parts of society."

Finding Dawn receives its local premiere this evening at 7 p.m. when it opens the 11th annual Amnesty International Film Festival at Pacific Cinematheque. Due to demand, the festival has added a second screening of Finding Dawn on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

Metis filmmaker Christine Welsh takes Dawn's story as a starting point for a journey into the native women who have gone missing or been murdered in Western Canada in communities such as Saskatoon or along Highway 16, the Yellowhead in northern B.C. Welsh, who narrates the film, never uses the "r" word as the cause, although she easily could have to describe what's happened to native women. Instead, Welsh interviews the relatives and friends who not only talk about never forgetting those who have been murdered, but of changing attitudes that treat native women as marginalized and disposable.

One of the many powerful native women interviewed in Welsh's documentary is Mattie Wilson, mother of Daleen, who was murdered on Highway 16. She's part of a group that holds a three-km walk every year from where Daleen was last seen to where her body was found.

"I will let people know we will never forget the loved ones killed along Highway 16, the Highway of Tears," Wilson says.

When Wilson speaks, her voice sounds soft and small. But when you listen, you hear the power of her love for her daughter in every word.

Finding Dawn is more about the living than the dead and how native women are organizing to combat violence against native women. Going way beyond media stereotypes of native women as victims, it presents the real stories of native women who are actively engaged in making changes on and off reserve.

The AI Film Festival is showing 21 films about human rights during the next four days. Other films being screened include:

Visioning Tibet: Ophthalmologist Marc Lieberman, founder of Tibet Vision Project, hopes to end preventable blindness in Tibet, which has the highest rate of cataract blindness in the world. Isaac Solotaroff's documentary follows Karma and Lhasang who travel to a remote clinic where they hope doctors can restore their sight using equipment and training provided by Lieberman. Visioning Tibet is on Friday at 9:30 p.m. following Missing: Sri Lanka's Silent Tsunami.

Total Denial: Five years in the making, Total Denial is about Ka Hsaw Wa's battle on behalf of the Karen people of Burma to gather information on human rights abuses and environmental damage that resulted in a lawsuit against two multinational law companies: Total of France and Unocal of the U.S.

It screens Saturday at 3:25 p.m.

The Tank Man: In June 1988, the world watched a lone man staring down a procession of tanks in Tiananmen Square. In the process of trying to find the story of the courageous man, the producers of this Frontline documentary discover a continuing fight between the communist government and those who want a more open society.

The last film in the festival, it will be shown on Sunday at 9:35 p.m. There's no charge for admission to this special presentation.

A full list of the films is available at www.amnesty.ca/filmfest . Tickets are available through ticketstonight.ca

kevingriffin@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Addressing the issues

By Bill Phillips
Free Press

Oct 25, 2006

The first thing Lisa Krebs does when talking about her new role as coordinator for the Highway of Tears initiative is to recognize the families of those who have lost loved ones.

One of her first tasks will be to establish a governing body that will oversee what she does. The position stems from a report released earlier this year that lists everything from free bus rides to more police officers as ways to stop women from hitchhiking along Hwy. 16 from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

That stretch of road has been dubbed the Highway of Tears because at least 10 young women, all but one of whom is aboriginal, have disappeared since 1974.

"There are lots of linkages that have to be made, a lot of change in police," she said Friday, her first day on the job. "The governing body will help with that."

The governing body will be comprised of families of victims, the RCMP, rural First Nations representatives, urban aboriginal representatives, and Highway 16 municipalities

Her job will focus on the 33 recommendations outlined in the Highway of Tears Symposium report, issued earlier this year. Of the 33 recommendations, 15 focused on victim prevention, six on emergency planning, six on victim family counselling, and six on community development and support.

It's a lot more than just teaching people about the perils of hitchhiking. It's about social change, said Krebs when asked about why she applied for the job. She said she identified with the recommendations in the report.

"As an aboriginal woman, I believe change comes from the community," she said.

Her background is in planning, she completed a bachelor's degree in First Nations Studies from the University of Northern BC and a Masters of Anthropology from the University of Alberta. She has worked in many capacities with various First Nations communities in the north.

As for her work as the Highway of Tears initiative coordinator will mean tackling some large, large issues as the initiative will look at why people are on the road hitchhiking.

"People need to step outside of their own reality," she said. "This is more than just people standing out on the highway, there are reasons they are standing out on the highway."

Poverty is an issue, as is providing recreation opportunities for youth. As Krebs stated, it's about social change.

However, there will be other aspects to her job as well, such as education campaigns. University students will be targeted and simple things such as billboards might be part of education campaigns. Crisis response plans also have to be developed. It's a big job, and Krebs won't be doing it alone. The governing body will help, but she is also relying on help from people and communities along Highway 16 – which she will be travelling extensively in the near future.

Another aspect of her job will be fundraising. The symposium report originally called for two coordinators – one in Prince George and one in Prince Rupert. Krebs' job will be to secure funding for that second coordinator. Some applications for grant money have already been submitted, but she will be seeking more funding.

And the job is not without its detractors. Working out of the Carrier Sekani Family Services building, Krebs said the office has received calls saying the initiative is a waste of taxpayers' dollars. She says she reminds herself of what Mary Tegee of Carrier Sekani Family Services told her.

"If we save one person, then it's all worth it."

© Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

 

Ad looking for murder victim info

A private investigator has taken out an ad suggesting he has undisclosed information on the murder of Ramona Wilson, one of the victims on the so-called Highway of Tears.

Ray Michalko told the Citizen he is hoping more information will come in if certain people are aware that the information they possess about the crime is being taken seriously in conjunction with other knowledge.

"I was in Burns Lake and Smithers last week, and as a result of my investigations I decided to place these ads," Michalko said. "Without naming names - I would rather not talk about that - this ad is the result of what I learned."

The ad reads, in part, Michalko "now believes more than one local individual was present in the immediate area and at the exact time that Roman Wilson was murdered. If you were one of the people that was present ... do the right thing and call Smithers RCMP immediately."

Wilson, 16, of Smithers, vanished on June 11, 1994. The Smithers high school student left home before 10 p.m. and was last seen walking to Highway 16, planning to hitchhike to nearby Moricetown to meet her boyfriend. Her skeletal remains were found April 9, 1995 in a wooded area on the west side of Smithers. Police have not said how she was murdered.

Michalko has been working on the Highway of Tears case on his own, no client, since January. About three months ago a Victoria-based social advocacy group heard him discussing his self-motivated quest to help the case and offered to pay some of his expenses. He still has no particular family or group underwriting his efforts. He is in contact with some members of some families, he said, but only for the purpose of learning specific information about the murders and disappearances.

"When I started out in this in January, I put a small notice in the Terrace paper and that worked so well for me I thought I'd try it again in other papers," Michalko said. "Every time there was a story of any kind in the media by you guys in the north, I seemed to get more tips, so I believe it will help. I hope it will be beneficial. Up in the north, I really think the papers have done a great job about keeping this in the public's eye and maybe that will bring pressure on people in government and people of authority to work harder at this."

Michalko believes an RCMP task force on the ground in the Highway of Tears zone, between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

"I have no idea what the police have learned, so I can't compare what I've learned that they haven't learned," he said. "As a private investigator I don't have much more authority than a private citizen. I collect what information I can, I don't want to waste their (RCMP's) time with information that hasn't been verified, so I am checking it out, and then I make a decision about what to do with it."

To contact Michalko call him at Valley Pacific Investigations, 604-831-5585. Information on any of the Highway of Tears cases can also be anonymously reported to the 24-hour Crime Stoppers tips service at 1-800-222-TIPS / www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca  
 

©Copyright 2006 Prince George Citizen

 

Co-ordinator looking for Highway of Tears input

FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff

One day into her job and Lisa Krebs already knows what her first task will be as the Highway of Tears co-ordinator. As the newly minted manager of implementing the many recommendations of the Highway of Tears Report that came out in June, Krebs will first look for help.

One of the report's 33 recommendations is to assemble a governing body, a board of directors of sorts, made up of the major stakeholder groups involved in the issue of missing and murdered women along Highway 16 West. Krebs told the Citizen this needs to happen swiftly.

"We have identified that it should be up and functioning within two weeks," she said, mentioning the First Nations groups, municipalities, the RCMP and most importantly the families of the victims. "These are the stakeholders who have participated in the issue all along. It has been carried on the wings of a number of different representatives, the Lheitli T'enneh Nation, Native Friendship Centre, Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association, etc. - and that is the foundation for the governing body but there is room for more. I wouldn't mind some other areas being filled like educators and others who can contribute to the issue."

Krebs was selected for her education background (a degree from UNBC and nearing her masters from the University of Alberta), her work experience (a variety of aboriginal and northern agencies, most recently the natural resources department of the Lheitli T'enneh), and her awareness of the issue. She has been a social advocate almost since her arrival in Prince George in 1994 to attend UNBC. She chose the school because it was new at the time, Prince George was a fresh rural city, and those factors were an exciting contrast to the urban sprawl into her home town of Langley.

It was there, in her childhood, when Clifford Olson went on his killing spree, and not far down the road where a now notorious pig farm was the alleged scene of grisly serial murder. These iconic things, past and present, fed into Krebs' desire to do something positive on the Highway of Tears matter.

She is now in a position some see as crucial for exploding the systemic problems with northern B.C.: apathy-based racism against aboriginal people, poverty especially for First Nations in the area, and all the disconnect and violence and addiction that spins out of that. Some of the side effects of those conditions are hitchhiking, easy targeting of people to rape and murder, and a society that looks the other way when aboriginal people are victimized.

Woah, slow down the expectations, Krebs said.

"It is not about solving (overarching issues)," she stressed. "Those are systemic things. There are some policy changes that need to happen, some awareness building and education. I think those gaps are not insurmountable. But to say my work is going to 'solve' is not how I think of it. I am not overwhelmed but I certainly recognize that it is going to be a lot of work, a long-term endeavour."

In the short term she also has to work on funding efforts, and hopes to raise enough to implement a second Highway of Tears co-ordinator to be based in the Prince Rupert or Terrace area.

There are also a number of recommendations in the report that she is certain can be achieved in very short order, so she feels her first full week in the position will be full of activity.

