There is something lacking in the treatment of missing aboriginal women in Canada.
The suffering of an aboriginal family searching for a missing relative does not go unnoticed by the public, but it does not receive the same attention as when a non-aboriginal woman is involved. This leaves some aboriginal families struggling through a web of unfamiliar bureaucracy, highlighting the cultural disparities that exist in Canada.
In April 2007, Kristen Gilchrist’s University of Ottawa’s masters thesis found that there is a “blackout” or shortage of coverage for missing and murdered aboriginal women in the media. Her research focused on the cases of six Canadian women who disappeared between 2003 and 2005. Gilchrist compared the media coverage of Daleen Bosse, 26, Melanie Geddes, 24, and Amber Redman, 19 – three aboriginal women from Saskatchewan – to Ardeth Wood, 27, Alicia Ross, 25, and Jennifer Teague, 18 – three white women from Ontario.
All six women, Gilchrist points out, went missing near the two largest cities in their home town (Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan and Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario). All six women were in school or working. All six women had close connections with family and friends. None of the six were known to be connected to the sex industry or believed to be runaways. All six women were murdered.
The cases with the three white women all ended with convictions. A man pleaded guilty Jan. 22 in the Redman case, there is a suspect in custody for the murder of Boss, and no arrests have been made in Geddes' case.
Gilchrist analyzed the print media coverage from the time of each disappearance to November 30, 2005. She found 968 articles relating to the cases of the white women and 172 articles about the aboriginal women.
In national print news coverage, 137 articles were published between the Globe and Mail and the National Post about the white women. Comparatively, only five articles were published in the Globe and Mail about the aboriginal women and no articles were found in the National Post.
It’s clear that there is a stark difference in the coverage of the missing women.
This is not to say there was no solid reporting done on the cases of the three aboriginal women highlighted in Gilchrist’s research, or in the disappearances of aboriginal women since. And this does not diminish the reporting done for the three white victims, or other non-aboriginal women that have gone missing. Rather, it points out a void in Canadian society. The concept of “the other,” as Gilchrist illustrates, exists in the true north, strong and free.
A break-down in communication is evident when exploring the frustrations some aboriginal families have experienced.
Laurie Odjick’s daughter Maisy, 16, and friend Shannon Alexander, 17, went missing from the Kitigan Zibi reserve, north of Ottawa, on Sep. 6, 2008. Odjick felt she had to struggle for swift police action and media attention on the disappearances. The teens are still missing.
Bridget Tolley lives in Kitigan Zibi. Her mother, Gladys Tolley, died in a collision with a Surete du Quebec police car in October 2001. Tolley did not know the case was closed until she read about it in a newspaper 13 months after her mother's death. She has been trying to get a public inquiry into the case since July 2004.
Sue Martin lives in Ottawa. Her daughter, Terrie Ann Martin-Dauphinaif, was killed in April 2002 in Calgary. The case remains unsolved. Martin says she no longer has faith in the police system.
Jennifer Lord is trying to build trust between aboriginal families and police. Lord is a community co-ordinator for Sisters in Spirit, a research, education and policy initiative under the Native Women’s Association of Canada.
In a discussion in February 2007, one of the major themes brought up with aboriginal families with missing or murdered relatives was the process for investigating their cases. Lord says mistrust of the police in certain areas exists amongst some aboriginal families, and families were unaware of their rights. Since then, Lord created a tool kit to help families steer their way through the process.
The tool kit, called Navigating the Missing Person’s Process, is intended for officers to give to families so they know what their rights are. It lets the family know they can ask to speak to an officer in charge, or ask what more they can do in the search for their missing loved-one.
Aboriginal, white, black, Indian, Hispanic, Chinese, whatever – a person’s cultural or racial identity should not factor into the prominence of media coverage, how a police investigation is conducted or the level a family understands an investigation.
Unfortunately, a strong awareness of biases and prejudices in our society, and a will to change them, is still missing.