Statement issued at press conference - February 8, 2002
http://www.dewc.ca

Women are missing from the downtown eastside of Vancouver. The official police count is fifty. Our estimate is higher, but nonetheless, that's a lot of women. Each of those women have children and parents and siblings and friends. All those people have parts of themselves missing because these women left their lives and haven't come back.

A fellow named Robert Pickton is named as a "person of interest" in this case. We know it is more than one man who is responsible for the harm done to women in the downtown eastside. We know there may be some serial activity going on. However, we are concerned that the task force, in the event they do lay charges against Pickton, may stop searching for the women who are missed from our lives.

It has been noted in the media that this man was a "person of interest " some time ago. What did the police do to "serve and protect" the women who live and work in this neighborhood? What will they do now? Certainly the numbers of women missing from the downtown core has increased alarmingly in the past few years. These attacks are primarliy about sexism. It is not men who are disappearing in droves from the streets of downtown.

We want to point out that these women are women. They are women as much as the woman who shops on South Granville; the woman who goes to classes at UBC; the woman who walks the picket line for her union. These women are often identified in the media as Aboriginal prostitutes and drug addicts. They are more vulnerable to attack because they are poor and addicted; and because of racism which undervalues people of Aboriginal descent, but they are attacked mostly because they are women. They are more vulnerable to attack than other women in part because housing, money and other social supports are less and less available to them.

We urge the police and the government to take an active and preventative role in this case. When they have a "person of interest", we want to know. We need to have information. We also need access to safe housing, adequate healthcare, educational and job opportunities and other social supports. The police and the government need to take us seriously. One is too many. Fifty is outrageous. We are tired of memorials.

Downtown Eastside Women's Centre
http://www.dewc.ca
Reception: (604) 681-8489
Fax: (604) 681-8470