©Copyright 2006 Prince George Citizen

Communities unite to reclaim the Highway of Tears

October 21, 2005
by: Stephanie Woodard

TERRACE, British Columbia - A killing ground became sacred space, as communities along Highway 16 gathered recently to celebrate the lives and deplore the deaths or disappearances of 32 women and girls - 31 of them Native - during the 1990s.

These largely uninvestigated, unsolved crimes took place on a 500-mile stretch of the road that threads its way through the lush rainforest and glorious mountains of western Canada. The route eventually became known as the Highway of Tears - more a place of horror than one of beauty.

Kathy Wesley, Nisga'a Nation, a counselor at Ksan House, a social-services organization and women's shelter in Terrace, coordinated the event. Called ''Take Back the Highway,'' the idea was inspired by Take Back the Night, an international demonstration against sexism and violence that takes place each September.

In each of many towns along the route, hundreds of men, women and children - Native and non-Native - prayed, sang, danced and marched. ''A butterfly suggestion became a tidal wave,'' said Grainne Barthe, of Hope Haven Transition House, a women's shelter in Prince Rupert. The First Nations and Bands represented included Tsimshian, Kitsumkalum, Stellat'en, Cheslatta, Hagwilget, Nak'azdli, Tsay Keh Dene, Lake Babine, Sai'Kuz and Nad'leh.

Beverley Jacobs, Mohawk, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, appeared on behalf of her organization, which has worked hard over the past few years to bring attention to the issue of rampant violence and discrimination against indigenous women in Canada. ''I am honored to know such powerful and strong people,'' Jacobs said of the marchers.

''I saw the sister and niece of Ramona Wilson [who went missing at age 15] holding tightly onto each other,'' said Shelby Raymond, spokesman for Terrace Amnesty International Action Circle, one of many national and local organizations that participated in the event. ''I realized this was a deeply needed statement, a moment to control one small section of highway, a moment to say we will remember every precious young woman who disappeared. A community was born on our march.''

In Hazelton, there was not a dry eye as family members remembered their missing sisters, daughters and mothers, reported Jim McAfee, an alcohol and drug counselor with the Hagwilget Village Health Team. ''Lucy Glaim spoke on behalf of the family of Delphine Nikal [who also disappeared while in her mid-teens]. The theme was reiterated that the families are still grieving and that it is healing to have the support of an event such as this,'' said McAfee. ''The deaths and disappearances affect us all in so many ways.''

Those who had experienced repression, sexism and violence spoke of feeling empowered. Participant Sherrice Lucier recalled her impressions of the day: ''Walking along that path was so symbolic for me. I was taking it back. Words cannot explain what I felt [while] walking with all you courageous women. So I will simply say, 'Thank you.'''

To find out more about NWAC's efforts to stop violence against indigenous women, go to nwac-hq.org or sistersinspirit.ca or visit hwy16.dsrhome.com/gallery/ terrace2005 for a slideshow.

© 1998 - 2007 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved 

 

Highway of Tears Co-ordinator Hired

October 19, 2006
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff A co-ordinator has now been hired to implement the recommendations in the Highway of Tears Report. Lisa Krebs will be in charge of fitting the puzzle pieces together to insure the safety of young women along the Highway 16 corridor between Prince Rupert and Prince George where so many females have been murdered or disappeared in recent years. "She had a remarkable resume and through the interview process she scored very high," said Mary Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Family Services, the host organization working with the provincial government on the issue. "She is a well rounded person and well aware of systemic issues First Nations face. She is First Nations herself." Krebs also has a bachelor's degree in First Nations Studies from UNBC followed by a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Alberta. Teegee noted Krebs has an extensive work history in northern B.C., with a background in First Nations communities. Teegee said 14 applicants made the initial screening process, that was narrowed to six for interviews, and it was Krebs who emerged from a highly qualified field. Her first day on the job will be Friday. "I am really happy. I am really excited," Teegee said. "There is a lot of work to do, I would have liked her to start a long time ago, we are dealing with the safety of our people, and I am really, really looking forward to working now with Lisa. It is exciting to get things underway. Initiatives, safety precautions, northern issues, we need to get these things to the forefront in Victoria and Ottawa and all over." The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation hosted the Highway of Tears Symposium on March 30 at CN Centre, which attracted the families of the many victims, as well as the highest levels of the RCMP and provincial government, advocates and social services personnel from across the province. From that symposium came the Highway of Tears Report released on June 21, which compiled and analyzed the input at the symposium and built from that a list of 33 recommendations. It is now Krebbs' job to tackle the ways and means of implementing the recommendations, some of which are listed below. Victim Prevention: - A shuttle bus service be established between the Highway 16 communities. - RCMP officers on patrol stop and communicate with hitchhikers who fit the victim profile. Also, civil servants travelling for work. - Expand the Greyhound Free Ride program for those in financial need. - More phone booths and better cell coverage along the highway. - Much more public awareness and education campaigns. Emergency Planning and Team Readiness: - Develop an emergency readiness plan that every community on the highway is party to and trained to implement according to established protocols. Victim Family Counselling and Support - Establish a Victim Services action plan to quickly respond to the needs of families in crisis. - Develop a roster of qualified aboriginal counsellors of relevant specialty. - That the RCMP reestablish and maintain communication with victims' families. - That the RCMP have an aboriginal liaison for victims' families. Community Development and Support Strategy - Establish a Highway of Tears legacy fund to help pay for prevention actions and Victim Services. - Establish a governing board of directors to manage the legacy fund and other aspects of the Highway of Tears issue (accountable via an annual symposium review). - Volunteer working committees and two paid co-ordinators be established to help the governing body.

 

Hey brother, can you spare a cop?

By – Smithers Interior News
Oct 19, 2006

An emergency contingency plan must be enacted for areas like the Bulkley Valley.

A number of years ago, after a meagre snowfall that had most of Canada laughing, Toronto called in the army to patrol and plow the streets.

Massive overreaction to be sure however, in Smithers and the Bulkley Valley, we have led the province in crime for four years now, and the rookie cops that Regina sends to out-of-the-way, remote places like Smithers are terribly overworked. Yet, a few snowflakes and Toronto gets an army.

As reported in The Interior News over and over again, the number of cases our nine police officers face is staggering.

Yet, big city 'burbs have double and triple the staff handling one-quarter to one-half the number of cases.

The inequity of the situation facing our community is appalling and the provincial and federal bean counters who decide how many cops and where they go, and how much the community must pay are utterly ignorant of the situation.

Staff Sgt. Rod Holland has told this newspaper on several occasions, that more cops are needed, but faced with the Smithers taxpayer burden and politics of his job, he is incapable of making that request for more officers a reality.

One of the basic premises of social government decision-making is ensuring pooled resources are delegated based upon need.

If for four years, three communities, Smithers, Quesnel and Williams Lake, have been highlighted by the solicitor general himself as the worst crime centres in the province, the question begs itself:

Why has John Les done nothing?

Granted, we are not talking about drive-by shootings and civil insurrection, but the level of crime, and the seriousness is escalating.

One could also question the Highway of Tears response.

Given the conflicting information released by the RCMP themselves, the number of missing or murdered women within this area is between nine and 30, depending on who you listen to.

Robert William Pickton is charged with 27 murders and was the subject of - as the police called it - an all-out emergency police effort.

Why? Because it was a Lower Mainland issue. They were Lower Mainland people.

Yet, with three northern cities and towns, with massive crime problems, a one-third solved crime rating, huge case burdens, coupled with as many as 30 missing or murdered women, the provincial and federal response has been virtually non-existent.

The bottom line is: If Smithers could afford to hire new police officers, despite the current inequitable police taxation system, Smithers Mayor Jim Davidson would no doubt add more uniforms.

The simple reality is, with nearly $1.2 million of the town's $12 million budget already spent on cops, we can't afford any more.

This is where special circumstances kick in - like floods in Manitoba, fires in the Okanagan, or snowfall in Toronto - and a circumstance our provincial and federal governments have a duty to recognize.

We are not talking about a few extra snowflakes, we are talking about the inexorable destruction of the very fabric of a small mountain town... all because John Les and crew can't see beyond some mystical mathematical formula.

Smithers needs help.

Smithers needs more police officers.

Smithers needs proactive enforcement.

Smithers needs better judicial decisions.

But most importantly, for once, Smithers needs Victoria to listen... and then do something.

If the numbers released by the solicitor general say anything... there are a lot of cops sitting around doing relatively little in some big cities. Let us borrow a few - we really do need them.

 

By DAWN DERRICK
Oct 18, 2006

Remember the Highway of Tears

THE TERRACE Standard has recently published several disturbing items such as Claudette Sandecki columns on the Highway of Tears and the article on the native binners who make their living by recycling bottles and cans.

Claudette felt that the Highway of Tears sympsoium in Prince George was a waste of time and energy, but was she there?

Did she know any of the women who have gone missing along the Highway of Tears. Never mind that the highway is a "so-called" Highway of Tears. It is.

We all talk about how people shouldn't hitchhike and that people shouldn't kill other people.

No matter what class or ethnicity they are from, the people who hitchhike want to get from point A to point B. Simple, right. Or so it should be but someone sees their lives as a waste because they murder them like their lives don't matter.

Which is what I hear when I read Claudette. Saving any lives by attending a meeting and brainstorming isn't a waste of time or energy.

Claudette leads a sheltered life and has no clue. Did these women's lives mean less because they hitchiked?

When you see a hitchhiker wonder instead where are they going and could you help them help them rather than regard the hitchhiker as a victim.

Not all the women who were lost along the Highway of Tears were hitchhikers.

Remember them and remember that the highway that runs through the north isn't safe. We named the highway so that it and the victims aren't forgotten.

Sometimes when I drive home along the highway I wonder about those women and I drive Hwy16 every single day.

Sure the north is beautiful but for some people it isn't very safe. Being judged is a common occurence among Canada's native people.

We get judged because of the colour of our skin but so many others attend a tanning salon to become more brown.

We're judged because we hitchhike but we do what has to be done to get what we need done. And if hitchhiking is the only way to do that, we do it.

My sister is going to college and she attends night classes and the only way she has to get home is to hitchhike but she believes in what she is doing so she will do it.

I have also hitchhiked because I needed to get to school but, my pick-up was broken and it was the only way I could get to where I was going.

