There were indigenous woman and girls who were murdered over the course of my career for meeting someone in a bar, for walking down the street, and for breaking off a relationship and wanting to change their lives. In many cases the victims knew their killer but did not know how little value the killer put on their lives. Every killing deserved the full resources of the police and the courts, and while not a perfect system, in most cases the killers were arrested and convicted. It is the unsolved murders and missing women and girls cases which tear at us every day.
Blaming the victim of a murder for anything is the most asinine of defences I have heard to the charge of murder. Not one of these woman or girls asked to be murdered or taken. I knew many of these victims. They were people. They laughed, loved and were loved.
I dealt with a young girl in Saskatoon when I was a fairly new constable with the Saskatoon Police in the late eighties and early nineties. With a big smile, crooked teeth and happy eyes, she always had a good attitude. She apologized for being involved in prostitution and apologized when she was a victim of crime. She always said it was temporary and she would do better.
Then she disappeared. For more on this story www.northernhoot.com
