In Vancouver, Robert William Pickton is about to stand trial for the first 6 of 26 murder charges. (A date has not been set for the remaining victims.) All of the women Pickton is charged with killing were sex workers. Their remains were found on Pickton’s farm in Port Coquitlam. The first 6 victims for which Pickton is being tried are:
- Sereena Abotsway,
- Mona Wilson,
- Andrea Joesbury,
- Brenda Wolfe,
- Georgina Papin and
- Marnie Frey.
The remaining victims are:
- Jacqueline McDonell
- Diane Rock
- Heather Bottomley
- Jennifer Furminger
- Helen Hallmark
- Angela Jardine
- Patricia Johnson
- Heather Chinnock
- Tanya Holyk
- Sherry Irving
- Inga Hall
- Sarah de Vries
- Tiffany Drew
- Cindy Feliks
- Diana Melnick
- Debra Jones
- Wendy Crawford
- Andrea Borhaven
- Cara Ellis
- Kerry Koski
The total count of missing women in the Vancouver sex trade is 60.
Same thing is going on in Edmonton, by the way. Did you hear? Probably not. 20 women have been killed in Edmonton within the last 20-odd years. Again, mostly sex workers. One man has been arrested for 2 of these killings. His name is Thomas George Svekla. Most of these murders have not been solved, and police think there is more than one murderer involved. The victims in Edmonton are:
- Bonnie Lynn Jack
- Theresa Merrie Innes
- Dolores Brower
- Ellie May Meyer
- Charlene Gauld
- Rachel Quinney
- Katie Sylvia Ballentyne
- Debbie Lake
- Melissa Munch
- Monique Pitre
- Edna Bernard
- Ginger Lee Bellerose
- Kelly Dawn Reilly
- Cara King
- Jessica Cardinal
- Joyce Hewitt
- Joanne Ghostkeeper
- Elaine Ross
- Lorraine Wray
- Mavis Mason
- Bernadette Ahenakew
- Georgette Flint
- Melody Joy Reigel
- Gail Cardinal
Back to the Pickton Trial. This is the largest serial killing in Canadian history. It will be heavily monitored by the media. Pickton will be the focus of hundreds of in-depth profiles, speculation, disgust. The women he killed will be grouped together in bunches, their identities a blur. The character at the centre of this trial is not any of them. It is Pickton. The public will want to know how his mind works, why he killed all those women, why he targeted prostitutes, how he killed them, how long it took him to amass such a collection of killings, how he managed to elude the police for so very long, whether he hates women.
this is a problem.
In my mind, the real story is not this man. It is the story of the women. The story here, really, is that 80 women have likely been killed. In two cities alone. In Canada, a country that doesn’t have that high a crime rate. And all of them were prostitutes. No one will ask how they ended up as street-level prostitutes, what drove them to leave their homes and families, what their lives were like. What happened to these women? They were all killed by Pickton, yes, but they all shared something else, and they shared it not just with each other but with millions of women across the world, whose only resource is their body, their sex, in a world where if that’s all you’ve got, nobody is there to help you, but a dozen are there every night to exploit you. The story is about why it took almost 30 years to find out who was making these women disappear, why nobody noticed that 60 women were slowly going missing, slowly ending up on Pickton’s farm. These women were not people – they were prositutes, throw-aways, easy prey for Pickton, for Svekla, for other men. No one would notice they were gone. No one would care.
This is how we treat our women.Read about the Vancouver Murders here. Read about the victims here. Read about the Edmonton Murders here.
The women will be quickly forgotten by the public. The killer ’s name will live on long after he’s gone. & sex will continue to be exploited for greed.
The powers that be aren’t going to change it, are they?
I don’t think they will. In murder cases (or serial murder cases), the victims get clumped together. They’re only known as “victims”. We never really find out what they were like, why they were where they were at or anything. We only truly delve into the murderer’s mind. What made him/her do it, what was his/her childhood like? To make sure that our own children don’t become murderers. Shouldn’t we be making sure that they don’t become victims?
Some while back I was up at a friend’s place [I don't have a tv] watching some cop show or another, supposedly based on true events, and it was about trying to find who killed a prostititute in LA I think it was, and there were all manner of folks working on the case, and all I could think was “they didn’t give a rat’s rear about this woman when she was alive so why the big fuss when she is past all suffering?” It seemed so phony and hypocritical.
“Shouldn’t we be making sure that they don’t become victims?” Darn straight!!
Men Fight with other Men – Respect is often the issue.
Men try to Kill Women because: passion (as women do to men), anger at their Mothers or other significant figures in their lives or ….
but When will we ever hear of:
1.) A rampage of a Woman killing Men or
2.) A man – killing Men (unless they are perceived as being Gay or similar) – on a rampage or serially as Women are often killed.
The answers aren’t necessarily difficult to decipher, but it still seems a little strange!
The Globe & Mail published paintings of some of the women. I really appreciate the attempt (at least) to acknowledge and try to memorialize the victims.