Belief in one's self is a powerful thing and a beautiful thing and who cares what others think.

Which brings me to the binners who are beautiful men who make living in this world better. How?

Well they are princes among thieves who save our planet by recycling waste thatsomeone couldn't be bothered to.

Because govenment officials deemed it necessary to cut back on social assistance, they picked on the poorest of the poor.

These men used to be warriors and a long time agosettlers would have needed their help to live in the north.

Did you read what one said? He said some loser is going around assaulting them while they sleep out in the open. This land was all theirs once and now they live where they can and feed themselves by collecting recyclables to make some extra spending money.

Some one is picking on the poor homeless guy and stabbing him. What are the police doing about it? Just about the same as they are for the Highway of Tears?

To the loser who is stabbing them, what comes around goes around. You will get what you deserve in the end. Pick on someone who is awake and can defend themselves.

To the binners - hold your head up walk tall and proud becausewe were princes/princesses once.Thanks for making our world a better place by recycling what someone else threw away.

And remember the Highway of Tears so that it doesn't happen again.

Dawn Derrick lives on the Gitaus subdivsion of the Kitselas band.

© Copyright 2006 Terrace Standard

Terrace Standard

http://www.terracestandard.com

 

October 13, 2006

By todd hamilton
Black Press
Oct 13 2006

 RCMP comments miff investigator

A private investigator looking into the cases of murdered and missing women along Hwy 16 is bristling at the suggestion he is not cooperating with police.

Staff Sgt. John Ward, an RCMP communications officer, said Ray Michalko has been warned not to reveal information and to share any leads he picks up.

“We have been in contact with the private investigator and he understands very clearly that should he have information that someone comes forward with... he should be giving us a call and we expect that to happen should he uncover something,” said Ward.

Michalko, who has been collecting leads along the highway, now dubbed the Highway of Tears, plans to come to Smithers this month to talk with tipsters and five people of interest who he believes may be able to lead him toward the solution to the decades-old mystery of who has been abducting and murdering women along the highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

“If this gentleman, Mr. Michalko, says he’s got five people of interest then we certainly want to know who they are and we’ll take it from there,” Ward said.

Ward believes the RCMP can investigate more easily than a private investigator.

“We are professional police officers, professional investigators and major crime investigators that have been working on this for some time,” he said.

“We’ve got behaviour experts, forensic experts and DNA experts. I don’t know if the investigator has that kind of support behind him.

“I would tend to think that’s probably not the case.

“If we can get information from someone who might give us something to move the investigations forward then we’ll take it.”

In a letter to The Smithers Interior News, Michalko said not giving information to police was never his intent, and questioned why the RCMP is focussing on him and not the case.

“As a private investigator I have no power of arrest, what else would I do with the leads I obtain, other than turn them over to the police?

“I’ve been trying to say since I first became involved that there is no question that the RCMP have the training, investigative skill and recourses necessary to solve these crimes and/or missing person cases, as Staff Sgt. Ward suggests.

“So with all of this in mind, it begs the question that is on everyone’s mind, why, with all of their expertise and recourses, have the RCMP been unable to solve any of these crimes and/or missing person cases?

Ward’s comments demanding Michalko’s cooperation also rubbed the Valley Pacific Investigations P.I. the wrong way.

“In fact, finding a police officer that was willing to establish a dialogue and/or working relationship with me has been an ongoing problem from the start and it’s taken the RCMP seven months for someone to finally contact me, to establish a line of communication,” he said.

“I think Staff Sgt. Ward should turn his soap box around and give the lecture to his own members.”

Ward understands that tipsters may not want to talk to police.

“Sometimes people feel more comfortable talking to someone who’s not a police officer,” he said, adding that if these people provide information to aid in the investigation, that’s a benefit.

While up north, Michalko intends to investigate a number of the cases.

“I’m getting a fair amount of information and it’s not really specific to anyone,” he said.

“I think I’ve got some pretty good information that needs to be verified.”

Michalko has altered his initial theory on the identity of those responsible for the missing and murdered women.

“I think one person is involved in a couple murders or disappearances, but I don’t think one person is responsible for all of them,” he said.

“I think it’s just sort of a random act in some cases: somebody at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Michalko will finance his return trip with money raised by a Lower Mainland women’s group who wants to help with his search.

“We’re not talking heaps of money but money that will help with the hard costs: travel, air and car rental that makes a big difference,” he said.

Michalko will ensure flyers he’s made up are delivered to the southwest end of Prince George prior to his visit.

The flyers ask that anyone with information about the disappearances of Leah Alishia Germaine or Nicole Hoar, who went missing near Smithers, to call the police or Michalko.

He hasn’t spoken to any of the families of the missing or murdered women since his trip here this spring.

He forwarded some tips to the Prince George RCMP during his previous visit and hasn’t heard back, adding a response from police wasn’t something he expected.

Nearly six months after announcing a major review of the Highway of Tears, RCMP continue to enter data into a sophisticated computer program.

RCMP said it will allow investigators to look for connections and cross reference details of the various cases in a faster and more comprehensive manner than has previously been possible.

Eight investigators and data entry people are doing the work, which Ward describes as massive and detailed and necessary before the program can be activated.

Previous reviews of missing persons files involved cross referencing information by hand.

There have been two major reviews, one in 1995 and another in 2004, plus at least one mini review over the years.

Seven of the nine women on the official RCMP list were missing as of 1995 and the number has now grown to nine.

The first person on the list is Monica Ignas of Terrace who was 15 when she was last seen Dec. 13, 1974 in Thornhill and the most recent one is Tamara Chipman, who was 22 when last seen Sept. 21, 2005 hitchhiking just outside of Prince Rupert.

The 1995 review followed four women disappearing in 1994 and in 1995. Two were from Prince George, one from Smithers and the fourth was Lana Derrick, who was 19 when she disappeared from the Terrace area on Oct. 7, 1995.

Ward said that when all the data is entered, investigators will have the capability to look for connections or other items of interest that may not be possible by a manual cross-referencing effort.

He isn’t sure if the program has been used for other investigations but did say its level of sophistication and ability to track information will help investigators.

“What I can tell you is that while we may not have charged anyone, we may have closed off on a number of suspects. I want to choose my words carefully here but we may have been able to eliminate people to ensure we don’t start working and write a report to Crown counsel about the wrong person,” said Ward.

Based on those earlier reviews, RCMP are not convinced there is a serial killer at work along Hwy16.

“But the guys have to keep an open mind so they don’t exclude anything,” said Ward.

One factor to consider when thinking about the possibility of a serial killer is the time span in the RCMP list. It’s been nearly 32 years since Ignas - the first person on that list - disappeared.

RCMP aren’t disclosing the criteria of why some people are on their official list and why others are not.

Two weeks ago, thanks to news reports from Prince Rupert, a name surfaced that isn’t on the list - Mary Jane Hill from Kincolith.

She was 31 when her body was found in 1978 20 miles east of Prince Rupert on Hwy16.

“At this time, police suspect foul play but the incident is still under investigation,” a newspaper story at the time stated.

Three of the nine women on the list have since been found dead and police aren’t releasing details as to the circumstances of those deaths.

“There’s a reason those names are on the list. If the deaths were for some other reason, they would not be there,” said Ward.

All of those on the list are from the area between Prince Rupert and Prince George, the stretch of Hwy16 that connects them.

That also creates the impression the RCMP is limiting the scope of their investigation, said Ward.

© Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

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October 10, 2006
Prince George Citizen
by Frank PEEBLES

Highway of Tears Featured in Film
International audiences are about to meet the faces crying the highway of tears. Documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has turned her lens onto the disappearances and murders of many young women along B.C.'s Highway 16. Entitled simply Highway of Tears, it will play on European television, the internet and select theatres in Canada. "The fact the first documentary on the Highway of Tears was done by a Pakistani Canadian from Toronto who only moved from New York in 2005 is quite appalling," she told the Citizen from London where she is currently working. "It has been covered extensively in print, which is where I got the story, but I scanned the film coverage of it and it has not been done." Chinoy brought a camera crew to the B.C. Central Interior and began talking to families of the many victims of the rural highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert. She also spoke to police. Rather than asking the question 'who is to blame for these monstrous things?' the film instead asks 'who are these girls and their families?' "I didn't actually know anything about the subject before I went in to do it," she said. "Because I was neither aboriginal nor Caucasian I didn't have any prejudices about the story before I arrived there. I wasn't tainted with common rhetoric. "Many people here in London have absolutely no idea there is even such a thing as an aboriginal Canadian," she added. "But I wanted the families to be the focus. My film is not overtly political. I wanted to bring these girls back to life, to some extent, and portray the feelings of the families who have to wonder every day, is my child right there in that ditch? And everyone they pass on the street: is this the person who murdered my little girl?" What became clear to Chinoy, just from passing conversations, was how close to the surface racism is in the hearts of everyday local people. She was asked on more than one occasion why she thought the missing and murdered girls were worth bothering a film crew about? She heard that most victims were hitchhiking prostitutes and drug addicts so they were asking for a violent death. "Would they say the same thing if 10 or 12 local white girls were raped or murdered or disappeared on the same road?," she said. "That is the question that needs to be put to Canadian audiences. It broke my heart to learn that a country upheld by the rest of the world as a model for human rights does that to its own citizens. For the most part I don't see Canadians as racists, I do believe most Canadians believe in the ideals of Canadian culture that project out to the international community, but that is why I felt even more shocked by this treatment of aboriginal people and women in particular." Highway of Tears has not been scheduled for a Prince George screening yet. It will play on Oct. 24 in Vancouver, Toronto and Smithers, however, as part of Amnesty International's attention on the issue. For more information on the film and its maker, visit www.sharmeenobaidfilms.com.

 

October 5, 2006

Highway of Tears investigator miffed

THE INTERIOR NEWS
Oct 5, 2006

A private investigator looking into the cases of murdered and missing women along Hwy 16 is bristling at the suggestion he is not cooperating with police.

Staff Sgt. John Ward, an RCMP communications officer, said Ray Michalko has been warned not to reveal information and to share any leads he picks up.

"We have been in contact with the private investigator and he understands very clearly that should he have information that someone comes forward with... he should be giving us a call and we expect that to happen should he uncover something," said Ward.

