Murdered and Missing Women Commission Releases Study
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 @ 1:16 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The Murdered and Missing Women Inquiry has released a report on the pre- hearing conference held in Prince George and the seven Northern Community forums . The report carries 35 recommendations that were put forth by those who made submissions.
Right off the top is a call for the 33 recommendations from the Highway of Tears Symposium held in 2006 to be funded and implemented as soon as possible. The second recommendation is that there be a Highway of Tears inquiry to review and update the information from the 2006 symposium.
Here is the balance of the 35 recommendations from those who made a submission to the Pre-hearing forum:
3. If families wish to do so, there should be funding for them to visit the Pickton farm to participate in their own cultural healing, so that they can free the spirit .
4 Families who have been affected by what is happening on Highway 16 need to have their voices heard
5. More culturally appropriate short and long term counselling services should be provided to family members of victims
6 Steps must be taken to ensure that youth to have a better attitude towards the RCMP (suggestions included: playing sports together, and holding ceremonies and potlatches)
7 More cross-cultural workshops should be held with the RCMP and on a more regular basis
8 RCMP officers should stay in the community for longer periods of time
9 RCMP, teachers, courts, and those dealing with incarcerated community members need to understand fully the history of First Nations people so they can understand why First Nations people are struggling and trying to deal with their issues; gaining trust will be a slow process
10 Systemic racism within the RCMP must be addressed
11 The RCMP should prioritize prevention measures, this requires a better understanding of the communities
12 Public transportation must be improved on a priority basis; transit must be safe
13 Services should be provided to communities so that homes are safe
14 There should be more preventative program funding
15 Programs should be instituted to promote equality across the board, to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal women and children
16 Security video cameras should be placed in high risk places for hitchhiking
17 More education/awareness programs for young persons are needed, including in schools, and should be delivered in an engaging manner
18 More community-based workshops on the issue of safety on Highway 16 are needed
19 The RCMP should share more information about the various hitchhiking incidents so people know what vehicles or areas to be concerned about
20 “Shadowing Approach to the Highway 16 dangers” should be employed: If we see people on Highway 16, we should have a community system to get their information and get someone to pick them up and take them to where they need to go
21 Follow up should be used. A community member who sees a young person hitchhiking should tell the hitchhiker they will check back with them in one weeks’ time. The person should call the hitchhiker in a week to ask if they have been hitchhiking in order to encourage honesty, communication and awareness
22 Youth should be involved in coming up with recommendations to prevent violence and increase safety. They know their situation and have lots of practical ideas
23 An Amber Alert system should be implemented
24 Road blocks should be set up when a person is first reported missing
25 Protocols should be established between the police and communities for emergency response and searches
26 Community resources should be used more wisely to assist in investigations
27 When a member of our community goes missing we need a place where we can all gather together to work on searching strategies
- We need vehicles to help people gather together
- We need more communication
- We need a plan for when someone goes missing including who to contact and how to get the word out there. We need help and suggestions on how to do this
- Even if the RCMP does not believe a person is actually missing we still need to bring attention to this and make everyone aware
28 RCMP should re-establish communication with families of victims
29 More information sharing is needed between the police and the families/communities
30 Missing person cases need to be taken more seriously right from the beginning
31 The RCMP and the coroner’s office need a central database in order to cross-reference data files. Databases should be national and provincial
32 There should be a process for fast-tracking DNA testing, We need to have inter-jurisdictional agreements in place to facilitate this (provincial, national, international)
33 More RCMP officers should be trained to deal with homicides
34 More RCMP staffing and resources are required to carry out effective investigations
35 A specialized RCMP unit is needed for homicide serial killers and missing men and women.
The report was one of 4 released this afternoon by the Murdered and Missing Women Commission Inquiry.
The full report, and the three others, can be accessed by clicking here.
The Commission is inviting comment on this and the other three reports by no later than April 15th of this year.
Comments
Seems to be quite a few youngish men have gone missing in metro Vancouver over the years. Is there an investigation into this?
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