But what’s to be done? Legalization of prostitution? Or could there simply be some kind of check-in area to make sure everyone’s safe on a daily basis so missing reports can be filed quickly? I have no brilliant solutions, but surely someone, or many people collectively, could come up with a means to keep women safer on the streets. But let’s not get stuck in “men will always hurt women” rhetoric. It may be true, but it just won’t get us anywhere.
Yes, and there are still entirely too many people in this world who would say “those women deserved it because they were prostitutes”…or even more lovely “Good, one less piece of human garbage out there”.
I’ve seen such sentiments this week…coming out of women…
sigh.
This is ironic because across the Atlantic, there were 5 prostitutes murdered in Ipswich, England. There is one man standing trial but the media’s depiction of the women as prostitutes was disgusting. They were women first, not sex workers. What you do doesn’t define who you are.
Gina – you are right; the shameful fact is most people in this world only care about the silk shirts on their backs to care about anyone else. Is being self-absorbed society’s cancer? Probably.
thanks everyone.
L>T and Gina and Angiportus – right on. It’s not going to change when the legal system decides that trying a man for 26 separate murders would be too lengthy a process (and would cost too much money), the victims aren’t respected, and the focus is pushed onto the asshole who killed them. He’ll be made into a star, a celebrity mass murderer, his name will be on the tongues of everyone in this country for many years to come – a household name. Like Ted Bundy. We all remember him – charming, handsome, cunning, cruel. Who remembers the names of his multitude of victims (besides of course the families devastated by their losses)? We just remember what he did to them. And a few sickos even idolize him.
There is a sense of hopelessness, I think, when we put these killers on a pedestal in this sort of way. It tells us that there is little we can do to save ourselves from these powerful wackos. It’s like horror movies – the ones that are the scariest are always the ones about psycho killers, because we know that these people exist. And there’s nothing we can do to stop them.
But there IS something we can do. We can speak out. We can change society such that there is no such thing as a victim that doesn’t matter, that won’t be noticed when she’s gone. We can help shift power imbalances. We can demand better laws to protect us all, including sex workers. We can remember those who have been lost. We have to start caring BEFORE these people become victims.
Geo – you’re right, the imbalance is severe. I’ve never heard of any women killers who have done anything close to this. Violence against women BY MEN is an accepted part of our culture – particularly when the women are positioned as not holding value.
Sage – thanks for the link. Someone there said in comments about that article “Those women were killed because of our complacency.” How that line struck me! So true.
I agree, we need solutions. Legalizing prostitution would, I think, help – or at least more organizations for sex workers, so these folks can get the help and attention that they need in the dangerous street trade in terms of medical assistance, self-defense tools, and regular check-ins. I truly believe in the regulation of the sex trade, as much as I wish that the street trade was not so imbalanced in terms of economic and social power I really do believe it is the best way to keep sex workers safer – and that has to become a priority or these kinds of killings will only continue.
And yes, we mustn’t get caught in the web of ‘men hurting women’. We need to talk about solutions to the problem of violence against women – not just sex workers, but all kinds of women. I think that by focusing on sex workers as the penultimate victims of male violence, it allows the ‘rest of us’ who don’t live a similar ‘high risk lifestyle’ a degree of false security that really only perpetuates the problem of male violence against ALL kinds of women.
Which brings me to you, Renegade. I think this is exactly what’s going on with these women who are so willing to revile and denounce any association with ‘those women’. False security. That’s the name of that song – if the denouncers can just distance themselves enough away from the sex workers who’ve been beaten and killed, then their own lives will be less in jeopardy (or at least when and if they become victims of such violence themselves, they can say they did nothing to deserve it – they will be ‘perfect victims’).
Whatever happened to sisterhood? Whatever happened to recognizing commonality? Whatever happened to charity, to generosity, to helping those who have less resources? Perhaps the downside of postmodern identity politics is that we can’t seem to find anything in common with one another anymore – and so there’s less reason to care. God, that is one depressing thought.
Aulelia – thanks. I know, I didn’t write at all about Ipswich. I really couldn’t bring myself to do it, I was so disgusted and saddened by the portrayal of the victims. I don’t think that the Vancouver (or Edmonton) victims have been portrayed in such a negative light as the Ipswich victims – but our media tends to be a little less sensational than British media. Then again, I should hold my tongue until the trial begins.
Here’s a new link regarding this case: Victims’ families outraged at Pickton trial subpeonas
I think legalizing prostitution is a good idea. Especially if legalizing meant that these women could get regular checkups and healthcare. Then also maybe they wouldn’t feel so ashamed of what they are doing. There is still a stigma about doing something illegal that makes people look at you differently. When I was in college and took a Human Sexuality class, we discussed that in some places where prostitution is legal (and I really want to say we were talking about Las Vegas here), the women check in, they get exams weekly and are generally really taken good care of.
Sisterhood breaks not only in these situations. Think of when girlfriends complain about their boyfriends/others. Do we sometimes think “Oh, I would never do that. She’s acting silly/foolish. I’m better than that.” I know I’ve done that sometimes. When in fact, I have done the very same thing.