Michalko, who has been collecting leads along the highway, now dubbed the Highway of Tears, plans to come to Smithers this month to talk with tipsters and five people of interest who he believes may be able to lead him toward the solution to the decades-old mystery of who has been abducting and murdering women along the highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

"If this gentleman, Mr. Michalko, says he's got five people of interest then we certainly want to know who they are and we'll take it from there," Ward said.

Ward believes the RCMP can investigate more easily than a private investigator.

"We are professional police officers, professional investigators and major crime investigators that have been working on this for some time," he said.

"We've got behaviour experts, forensic experts and DNA experts. I don't know if the investigator has that kind of support behind him.

"I would tend to think that's probably not the case.

"If we can get information from someone who might give us something to move the investigations forward then we'll take it."

In a letter to The Interior News, Michalko said not giving information to police was never his intent, and questioned why the RCMP is focussing on him and not the case.

See RCMP on Page A2

"As a private investigator I have no power of arrest, what else would I do with the leads I obtain, other than turn them over to the police?  

"I've been trying to say since I first became involved that there is no question that the RCMP have the training, investigative skill and recourses necessary to solve these crimes and/or missing person cases, as Staff Sgt. Ward suggests. 

"So with all of this in mind, it begs the question that is on everyone's mind, why, with all of their expertise and recourses, have the RCMP been unable to solve any of these crimes and/or missing person cases?

Ward's comments demanding Michalko's cooperation also rubbed the Valley Pacific Investigations P.I. the wrong way.

"In fact, finding a police officer that was willing to establish a dialogue and/or working relationship with me has been an ongoing problem from the start and it's taken the RCMP seven months for someone to finally contact me, to establish a line of communication," he said.

"I think Staff Sgt. Ward should turn his soap box around and give the lecture to his own members."

 Ward understands that tipsters may not want to talk to police.

"Sometimes people feel more comfortable talking to someone who's not a police officer," he said, adding that if these people provide information to aid in the investigation, that's a benefit.

While up north, Michalko intends to investigate a number of the cases.

"I'm getting a fair amount of information and it's not really specific to anyone," he said.

"I think I've got some pretty good information that needs to be verified."

Michalko has altered his initial theory on the identity of those responsible for the missing and murdered women.

"I think one person is involved in a couple murders or disappearances, but I don't think one person is responsible for all of them," he said.

"I think it's just sort of a random act in some cases: somebody at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Michalko will finance his return trip with money raised by a Lower Mainland women's group who wants to help with his search.

"We're not talking heaps of money but money that will help with the hard costs: travel, air and car rental that makes a big difference," he said.

Michalko will ensure flyers he's made up are delivered to the southwest end of Prince George prior to his visit.

The flyers ask that anyone with information about the disappearances of Leah Alishia Germaine or Nicole Hoar, who went missing near Smithers, to call the police or Michalko.

He hasn't spoken to any of the families of the missing or murdered women since his trip here this spring.

He forwarded some tips to the Prince George RCMP during his previous visit and hasn't heard back, adding a response from police wasn't something he expected.

Nearly six months after announcing a major review of the Highway of Tears, RCMP continue to enter data into a sophisticated computer program.

RCMP said it will allow investigators to look for connections and cross reference details of the various cases in a faster and more comprehensive manner than has previously been possible.

Eight investigators and data entry people are doing the work, which Ward describes as massive and detailed and necessary before the program can be activated.

"You can imagine that with the age of some of the files, the amount of data is huge and doing it is time consuming," said Ward.

Previous reviews of missing persons files involved cross referencing information by hand.

There have been two major reviews, one in 1995 and another in 2004, plus at least one mini review over the years.

Seven of the nine women on the official RCMP list were missing as of 1995 and the number has now grown to nine.

The first person on the list is Monica Ignas of Terrace who was 15 when she was last seen Dec. 13, 1974 in Thornhill and the most recent one is Tamara Chipman, who was 22 when last seen Sept. 21, 2005 hitchhiking just outside of Prince Rupert.

The 1995 review followed four women disappearing in 1994 and in 1995. Two were from Prince George, one from Smithers and the fourth was Lana Derrick, who was 19 when she disappeared from the Terrace area on Oct. 7, 1995.

Ward said that when all the data is entered, investigators will have the capability to look for connections or other items of interest that may not be possible by a manual cross-referencing effort.

He isn't sure if the program has been used for other investigations but did say its level of sophistication and ability to track information will help investigators.

"What I can tell you is that while we may not have charged anyone, we may have closed off on a number of suspects. I want to choose my words carefully here but we may have been able to eliminate people to ensure we don't start working and write a report to Crown counsel about the wrong person," said Ward.

Based on those earlier reviews, RCMP are not convinced there is a serial killer at work along Hwy16.

"But the guys have to keep an open mind so they don't exclude anything," said Ward.

One factor to consider when thinking about the possibility of a serial killer is the time span in the RCMP list. It's been nearly 32 years since Ignas - the first person on that list - disappeared.

RCMP aren't disclosing the criteria of why some people are on their official list and why others are not.

Ten days ago, thanks to news reports from Prince Rupert, a name surfaced that isn't on the list - Mary Jane Hill from Kincolith.

She was 31 when her body was found in 1978 20 miles east of Prince Rupert on Hwy16.

"At this time, police suspect foul play but the incident is still under investigation," a newspaper story at the time stated.

Hill's daughter, Vicki Hill, now 29, was six months old when her mom was found. She wants police to go back and look at the case in light of the other disappearances and deaths.

"We're aware of that and we're going to wait until the review is completed to see if it fits in," said Ward of the Hill death.

Three of the nine women on the list have since been found dead and police aren't releasing details as to the circumstances of those deaths.

"There's a reason those names are on the list. If the deaths were for some other reason, they would not be there," said Ward.

The number of people - nine - on the list has also been open to debate and conjecture.

Aielah Saric-Auger isn't on the list. She was 14 and a student at D.P. Todd Secondary School in Prince George when she went missing Feb. 2 of this year.

Her body was found east of Prince George on Feb. 10 but the nine on the list went missing on the stretch of Hwy16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

While not on the RCMP list, the teen is on a list released in June as part of a report prepared by organizers of a symposium into the missing women held in March in Prince George.

"The circumstances are different and we're not disclosing them. It's still under investigation," said Ward of the Saric-Auger death.

Also on the symposium list but not on the RCMP one is Cecilia Anne Nikal from the Smithers area.

She disappeared in 1989 with the symposium report indicating she was last seen in Smithers. RCMP say she was reported missing in Vancouver.

Some reports have pegged the number of missing at more than 30, but there has never been a roster of names and circumstances attached to that figure.

Ward said people should not get the impression RCMP investigators are focussing all of their resources on their missing list.

All of those on the list are from the area between Prince Rupert and Prince George, the stretch of Hwy16 that connects them. That also creates the impression the RCMP is limiting the scope of their investigation, said Ward.

"We're not excluding a whole bunch of other things," said Ward of work done by investigators.

Other people who also have missing relatives elsewhere need to know police continue to work on their cases, he said.

"Sometimes, we have a real problem with the Highway of Tears and the context of it being between Prince Rupert and Prince George," the staff sergeant continued.

And even though data from the RCMP's missing list is still being entered into that sophisticated computer program, Ward said that doesn't prevent investigators from working on the files.

"The major crime investigators do meet and they meet regularly to discuss cases," he said.

© Copyright 2006 Smithers Interior News

 

Women poster Hwy of Tears

 By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
Oct 04 2006

Two young women are making their way from Prince Rupert to Vancouver this week placing posters at popular hitchhiking spots as part of a personal campaign aimed at preventing more women from becoming victims of the Highway of Tears.

"We are doing this to spread awareness that there are still psychos along the highway so there is a need to find alternatives to hitchhiking for young women, young men, and people of all skin colours," said 23 year old Vera Zissis who is making the trip with a friend.

"I came to B.C. from Montreal as a seasonal worker and knew nothing about the Highway of Tears so it is important to get that information out to travelers-This is important to do. I have been hitchhiking and my partner has been hitchhiking and I know what would work to get me to stop. It wouldn't be people putting numbers into a computer somewhere, it would be seeing posters along the highway."

The posters let people know that people have gone missing or been murdered while hitchhiking and remind people that it is not worth the risk. And while many associate those risks only with Highway 16, Zissis is doing the same along the southern highways to remind hitchhikers that those risks are everywhere, risks she has experienced first hand.

"For me this is a personal campaign. I was picked up by a trucker outside of Quesnel this May and I barely got out of the truck, and if it weren't for the big boots I was wearing I wouldn't have gotten out at all."

Monday, September 18, 2006

Family, friends of missing, murdered women join march

FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff

The second annual Take Back The Highway march was attended by about 200 people, including many who are directly linked to the pain of the missing and murdered women who have been victimized between Prince George and Prince Rupert over the years.

March co-ordinator Sarah Boyd-Noel said the turnout was edifying for organizers, but what made the event special was having family members and friends of some of the Highway of Tears victims come and personally give their support.

"Obviously it was tearful, but meaningful," Boyd-Noel said after the march.

Take Back the Highway was a loop that started and stopped at Mr. PG, so traffic on both major Prince George highways could see the parade. There were drummers, aboriginal dancers, posters, banners, a quilt made by the residents of the Association Advocating for Women and Children emergency shelter, a button blanket made by the Carrier Sekani Family Services associates, and many other visual features along with the human element.

"The male presence was great. As you know, the (sister event) Take Back The Night march is for women only, so it was wonderful to have those male allies who came with a lot of understanding and empathy," Boyd-Noel said. She also said the attendance of local and national media, elected officials Shirley Bond and John Rustad, and advocates from across the social development map put the march into a bright light.

The Take Back the Highway event is not over just because the march is. Today, Boyd-Noel, Smithers artist Linda Stringfellow and other advocates are opening the Highway of Tears art exhibition at 4 p.m. at Pine Centre Mall. A number of local and regional artists, arranged by Stringfellow, contributed works to the collection that has now been seen in four communities along Highway 16 West and will be in Prince George at the mall until Sept. 25.

The Take Back the Night march, an event dedicated to the women who have endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse, usually at the hands of the men closest to them, goes ahead Friday night at 7 p.m., beginning and ending at the Native Friendship Centre. Only women and children may march in the main peloton, with men playing host to the closing reception as a symbol of solidarity against violence towards women.

