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A review by alisarae
Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid
5.0
More than 30 women and girls, mostly First Nations, have gone missing along a stretch of highway in rural Northern BC since the 90s. The RCMP has not released nationwide numbers about missing First Nations women. In spite of international attention from organizations such as Amnesty Intl and the UN, and a symposium that led to a long list of practical and relatively easy measures to be taken for the improvement in safety measures for vulnerable persons, little has been done on the Canadian govt's end.
This book is a compassionate look into the lives of nine of the women who have gone missing and it places the spotlight firmly on family members' voices and stories. It also reveals how ill-equipped the RCMP is for dealing with sensitive matters like establishing long-term trust in communities that have been badly abused by govt and law enforcement via racist policies and individuals.
I think this book is important because it brings a sense of gravitas to what is otherwise just a hollow soundbite on the news, if these stories even make it that far. I mean, women and children are dying and there are easy preventitive strategies that are not put into place simply because we don't care about their lives. So yeah, this book talking about and exposing it is really important.
This book is a compassionate look into the lives of nine of the women who have gone missing and it places the spotlight firmly on family members' voices and stories. It also reveals how ill-equipped the RCMP is for dealing with sensitive matters like establishing long-term trust in communities that have been badly abused by govt and law enforcement via racist policies and individuals.
I think this book is important because it brings a sense of gravitas to what is otherwise just a hollow soundbite on the news, if these stories even make it that far. I mean, women and children are dying and there are easy preventitive strategies that are not put into place simply because we don't care about their lives. So yeah, this book talking about and exposing it is really important.