Haunting Highway of Tears

Haunting Highway of Tears

All the way down Highway 16 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, across the vast and intensely rugged province of British Columbia, to the Pacific Coast city of Prince Rupert, is one of the loneliest stretches of highway on earth.

Too often women step onto it to hitchhike only to disappear. There is a Canadian twist to the terrible losses in the overwhelming element of racism, because the vast majority of missing women are from First Nation communities. The losses are along Highway 16 from Prince George to Prince Rupert, and the Highway of Tears may be longer and spread farther than anybody used to think, including an immense stretch of road called the Yellowhead Highway from Edmonton.

The losses along Highway 16 Edmonton to Prince Rupert, may be accompanied by missing women cases in the Okanagan.

The killing and disappearing of women has been by snatching them off these incredibly lonely stretches of immense highway, and off the ashpalt they climb to simply disappear, while sometimes bodies are recovered (Amnesty International estimates 32 women missing or victims of unsolved murder in 30 years on one stretch alone).

Aielah Saric-Auger having been murdered in 2006, and she was 14 yrs old, and her body was recovered at Tabor Mountain east of Prince George.

Tamara Chipman would be about 26, 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.

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 mindful to immediately take the discussion to a notable point that the wider community has gathered to address the urgent concerns of families.

“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 Ms. Krebs was the registrar. “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 specific question were asked about how to address the systemic cause of these missing and lost lives. It involves racism, everybody was able to agree, and poverty has a terrible role, the extent of poverty west of Prince George includes a missing transportation system. The large scale symposium ended up releasing 33 (link to) recommendations (in pdf) running along the lines of four basic themes, “The final report provides clear directions for the task of preventing further losses,” said Krebs.

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 Krebs does is a difficult because it intersects the forensic with the despair of dozens of people, and avalanches of emotion will occur again and again, if dozens of people continue to suffer frighening bouts of post traumatic stress disorder.