©Copyright 2006 Prince George Citizen

JUSTICE I Daughter of murdered woman says old cases may hold clues vital to

current investigations

*James Vassallo

*Prince Rupert Daily News

*Saturday, September 16, 2006 *

PRINCE RUPERT I Many years before it was called the Highway of Tears, before

there were symposiums, before there was media attention and concerned

politicians, there was a six-month-old-baby without a mother.

The only thing the baby, now 29-year-old Vicki Hill, grew up knowing was

that her mother, Mary Jane, was murdered on Highway 16.

"The police never found anything that I know," said Hill, who grew up in

Gitsegukla but who now lives in Prince Rupert. "I've been trying to find out

myself, it's been too long not knowing."

In 2004, with the help of Marlene Swift at the RCMP-based North Coast Victim

Support Service, Hill was able to obtain the coroner's report about the

incident. She also found a 1978 newspaper article that detailed what little

the police knew, and all Hill knows today.

"The body of 31-year-old Mary Jane Hill of Kincolith was found on Highway

16, 20 miles east of Prince Rupert at around 5 p.m. on Sunday," the clipping

reads.

"At this time police suspect foul play but the incident is still under

investigation," the story read. "RCMP ask anyone who saw or had contact with

Hill on the afternoon of March 26 to contact them. Any motorists travelling

on Highway 16 in between the hours of noon and 6 p.m. Sunday between Tyee

and Prince Rupert who may have noticed any unusual or parked vehicles are

also asked to contact the RCMP."

Hill grew up with her father's side of the family, who never talked about

her mother's death. It wasn't until several years ago when she attended a

wedding in Kincolith that she even had one of the questions that had

troubled her most of her life answered -- what her mother looked like.

"I was given a small black and white photograph of her by my mom's sister,"

she said.

"Everyone says I look like her."

Her mother's unsolved killing is an example of a number of incidents that

happened before the public attention on the Highway of Tears.

Hill believes these need to be investigated because they could provide a

link with the crimes of the last 15 years, where a killer may have made a

mistake.

"I think they should [look at these old cases] they never had DNA test labs

in those years. I think they should bring the cases to see if there's DNA,

or semen or blood type or whatever," she said. "This all probably started

back in the 1970s. You never know if it's the same guy still out there, if

he did time and came back, but police should do something instead of just

leaving [these crimes] and saying forget it.

"They've got to think it's not [the victims] that are suffering, it's the

children and the families that are suffering."

Hill has what she first wanted -- she knows something about what happened to

her mother and she has a picture of the woman everyone says she looks like.

All she needs now is justice for the mother she never knew.

"I find it hard [not knowing my mother], but as a mother of two myself I'd

rather have the best for my children," she said. "Finding who did this makes

a difference in life for this generation."

Area residents planned to hold a protest rally on the highway today to

remind the public about the missing women.

(c) The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Highway of Tears private eye probing 9 cases has serious tips on 1 death
Dirk Meissner Canadian Press
Monday, September 11, 2006

VICTORIA (CP) - A private detective probing nine unsolved cases of missing
and murdered women along the so-called Highway of Tears in northern B.C.
says he's received what he calls serious information about one case.

Ray Michalko, a former Manitoba and North Vancouver RCMP officer who started
pursuing the Highway of Tears cases on his own for free, says he'll be in
the Prince George area next month checking the information.

Michalko said the tip involves three people and their possible connection to
the death of one woman. He wouldn't say which one of the nine women the tip
involved.

"These three, I think, probably, have a criminal background," he said. "They
may be there or they may be in jail. They're somewhere up north, I think."

Michalko said he wants to talk to people who know the trio and after that
will decide if he should contact the police or approach the three people on
his own.

"First, I want to talk to the people that know them and may have some
information," he said. "Depending on what information I get I may talk to
them directly or I may go to the police. I don't know at this stage."

Nine women - aged between 14 and 27 - have disappeared or were murdered
along Highway 16 between 1989 and last February.

All but one were aboriginal; most were hitchhiking at the time. The highway
stretches more than 750 kilometres from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

Michalko, 58, said he's been in the Prince George area once this year and
his efforts have resulted in calls from people who believe they have
information about the cases.

Since his last visit, a Vancouver women's group volunteered anonymously to
pay Michalko's expenses.

"I have the names of five people, I'd rather call them people of interest,
rather than suspects because I think suspects is a little harsh," he said

"Two of them are names that I've been given as a result of phone calls I've
received. They're sort of a long shot as far as their involvement is
concerned," said Michalko. "There's three others that I think are more
serious, according to what I've been told."

He said he has a list of up to seven people who may have information about
the three people.

Among the missing or dead women along the highway since 1989 are Aielah
Saric-Auger, 14, Tamara Chipman, 22, Lana Derrick, 19, Ramona Wilson, 15,
Delphine Nikal, 15, Roxanna Thiara, 15, Aleisha Germaine, 15, Alberta
Williams, 27, and Nicole Hoar, 25. Only Hoar, who has been missing for four
years, is non-native.

Aboriginal groups and others in the north believe the number of missing
people could be as high as 30.

An RCMP spokesman said they are aware of Michalko and expect a meeting in
the future.

"We're going to sit down and talk to Ray just to make sure that the lines of
communication are open," said RCMP Sgt. John Ward, who recalls serving with
Michalko at the North Vancouver RCMP detachment.

"I don't see that this is going to be a problem," Ward said.

The Mounties have met privately with the families of the missing and
murdered women since an emotional gathering in Prince George last March
where aboriginals called for help solving the cases and preventing further
tragedies.

"We have a review team that's collecting all the files that are connected to
the so-called Highway of Tears," Ward said. "It will assist us to see if
we've missed anything."

A member of a Prince George area aboriginal council said the Mounties appear
to have increased their efforts to solve the Highway of Tears deaths since
the symposium last March.

But much of that is likely a result of public pressure, said Coun. Rena
Zatorski of the Lheidli T'enneh Nation.

"Damn rights it is," she said. "Of course it is. They were embarrassed. They
still are embarrassed and they should be embarrassed."

The Highway of Tears is a small piece of a bigger problem that aboriginals
face across Canada, she said. Aboriginal women's groups estimate there's
more than 500 missing and murdered aboriginal people throughout Canada.

"Maybe it's going to take a private investigator to make more headway than
the RCMP," Zatorski said.
(c) The Canadian Press 2006

 

Highway of Tears 21 Minutes 2006 http://www.sharmeenobaidfilms.com/  The Highway of Tears is a 724 Kilometer stretch of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia. Amnesty International estimates that more than 32 aboriginal Canadian women have gone missing over a period of three decades. Some of the missing have been found dead along the highway. Others, are still missing. Police have not arrested anybody in any of the killings or disappearances. Reporter Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy travels the along the highway and meets with families who are still mourning the loss of their daughters   Premiers on Al Jazeera International Watch the clip Read about film (soon) Purchase the film (not available yet)

Canada: "Highway of Tears"
BY Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy

Every spring when the snow melts, Sally Gibson organizes a search team to look for her niece, Lana Derrick, who went missing in October 1995. "It's a ritual," she says. Once the weather warms up, Gibson gathers her friends and encourages them to walk the desolate roads behind her house.

She's not alone. Families all along Canada's Highway 16 -- a 425-mile stretch of road that cuts through pine forests, rivers and remote Indigenous reserves in central British Columbia -- are searching for their missing loved ones. There was Delphine Nikals who went missing in 1990; Ramona Wilson who disappeared in 1994; and last year, Tamara Chipman disappeared.

The families have dubbed the road the "Highway of Tears," and Amnesty International estimates that 32 aboriginal Canadian women have gone missing in the last three decades along the highway, which runs from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

Gibson, whose niece has been missing for 11 years, refuses to accept that Lana is dead. "She is not dead to us, she is just missing."

Gibson, whose niece has been missing for 11 years, refuses to accept that Lana is dead. "She is not dead to us, she is just missing," Gibson says. Local police stopped pursuing the case a long time ago.

With eyes filling with tears, Gibson points to the green trailer where Lana grew up. "We all lived on this reserve together," she says, as it begins to drizzle. She zips up her cotton jacket and offers to give me a tour of her neighborhood.

As we walk around, it becomes clear that the reserve, similar to Indian reservations in the United States, is very different from other parts of Canada. Here, aboriginal Canadians live in stark poverty. A blue Ford pick-up truck with three of its tires missing is parked next to an abandoned tin boat. A stray dog sniffs through piles of garbage that no one comes to collect. A young girl in denim shorts roller blades past a pile of plastic bags and crushed beer cans.

It's a side of Canada that many don't see. The unemployment rate in this part of British Columbia is more than 90 percent. People here are suspicious of outsiders and feel ignored by the Canadian government.

When Lana went missing, her family contacted the Canadian police to file a missing person's report. "They gave us 72 hours; after that they said we were on our own," says Gibson. "To us, prejudice is alive and well in Canada, against our people. And every time a young woman goes missing along the highway they ignore it, because it's not one of theirs -- it's an aboriginal girl," she says.

In October 2004, Amnesty International released a report titled Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada. The report linked high levels of violence against Indigenous women and girls across Canada to deep-rooted marginalization and discrimination. "Not enough is being done to ensure that police forces consistently respond swiftly and effectively when Indigenous families report a missing sister or daughter," the report stated. "And not enough is being done to ensure that Indigenous women and girls are not put in situations of extreme vulnerability in the first place."

"The problem is that aboriginal women are seen as prostitutes, as dispensable women by Caucasian Canadians," says Lucy Glaim, an aboriginal youth justice advocate.

Driving down the desolate highway, I see posters of the missing girls tacked to utility poles. In gas stations, family members have posted pleas to help them find their lost little girls. At the town of Burns Lake, I see a sign that says, "Highway of Tears: In memory of the missing women." Every town seems to have been affected.

"The problem is that aboriginal women are seen as prostitutes, as dispensable women by Caucasian Canadians," says Lucy Glaim, an aboriginal youth justice advocate. Glaim's sister, Delphine Nikals, went missing in 1995. Her family has not heard of her since.

Glaim acts as a facilitator between young aboriginal offenders, the tribal elders and the Canadian police. She says the police stereotype aboriginal Canadians and look at them as troublemakers. "If the Canadian police see us as disposable people, how are we going to get the respect of the Caucasian community?" asks Glaim.