Thinking: “False security.”
Exactly! If I believe men will only hurt bad women, then, if I’m good, I’m safe! But of course that’s bullshit. My killer may be hunted down faster and sent away longer, but I’m not safe.
But going further – I think one good reason to explore the perpetrators is to try to understand how a killer is made by family and society. And they’re almost always victims of abuse as children. This is not to excuse their actions at all; that’s not where I’m going with this. What it points to is another solution that people everywhere desperately need as a solid foundation of each society: easy access to help of any kind for all parents of young children. There should be no children living in poverty in a place like the US or Canada, well, anywhere of course, but it’s unfathomable to me that this problem still exists in such a wealthy part of the world. Any parent or child being abused should have someplace within easy access to stay for as long as needed. Teens abused need safe places to stay and be nurtured for extended periods.
In my city, there’s a safe house for abused women, but they can only stay three nights before they have to find someplace else to go. The theory is that they need to learn to fend for themselves. The reality is, if they’re there in there in the first place, they likely don’t have other supports. Imagine having no access to your husband’s bank account, no money of your own, small kids, and the only place available for you to live is run by an abusive tyrant. You’re stuck.
That should never be the case, anywhere, but especially where it’s so easy a problem to solve with money for trained counsellors (emotional, career and financial), buildings, and affordable housing and daycare.
I’m cutting and pasting this one to my MP and MPP. And on my blog. If everyone links and does the same (or equivalent if outside Canada), let’s see what we can do!
On a related note, I such you download this podcast (link to an MP3) from CBC’s The Current. It’s a short documentary about the kids of some of the murdered women. And, as you say, this is a story about the women and not Pickton.
Gina – yup, that’s all I’m saying. Get these women some support. They are out there on the front lines, and they’re taking a lot of heat. Many of them have no other options, and little resources.
Yes, you’re right. The “sisterhood” is pretty fragile in most circumstances. Some women are so quick to jump on one another with criticism and hateful gossip. It makes things lonely – and it’s so totally about ‘divide and conquer’.
Sage – girl, you are on FIRE! Exactly – there are no resources for women, and for children, in our society – the family is the ultimate and often the only place where people can get support, and when that unit is failing, where can one turn? SO many think that a family’s business is their own and outsiders shouldn’t interfere, but my god – look at the abuse that attitude has helped to conceal! Incest, rape, physical abuse, mental abuse of all kinds happen and society just does the old “see no evil, hear no evil” bullshit.
Matthew – thanks for the link. I’ll check it out for sure – the Current is a favourite of mine! I’m so glad that there are people out there who are also focusing on the victims. This is their trial as much as it is their killer’s.
Within a family it becomes this sick circle of abuse. The person she/he loves is also the tormentor and often they are too ashamed/in denial to tell anyone when it first begins and then it just gets worse.
I don’t think that women who turn to prostitution for income are happy. So if they won’t at least legalize it, they should help make it safer. We legalized abortion because too many women were getting illegal aboritons which resulted in deaths and illnesses. To make it a woman’s choice. Well, a woman already has the choice to become a prostitute, why can’t we help her do it safely?
And the thing about sisterhood is this. Almost every girl I know doesn’t like girls, myself included. I try to walk into a new place with an open mind, but more often than not, I become disappointed with the girls that I meet. But then when you’re the kind of girl who gets along with guys a lot better, other girls hate you. Girls do the “divide and conquer” I think because having guys like them or fawn over them is often a source of boosting their self esteem. And to see someone who can do it effortlessly and without the same needs is probably pretty irritating.
Gina – over on the post “Sage’s tag”, Ruxandra supplied a couple interesting links about legalizing prostitution. I never thought it would end the problems for sex workers, but these artciles cite studies done in countries where prostitution is legal, and the results show that women do not receive additional support, but instead exploitation becomes more widespread and acceptable.
Perhaps a more reasonable solution is to call for increasing funding to sex worker outreach groups, so women on the street can get better access to more resources.
I will check it out, thanks!
It’s been a long time since this post, but if anyone’s interested in how the case of the Edmonton murders developed, here’s a link to an article from October 2007: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/10/27/4610450.html
and my thoughts on the story here: http://scribblingswithgreenchalk.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/what-do-you-think-of-me-when-you-see-me-now/
Aulelia made a very important point: when will the public finally see prostitutes as people? Why the hell isn’t it obvious?
My mom was one of the woman murdered. Mavis Mason. I was adopted by one of her friends that she met in jail. I lost my mom when I was six years old. I have no idea who she is or what she was like. I do know I have an uncle, but i don’t know who or where he is. I don’t know any of my blood relatives. I’m pretty much an orphan, so all those who think that those prostitutes will remain forgotten, shut up. I lost my mother and all my family when she was taken from me. I’ve also lost my heritage seeing as I grew up with a caucasian family. From what I’ve heard and read, apparently my mom’s case is the one that will put this guy behind bars, but since her body is too decomposed, they can’t get the evidence they need.
Does anyone have any more information that they could possibly share with me?