Police should be cooperating from Edmonton to Prince Rupert, an immense stretch of road including part called the Yellowhead. A killer or killers has shown a preference for snatching victims off lonely stretches of monumental Highway 16 into which so many have simply disappeared (Amnesty International estimates 32 women missing or victims of unsolved murder in 30 years).
In the larger picture women have disappeared from Edmonton to Prince Rupert, an accumulating number of them, and largely these are First Nation women the farther west the highway is traveled. The actual Highway of Tears is a 700 km maze of asphalt from Prince George to Prince Rupert. Relative to population, the numbers of missing women is an atrocity on the scale of the Pickton farm.
On the far western end of this highway of terror the range of age of victims might be wider, with Aielah Saric-Auger having been murdered last, and she was only 14 yrs old, and they found her at Tabor Mountain east of Prince George.
Tamara Chipman would be approaching her 25th birthday, and she is another of the most recent victims to have gone missing. The young mother, last seen hitchhiking from Prince Rupert to her home in Terrace, vanished two years ago, in the autumn of 2005. Her disappearance ignited communities along the highway into a huge publicity effort. It is startling to think someone can get away with these atrocities of senseless murder and endless grieving for relatives.
Among the missing or dead women along the highway since 1990 are Aielah Saric-Auger, 14; including Tamara Chipman, 22; Lana Derrick, 19; Ramona Wilson, 15; Delphine Nikal, 15; Roxanna Thiara, 15; Aleisha Germaine, 15; and Nicole Hoar, 25. Hoar, missing for four years, is the single non-native. Monica Ignas was 15 when she disappeared from the highway in December 1974, and 27-year-old Alberta Williams vanished on Aug. 27, 1989. Cecilia Anne Nikal, a cousin of Delphine Nikal, has been missing since 1989. This is the most accurate list released and may not be complete by any means.
Think of this: three missing women come from one tiny village in Wetsuwetin territory, next to Smithers, called the IR of Moricetown. This most picturesque location is undergoing a strangely disproportionate loss of young women. This highway killing field has become one of Canada's major unsolved mysteries, and disappearing and dying women continue to need representation to keep the light shining on their memories.
Lisa Krebs works for Carrier Sekani Family Services to create awareness about the missing women and murder victims of unsolved crimes. She is not the only one. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy of Toronto www.sharmeenobaidfilms.com discussed the production of her film Highway of Tears, with reporter Frank Peebles, in Prince George Citizen, last Oct. '06, and Pebbles noted, the filmmaker Chinoy was, "struck by the overt bigotry she encountered in the region." The local question on so many lips, "What did these women expect?" They were living the high risk lifestyle. Well, that hardly requires an answer, because in reality not too many Canadians countenance killers stalking through society.
Chinoy asked, "Would they say the same thing if 10 or 12 local white girls were raped or murdered or disappeared on the same road?" It is impossible to argue with the reality of these murders, which reflect a terrible disregard for the safety of one particular genre of Canadian society, young Aboriginal women. When Lisa Krebs discusses the Highway of Tears she is highly adept at immediately taking the discussion to a higher level.
"Prince George is in Lheidli Tenneh," land, and as such, they hosted a symposium last Mar 30-31, at the CN Centre, "with well over 500 people," where Lisa was a registrar who knows the number that went past the desk. "It contained local government representatives, family members of missing or murdered women, provincial and federal government officials working over two days."
This extensive endeavour was broken into groups and the specific question being asked over and again is how to address the systemic cause of these missing and lost lives. It involves racism, everybody is able to agree, and poverty has a terrible role. The large scale symposium ended up releasing 33 recommendations running along the lines of four basic themes, "The final report provides clear directions for the task of preventing further losses," said Lisa.
Public awareness signs, public events like the Highway of Tears bench overlooking the Highway 16 exit to the west of Prince George, family members receiving support for efforts to preserve memories, and hope for final reconciliations, these are things the symposium endorsed and encouraged. Also, they proposed shifts in public policy, some searching for solutions to the transportation needs found in Northern B.C..
What Lisa does is a difficult form of work because it intersects the despair of dozens of people, and it will again, and again, if those dozens of people continue to suffer tremendous bouts of post traumatic stress disorder, and they will if another girl goes missing around this Highway 16 fraught with tears. The last time a girl went missing the whole territory exploded with the news of it. Meanwhile the search for missing and miscreant goes forward.
These are who are the most idenified or public of missing or slain persons at this date:
1. Aielah Saric-Auger: Slain and unsolved. Age 14, and a student at D.P. Todd Secondary School in Prince George. last seen by her family on Feb. 2, 2006, her body was found on Feb. 10, 2006, in a ditch along Hwy. 16 approximately 15 kilometres east of Prince George.
2. Tamara Chipman: Missing and unsolved. Age 22, disappeared on Sept. 21, 2005. She was last seen hitchhiking on Hwy. 16 near the Prince Rupert industrial park.
3. Nicole Hoar: Missing and unsolved. Age 25, from Alberta, was working in the Prince George area as a tree planter. She was last seen on June 21, 2002, hitchhiking form Prince George to Smithers on Hwy. 16.
4. Lana Derrick: Missing and unsolved. Age 19, disappeared on Oct. 7, 1995. Last seen at a gas station near Terrace (Thornhill), travelling east on Hwy 16 to her home in the Hazelton area. She was enrolled in studies at Northwest community College in Terrace.
5. Alisha Germaine: Slain and unsolved. Age 15, lived in Prince George, her body was found on Dec. 9, 1994.
6. Roxanne Thiara: Slain and unsolved. Age 15, disappeared in November, 1994, from Prince George. Her body was found just off Hwy. 16, near Burns lake.
7. Ramona Wilson: Slain and unsolved. Age 16, was hitchhiking to her friend's home in Smithers on June 11, 1994. Her remains were found near the Smithers Airport, along Highway 16, in April, 1995.
8. Delphine Nikal: Missing and unsolved. Age 16, disappeared form Smithers on June 14, 1990. She was hitchhiking east on Highway 16 from Smithers to her home in Telkwa.
9. Cicilla Anne Nikal: Missing and unsolved. Disappeared in 1989. Was last seen in Smithers near Hwy 16.
SOURCE OF DATA: HIGHWAY OF TEARS SYMPOSIUM RECOMMENDATION REPORT