Many of the small towns that dot the highway have their own theories about the missing women. Some say a serial killer is on the loose. Others think it's one of their own, a person who knows the community and the women well. Since the Canadian police routinely have no suspects and make no arrests in connection with the disappearances, the rumors continue to thrive.

"I don't think a serial killer is on the loose," says Glaim. "It's easier for our society to lay the blame on one person, but I believe that there are multiple murderers out there who are racist and are targeting aboriginal women."

Further down the highway, in the fishing town of Terrace, known for its salmon, Tom Chipman is putting up posters of his 22-year-old daughter Tamara, who went missing in September 2005. Tamara's two-year-old son Jaden walks around with his mother's photograph tucked under his arm. Tamara's mother spent days in the hospital after her daughter's disappearance.

"I just couldn't look for my baby daughter in ditches and side roads," she tells me. "How can a mother bring herself to do that?"

Once the posters are up, the Chipmans gather around a makeshift outdoor campfire to discuss their next strategy and to reminisce.

"Tamara was a headstrong girl, she knew how to defend herself. So whoever took her was strong and knew what he was doing," says Tom Chipman.

One of Tamara's aunts points out that the Greyhound bus, the only public transportation from Prince Rupert to Prince George, is cutting back on services. "Unemployment is high in aboriginal communities, there is a lack of public transportation, and now they are cutting back on the Greyhound bus service. How do they expect people to travel? Not everyone has cars," she says.

Another aunt reveals a secret she has kept hidden from her family. Many years ago, while hitchhiking, she was picked up by a local truck driver who tried to rape her. "He put his hand on my thigh and tried to rip my clothes off," she says. "But I bit his hand and opened the car door and ran as fast as I could. I never reported it because I didn't think the police would do anything about it," she tells the group.

When I speak with Staff Sgt. John Ford, who handles media relations for the Royal Canadian Police, he tells me relations are good between the aboriginal community and the police.

"The message we are getting from the families is that they are satisfied with our investigation," he says. "They know we are doing our job to the best we can."

Ford denies this is a race issue but more the logistics of patrolling such a desolate area. "The area we are talking about is vast, it's rugged; witnesses are non-existent. It's as if these women have vanished into thin air," he says.

While the police make little headway, local private investigator Ray Michalko, a former police officer with the Canadian mounted police, has started his own investigation. He has spent time with the families retracing the last steps of many of the victims. Now, he routinely gets tips from locals who would rather talk to him than go to the police.

Michalko has driven the stretch of Highway 16 and the numerous back roads that lead into the woods from the highway. "The terrain is difficult; the bodies could be dumped anywhere," he says. "But that's no excuse for not finding out who is behind these murders."

Despite his ex-cop status, Michalko says the police aren't doing enough. "It takes most people a lot of thought and internalizing to get up the courage to call their local police with a tip," he says. "When they finally do make the call, they need to be made to feel that their call was appreciated and that they are making a difference by calling the police."

While many families still search for their missing daughters, Matilda Wilson, who lives in the town of Smithers, visits the grave of her daughter Ramona, whose body was found along the highway sexually assaulted and strangled more than 12 years ago. Ramona was 14 when she went missing.

"They took the light of my life away from me," Wilson says. "Ramona was a bundle of joy, she made us all laugh, she was so young. Why her?"

On April 9, 1995, Wilson received a call from the local police. They wanted her to identify her daughter's belongings. The 10-month search had come to an end.

"Someone asked me that if my daughter had blonde hair and blue eyes, would her killers be found?" says Wilson. "I think they would. Smithers is a small town and the police have to only ask questions and do a little investigation and they will come up with clues."

Keeping attention on the disappearances, the Chipman family organized a walk from Prince Rupert to Prince George earlier this year to honor all the missing women along the highway. They walked the 425 miles through rain and snow. Family members of other missing women joined in. They walked for 20 days, urging each other to cover 20 miles a day. In every town people cheered them on. They arrived in Prince George on March 30, where a symposium was organized to discuss what families and the police could do to make the highway safer.

In Smithers, local artists have also put together an art show to commemorate the missing women. Alongside a painted facemask of one of the young women, someone had scribbled:

I dreamt I held you in my arms, safe and warm
I woke to tears falling silently.
My heart is heavy and burdened
smothered with grief so hard to bear.
Please return to me and let me gently touch your cheek
if only in my dreams.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a regular contributor to FRONTLINE/World. Click on the links to watch her Rough Cut report about the devastating earthquake in Pakistan last year, and her 2004 broadcast "Pakistan: On A Razor's Edge" about the country's 50-year dispute with India over Kashmir.

 

 

PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN
July 26, 2006
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Seed money promised by the provincial government has been received to help implement the Highway of Tears Report recommendations. The money has been directed to Carrier Sekani Family Services and the office of Mary Teegee. "We are the host agency," said Teegee, "With the money we received from the Solicitor General and the Ministry of Children and Families we are in the process of looking to hire a co-ordinator who will push the agenda of implementing the recommendations of the report." That job will be posted this week. Teegee said it is very much a hot-seat position as the Highway of Tears issue not only hits the families of the murder victims and those missing, but also the systemic class and culture problems that beset northern B.C. "There are a lot of duties. Even if you look at the short-term plans there is a lot of work, let alone the long term goals," Teegee said. "We are going to definitely need somebody who has a lot of organizational skills, leadership qualities, a multi-tasker, someone with a sensitivity and a knowledge of First Nations traditions and issues. We will need a strong person, definitely, just looking at the scope of the recommendations. It is quite a large amount of work. It will require a lot of communicating." The communicating will be between the co-ordinator and the families of the victims, the RCMP, the First Nations along Highway 16 West, various government agencies and social organizations, and a steering committee that is in the process of being established. The steering committee would help oversee implementation of the Highway of Tears Report. One of the first things the co-ordinator would have to do is go to work trying to attract more money from government and other sources to continue the implementation process. Teegee said she hopes to know more about future funding by the end of this week as she meets with government officials. "We have to get to work right away," Teegee said. "There is no reason why we can't start work on some of the safety issues right away. Right now we don't have anything for missing persons in the North."

Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

Published: Thursday, June 22, 2006

Natives are calling for a shuttle bus and a proper public transit system to reduce the number of potential victims along the so-called Highway of Tears, says a new report that also recommends that police investigate as many as 32 murders and disappearances on Highway 16.

Better rural bus service and the use of shuttle buses between communities along the highway would help reduce the number of young native women hitchhiking, says one of the 33 recommendations contained in the report, written after a two-day symposium held in Prince George last March.

The RCMP is officially investigating the murder or disappearance of nine girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 25 since 1974. Eight were native Indian and most were hitchhiking along Highway 16, which runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert. All the cases remain unsolved.

The report recommends that the RCMP needs to officially investigate whether as many as 32 females have reportedly gone missing or were murdered along the highway during the last few decades.

"This ongoing official RCMP investigation should determine the number of missing women and verify their identities," says the report.

Highway 16 is called the Highway of Tears because of the devastating effect the murders and disappearances have had on families living in communities along the highway.

"We've got a serious, serious problem up here and the report demands a serious response," said Don Sabo, a first nations consultant who wrote the symposium report after consulting the RCMP and victims' families.

The report, released on National Aboriginal Day, says young aboriginal women are more likely to hitchhike because they are often poor.

It recommended shuttle buses to stop and pick up every young woman walking or hitchhiking along the 724-kilometre highway.

It also recommended that Greyhound bus lines expand what the report called a "free ride" program so that drivers would stop to pick up hitchhikers who match the victim profile.

However, Brad Shephard of Greyhound Canada said the company doesn't offer free rides to those who can't afford to pay. "How do you discern who rides for free?" he asked. "If a person was in distress, a driver would stop and assist."

He said Greyhound drivers will stop if a passenger flags down a bus, but the customer is expected to buy a ticket at the next stop.

The report contained no cost estimates, nor did it suggest how the recommendations be paid for.

It looks like a fantastic report," said Diane Thorne, Opposition critic for women and families. Although there is no cost estimate for the recommendations, she said, "some things could be done fairly quickly and others are more long term."

"God knows we need to do something," added Thorne, MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville. She attended the symposium earlier this year, which she found was "the most emotional event I ever attended."

While the report credits the RCMP for doing a commendable job patrolling Highway 16, it recommends Mounties who encounter hitchhikers falling within the victim profile should stop, conduct a check, provide hitchhikers with a Highway of Tears information pamphlet and encourage hitchhikers to wait for the next shuttle bus.

The RCMP also should be provided the resources to increase their highway patrols during the hitchhiking season, from spring to fall, along remote sections of Highway 16 near first nation communities, towns and cities, the report recommends.

"Predator(s) likely patrol these sections of highway, as they are the best sections for opportunity," the report observed. "Increased RCMP presence along these sections of Highway 16 will greatly reduce the number of potential targets . . . and will visually discourage the predator(s)."

The report recommends increasing aboriginal awareness/prevention programs, including educating parents on the need for travel plans, including an estimated time of arrival, and increased parenting skills workshops that focus on "knowing your children" in order to a provide a faster emergency response when a child goes missing.

The full 38-page report is available on the Internet at: www.highwayoftears.ca

Among the 500 people from 90 organizations who attended the Highway of Tears symposium last March were senior RCMP officers, Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit, Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen and B.C. Solictor-General John Les, who provided $25,000 to help implement the Highway of Tears symposium recommendations.

Here are a few other recommendations:

- Public sector employees traveling Highway 16 could communicate the locations of women hitchhikers using their cell phones, which would greatly assist victim prevention efforts.

- A number of emergency phone booths should be placed along the highway between Prince Rupert and Prince George where cell phones are out of transmission range. Telus Mobility should be approached to explore the feasibility of increasing cellular coverage along the highway to increase access to emergency communications.

- A number billboards should be placed along Highway 16 to raise public awareness on the issue of the murdered and missing women, and should contain a 1-800 number for public tips or the location of a female hitchhiker.

- Existing community resources such as search and rescue organizations and fire departments be expanded to build emergency teams to act when a missing person alert is issued.

