Pause to Reflect on Highway 16 Cases:One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

    
Before implementing the recommendations from the so called, "Highway of Tears" report, a bit of examination is in order.

The time frame for the nine women who went missing took place over a 16 year period. It is commonly known that the police have had a number of suspects under the microscope for a number of these missing women; convictions on the other hand, are very difficult to obtain in many cases.

Police quietly have been saying for the past few years that they can only come up with two murders from this region that they believe have a positive tie. 

 Many of the cases they cannot tie together.

We are talking here about 5,840 days, the time period over which these young ladies went missing. That is a substantial amount of time over a road that is over 700 kilometers long, making the tie in even more difficult. The major media seem to have jumped on this one seeking out a story and trying to make it look like a serial killer was at work. Not so say the police but the media remember does not always get it right.

The recommendations brought forward from the symposium held in the city were good, but trying to implement them will be, in some cases, a major stretch indeed.

What the symposium did accomplishwas to bring more awareness to the problem of hitchhiking along any highway in BC or for that matter, Canada. The fact that aboriginal young women are morelikely to hitchhike along our highways is an area where more attention must be focused.

All and all ,the healing process from the gathering in Prince Goegre was a very worth while exercise and the people who came should realize that solving these crimes is difficult indeed.

I’m Meisner and that is one man’s opinion.

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