- A permanent regional first nation crisis response plan should be developed for traumatic events. The plan would include timely counselling and support services in case of murder, suicide, disappearance and accidents involving permanent loss.

nhall@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

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Raina Delisle, The Province

Published: Thursday, June 22, 2006

Aboriginals released a plan yesterday they say will prevent more slayings and disappearances along northern B.C.'s "Highway of Tears."

At least four women have been murdered and five have disappeared along Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George since 1989.

All of the victims except one were native. Most were last seen hitchhiking along the desolate 724-kilometre highway.

The report, released on National Aboriginal Day, is the product of the Highway of Tears symposium in Prince George in March.

More than 500 delegates and 90 organizations attended the conference organized by the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. For two days, RCMP officers, native leaders, politicians and victims' families exchanged ideas.

"The report is the voice of the victims and the community members who have had enough of this deadly serious situation," said Don Sabo, who compiled participants' recommendations and wrote the report.

The 33 recommendations address victim prevention, emergency planning, community development and support for victims' families.

The report says poverty and lack of opportunities for social activities among native youth are root causes of the disappearances.

There are about a dozen aboriginal communities along the highway. Many have no essential businesses or recreation centres and are several kilometres from town centres; young aboriginal women are at risk thumbing rides because they have no other transportation options, the report says.

"Predators are aware of the situation and use the highway to their advantage," said Sabo. "They particularly target young aboriginal woman who can't afford cars."

The report makes several suggestions on how to discourage hitchhiking and offer affordable alternatives.

Tamara Chipman, who would now be 23, is one of the most recent victims. The young mother, last seen hitchhiking from Prince Rupert to her home in Terrace, vanished nine months ago.

"It's been really hard to deal with and we've had no closure," Tom Chipman, Tamara's father, said yesterday. "If nothing else, this report will open the public's eyes to what's happening up here."

Amnesty International estimates 34 women have been victimized along the Highway of Tears over three decades.

The report urges better communication between the RCMP and aboriginals and calls for a full investigation into the disappearances.

No arrests have been made in relation to the murders and all of the cases are unsolved.

The RCMP won't rule out the possibility that a serial killer is on the loose, but say they haven't found evidence linking the cases.

The B.C. government has contributed $50,000 to help move the recommendations forward.

rainadelisle@png.canwest.com

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Key recommendations:

- Set up a shuttle bus between communities.

- Expand the Greyhound Bus "free ride" program.

- Require police and Greyhound drivers to pick up female hitchhikers.

- Establish a network of highway safe houses where women can spend the night.

- Place emergency phone booths along the highway.

- Create an awareness program targeting northern B.C. aboriginal communities.

- Increase RCMP highway patrols.

- Require government employees to alert authorities about hitchhikers.

- Create a "highway crime watch" and a 1-800 number to report hitchhikers.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

Report calls for efforts to prevent more victims
Thursday, June 22, 2006
 

by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff

The anticipated report based on the events at the Highway of Tears Symposium was released to the public on Thursday and makes 33 bite-sized recommendations for improving the safety of young women in northern B.C.

The recommendations focus on prevention measures to keep girls, especially aboriginal girls (the primary mark for murder or disappearance on the highway since about 1989) from getting themselves into the path of danger.

Don Sabo, primary author of the report, said this series of violent crime has at least one thing in common: they are all crimes of opportunity. Take away the girls alone on the highway and it becomes harder for murderers to steal lives and inflict torture on victims and families.

"This report has been viewed by the (major stakeholders), including the families of the victims and the police," he said. "They are all on board. They are all behind this. Many of these recommendations come directly from the families themselves."

Only a few apply directly to the RCMP and the way they enforce the law and attempt to protect the public. Rather, the bulk of the report focuses on what communities need to have in place in case of emergency and the services that should be available to those in poverty.

"Poverty can't be addressed in the short run," Sabo conceded. "This is about our society and how we treat our most vulnerable citizens ... It is not just meant to protect rural aboriginal youth, it also applies to urban communities, especially the urban aboriginal community."

Sabo said the authors of the report, and the organizers of the symposium (chief among them the Lheidli T'enneh Nation) are of the opinion that these 33 recommendations can, realistically, all be implemented. He said no timeframes have been imposed, nor are there any restrictions placed on whom should be involved in the implementation. All levels of government and facets of society need to play a part, he said.

"No cost analysis has been done so far ... cost is secondary when it comes to nine lives," he said, but added that, "A lot of municipalities and First Nations already have resources in place. All communities have fire departments, many have Search and Rescue teams, they have RCMP. We can use those things already in place by just developing some new protocols and doing some communicating."

Sabo said the critical work was not collating the recommendations but setting up the framework to implement them. He promised meetings in the near future between the potential partners in change, but stressed that safety was the responsibility of everyone and individual have to be part of the solution.

It was lost on no one at the report's launch, held at the historic Lheidli T'enneh burial site at Fort George Park, that it was National Aboriginal Awareness Day and by poignant coincidence, also the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Nicole Hoar while she was hitchhiking in Prince George. A moment of silence was held for her and the others who have died or disappeared by foul play along the highway.

FACT BOX

A summary of the recommendations contained in the Highway of Tears Symposium report...

Victim Prevention:

- A shuttle bus service be established between the Highway 16 communities focused on young females.

- RCMP officers on patrol stop and communicate with hitchhikers who fit the victim profile. Also, civil servants travelling for work.

- Expand the Greyhound Free Ride program for those in financial need.

- More phone booths and better cell coverage along the highway.

- Much more public awareness and education campaigns.

Emergency Planning and Team Readiness:

- Develop an emergency readiness plan that every community on the highway is party to and trained to implement according to established protocols.

Victim Family Counselling and Support

- Establish a Victim Services action plan to quickly respond to the needs of families in crisis.

- Develop a roster of qualified aboriginal counsellors of relevant specialty.

- That the RCMP re-establish and maintain communication with victims' families.

- That the RCMP have an aboriginal liaison for victims' families.

Community Development and Support Strategy

- Establish a Highway of Tears Legacy Fund to help pay for prevention actions and Victim Services.

- Establish a governing board of directors to manage the legacy fund and other aspects of the Highway of Tears issue (accountable via an annual symposium review).

- Volunteer working committees and two paid co-ordinators be established to help the governing body.

 

©Copyright 2006 Prince George Citizen

Police communication problem in missing women investigation

By Thom Barker
June 08, 2006

Momentum is building in the investigation of missing and murdered women along Hwy 16.

Ray Michalko, a private investigator from Surrey, said a trip to the Northwest last week was fruitful.

“As a result of my trip, I have just passed some information along to the Prince George Major Crime Unit,” he said.

The other thing that came out of his investigation Michalko said, was a pattern of frustration among some of the people who have contacted him regarding how the RCMP handles tips.

“On more than one occasion, I have been told that people trying to talk to the police are having a problem getting past the civilian employee answering the telephone or they are being told to make a long distance call to a detachment hundreds of miles away,” he said.

“It takes most people a lot of thought and internalizing to get up the courage to call their local police with a tip.  When they finally do get up the courage and make the call, they need to be made to feel that their call was appreciated and that they are making a difference by calling the police.”

But Staff Sgt. Rod Holland, commanding officer of Smithers RCMP, suggested that may be partially a perception problem. He said all tips that come into his detachment are logged and an officer initiates an operational file. Sometimes those files are handled by local cops and other times they are passed along to the major crimes investigators.

Still, Holland admitted that sometimes people just don’t feel comfortable dealing with the police, for whatever reason, and said he is excited that Michalko is having some success.

“We’re just as interested in solving these crimes as the public is,” he said.

“If this guy is a door-opener, that’s excellent.”

Another complaint Michalko has heard is that when people do contact police there is no follow-up.

Again Holland defended the RCMP saying in many cases they have no way of following up because people don’t identify themselves and the detachment does not trace phone calls for anonymity purposes.

If they do follow up, Holland said there usually isn’t much they can tell a caller anyway.

“Our ultimate responsibility is protect the process,” he said.

“We will not talk about how the information affected the investigation.”

Meanwhile, Mattie Wilson, the mother of Ramona Wilson who disappeared near Smithers on July 10, 2004 and whose remains were found on April 10, 1995, said relations with the RCMP have vastly improved since the Highway of Tears Symposium at the end of March in Prince George.

“They’re working closely with us, which I’ve wanted to see for a long time,” she said.

That new partnership will be continued at a followup meeting between the families of the missing and slain women and RCMP on June 15 in Prince George at the Ramada Inn.

“Some families have expressed dissatisfaction with the Prince George location, because they feel that the majority of the women have gone missing from areas west of Smithers and the meeting should be held in a more central location, related to the actual locations of the disappearances,” Michalko said.

But Wilson is just relieved to have the channels of communication opened up.

“I feel it’s ok with me,” she said.

“I don’t know about those who have a hard time traveling.”

To alleviate some of that burden, the government is picking up the traveling expenses for the families.

At the March symposium, Dahl Chambers, Prince George RCMP superintendent, promised action but said the police need help.

“Our hope is the symposium will draw attention to these tragedies,” he said.

“It’s through public participation that these [cases] are solved, not some magic bullet in the sky.”

Both Michalko and the RCMP continue to urge people to come forward with any information no matter how trivial it may seem. For those that have a problem going to the police, Michalko promised 100 per cent confidentiality.

“The whole premise here is that people can be guaranteed that they can talk to me in confidence,” he said.

Holland doesn’t much care how the tips come in as long as they do.

“There’s information on these crimes out in the public,” he said. “One way or another we need to get that information.”

The Interior News

http://www.interior-news.com/

Missing person reward pulled
Hasn’t worked, says family

By CARY CASTAGNA, EDMONTON SUN

June 6, 2006

Just weeks before the fourth anniversary of Red Deer tree planter Nicole Hoar's disappearance, her family has withdrawn a $50,000 reward for information in the case.

The reward had been posted by the Hudson's Bay Co., where Nicole's father has been a longtime employee.

"We came to the realization that (the reward) hadn't done what it was supposed to do," Jack Hoar said yesterday.

The family announced in October that they would withdraw the reward on June 3, 2006. Jack said the idea was to spur potential tipsters to come forward.

Although tips came in, none of them have helped explain what happened to his daughter.

Nicole was 25 years old when she vanished June 21, 2002, in B.C., while hitchhiking on Highway 16 from Prince George to Smithers to visit her sister. She had been working in B.C. as a tree planter.

The highway, now known as the Highway of Tears, has been a Bermuda Triangle for hitchhikers.

Nine women have been murdered or are missing since 1990 from communities that dot the largely remote Highway 16 corridor that stretches almost 750 km from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

Nicole is the only non-native woman of the nine.

Jack, who believes his daughter is dead, said he would just like some resolution in the baffling case.

"It's bothersome when you don't have any information," he said, adding he believes a person or group of people are preying on women along the highway and he hopes police can put an end to that.

"I think she happened to be at the wrong spot at the wrong time."

Prince George RCMP Sgt. Paul Strader said investigators are following up on tips as they come in.

Ray Michalko, a Vancouver-based private investigator, has also taken up the search for answers after recently becoming intrigued with the Highway of Tears.

"I'm involved in it and I'm not quitting now," said Michalko, of Valley Pacific Investigations Ltd.

"It's my opinion somebody out there knows something."
 

Cops not probing Tears tips, PI says

Private detective began looking into murder/disappearance cases during March

Ethan Baron
The Province

Friday, June 02, 2006

Police are failing to follow up on tips in the Highway of Tears case, says a Surrey private eye investigating the northern B.C. murders and disappearances.

Nine women and girls have vanished along 750 kilometres of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert since 1990. Five were found dead. All but one of the nine are native.

Private detective Ray Michalko of Surrey began probing the case himself in March and travelled north after putting ads in local papers seeking information.

One man told him he called Terrace RCMP four years ago with a tip about a vehicle matching a description of one associated with missing tree-planter Nicole Hoar, 25, who vanished near Prince George in 2002.

"He saw the car, called the RCMP and was told by the Terrace RCMP that it wasn't their file," Michalko said. "He was told to call Prince George." When he called the number he was given, the man got an answering service twice and left messages, but never heard back, Michalko said.

A woman who found a broken tree-planter's shovel east of Terrace had her call to the RCMP "dismissed outright" by a civilian employee who took her call, Michalko said. When Michalko visited Terrace this year, he photographed the shovel and showed the picture to Hoar's parents, who told him it wasn't hers.

"It could've as easily been [Hoar's] shovel as not," he said.

Michalko, who served nine years as a Mountie in Manitoba and North Vancouver, believes the RCMP should create a Highway of Tears task force and select an officer in every community to take tips directly.

B.C. RCMP Cpl. Tom Seaman said all tips are taken seriously and followed up.

"Whether you use the term 'task force' or 'team of investigators,' we have a strong team of investigators working full time on these files," Seaman said.

Terrace RCMP Staff-Sgt. Eric Stubbs said civilian employees generally refer tips to the major-crimes officers in Prince George, who lead the investigation, but there may be communication problems between tipsters and those employees.

ebaron@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2006

Police to bring in ‘specialists’

By Arthur Williams
Free Press
Apr 05 2006

The RCMP is launching a special investigation into the women missing and murdered along Highway 16.
RCMP Superintendent Leon Van De Walle announced the investigation at the Highway of Tears Symposium at CN Centre, March 30-31. Van De Walle is a veteran investigator and heads up ‘E’ Division major crimes unit.
“We have eight skilled investigators and this will be their only focus, their only job,” Van De Walle said. “In different phases we’ll bring in specialists in different areas.”
The review will be based in Vancouver, although officers will continue to investigate along the Highway 16 corridor, Van De Walle said.
All the information gathered on the cases will be compiled into a database, allowing officers to compare cases easily. Modern forensic science will be applied to the older cases in hopes of finding new leads.
“Science has come a very long way in crime investigation,” Van De Walle said. “But it’s still half science, half art form.”
The “art form” side of investigations still relies heavily on the investigators’ skill and intuition, he explained.
‘E’ Division’s unsolved homicide unit, the first in Canada, is a leader in solving “cold cases,” Van De Walle said.
“I’ve worked with Scotland Yard, I’ve worked with the FBI and I’ve worked with the New York State Police and the RCMP are as good as any of them – better in some ways,” Van De Walle said. “We are some of the best at cold case investigations.”
RCMP investigators will be putting on four lectures for the FBI on their cold case techniques, he added.
“These crimes are never closed. A new team of investigators may look into it with new eyes,” Van De Walle said. “I can tell you that any of the RCMP in this room take this very seriously. I’ve investigated many, many homicides. I can’t remember all the ones I’ve solved, but the ones you can’t solve stick with you.”
Van De Walle said, as hard as it is, the families need to have faith in the skill of the investigators.
Not knowing what the police are doing to investigate the case is a source of frustration for many, he said. But often it is critical to a case to make sure some information remains secret.
“We need is to create new ways to communicate with families,” he said. “I know we haven’t always done a great job of that, but we are sure working hard to get better at it.”
The use of the Amber Alert system and rewards have to be used strategically in an investigation, he added.
Amber Alerts need to have immediate and very detailed information to be effective.
“Rewards are often looked at as an instantaneous way to generate leads. I don’t believe that is necessarily true,” Van De Walle said. “Just to put a reward out without strategic thinking often just hangs on the post office wall – I know, I’ve made that mistake.”
Van De Walle said children do need to be taught about staying safe, and part of that includes using caution around both strangers and people they know.
“The offenders may not always be strangers – they may not always be boogiemen,” he said.
RCMP Sgt. John Ward said the police are looking at the cases, “with an open mind.”
At this point the cases may or may not be linked, Ward said. The geography of the cases makes it difficult for police to make headway in investigations, he added.
“They are on a lonely stretch of highway, where no one is around,” Ward said. “No one is there to see what happened

Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press S

Report to list recommendations

By Arthur Williams
Free Press
Apr 05 2006

Arthur WILLIAMS/Free Press - Martha Wilson, Audrey Auger and Mattie Wilson take a moment to remember their lost loved ones at the Highway Of Tears symposium, Friday

The Highway of Tears Symposium ended Friday with both mourning and resolve to reduce the chances of other people going missing or being murdered along Highway 16.
A steering committee made up of organizers and sponsors of the symposium will now take the approximately 50 recommendations made during the symposium and compile a report to present to government, police and the community, symposium co-chairman Dan George said.
“Our task will be to compile the recommendations into short-term and long-term goals,” George said. “If all of our stars are aligned, I’d like to in three or four weeks have the report out – use the momentum gathered here today.”
One of the challenges facing the committee will be to compile a complete list of all those who are missing along the Highway 16 corridor, he added.
It will be the challenge of the communities – both First Nations and non-First Nations – along the highway to work together to make the solutions happen, he added.
“This doesn’t fall at the feet of the RCMP and it doesn’t fall on the feet of the provincial or federal government,” George said.
One of the key recommendations presented at the forum was the creation of a Highway of Tears Legacy Fund. Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs president Chief Stewart Phillip said the fund could be started using the $50,000 in funding pledged by Solicitor General John Les and Minister of Children and Family Development Stan Hagen.
The fund would have a board of directors which would manage provincial, federal and private donations to promote the goals set out in the symposium, Phillip said.
Some of the recommendations put forward during the symposium include:
Victim counseling and support drawing on traditional Aboriginal healing and spiritualism.
Addressing racism throughout society.
A focus on traditional family values, parenting skills and safety education, starting with young children and parents.
Identifying safe houses in communities along the highway.
Creating community networks to respond to missing people immediately, managed by two full-time coordinators in Prince George and Terrace and volunteer coordinators in each community.
• Making sure existing help and information is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
• Building a stronger relationship between the RCMP and First Nations communities.
• Improving safe, low-cost transportation along the Highway 16 corridor.
• Working with media and the education system to distribute information.
• Combatting the social and economic factors which lead to youth hitchhiking along the highway.
• And building capacity in First Nations communities to provide services currently provided by outsiders

Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

 

Organizer thrilled with Highway of Tears symposium

Saturday, April 1, 2006

by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff

The Highway of Tears Symposium is being touted as a huge step forward towards the prevention of deaths along Highway 16 West.

Dan George, chair of the two-day symposium in Prince George,said.,"It was the first time that families, community agencies, all levels of government, First Nations and the RCMP all came together with a common goal -- stop the killings along Highway 16", where nine young women have went missing or found murdered since 1990.

"For me the most heartening part was the courage and strength shown by the families who have lost a loved one on that highway. (The symposium) gave them a place of safety to validate their stories, and I'm sure it was a major step in their healing process."

"I was also pleased with the turnout in excess of 500, and the level of engagement and composition of participants," said George.

The event at CN Centre resulted in a long list of recommendations to be compiled in a report "with measurable action plan objectives of both short and long-term goals," George said.

The report, to be prepared by Lheidli T'enneh Band and Highway of Tears organization within the next few weeks, will be widely distributed to governments, agencies, foundations and the public.

Recommendations, which number more than 50, fall into four main categories:

•Emergency readiness includes an enhanced "amber alert" program which fast-tracks the alert to the public when someone goes missing, and preparation of an inventory of violent offenders being released into communities.

•Prevention programs will involve both families and communities as advocates for policy changes of regulations regarding missing persons, installing well-lit emergency telephones along the highway, creation of a hitch hiker tracking system that would work like a block watch program, and development of youth awareness programs such as street smarts and stranger danger.

•Community Development, to address racism and oppression, identify "safe homes" along Highway 16, and placement of co-ordinators in Prince George and Terrace to give expression to the action plans.

•Counselling and Support, offering an aboriginal focus based on spirituality, advocates working with the RCMP in victim services, and more.

A Highway of Tears legacy fund of about $50,000 from ministries of Children and Families Development and Solicitor General will allow the work to continue, with hope that additional funds will come forth.

"We have a good ground swell of support right now, and we need to keep it going," George said.

The symposium offered greater insight to all participating.

"It gave me a greater understanding of the needs and challenges faced by the RCMP," said George, "and we're asking them to more readily understand the cultural dynamics of our people."

When asked about the offering of rewards as a way to bring the killers to light, he said, "Certainly rewards should be considered."

"Nine people have gone missing, and some think that number could be a high as 40 to 50," said George who added, if an accurate number of missing could be determined, it would help in the planning strategy.

An emergency response team is in the works that would rely not only on the police but also on a network of contacts in the smaller communities along the highway.

© Canadian Press 2006