CHERISE HOULE (R) AND HILLARY WILSON (L)

(SLAIN YOUNG ABORIGINAL WOMEN)



In less than a month two Aboriginal young women - Hillary Angel Wilson and Cherise Houle, were abducted and brutally killed. The Aboriginal women leaders are protesting and calling on the government and the police service to do something about this free reign in killing young Aboriginal girls.

Yesterday, the Aboriginal Women leaders held a vigil on the steps of the Legislative Building. A group of young women were the drummers and they were drumming as if they were drumming their heart out to drown their sadness.

What is really happening? Why doesn't the police appears to be alarmed at this trend.
One woman told me that the two recent victims, 17 and 18 year old girls, knew each other and they had testified against some gang members and that their death will serve as a warning to those who cannot hold their tongue. I was outraged that this would happen in Winnipeg.

According to CBC report, an unidentified informer who fears for her own life, said she was best friends with Cherisse Houle, 17, and Hillary Angel Wilson, 18, when they got involved a few years ago with a group of men who used them for sex in exchange for food, clothes and crack cocaine.
"They bought us things. They took us shopping, out to eat. They gave us everything we wanted," the young woman said about the men who supplied the drugs. "Sometimes we were so f--ked up and we didn't even know what was going on."

This is what is called trafficking in women and girls. There is also more to this story - there is the story of poverty and other social problems as a result of it, the Residential School experience and the racism that flows from all this that needs to be addressed.

The Aboriginal women believe that if it were white women being abducted and killed the police would have taken steps to halt it as soon as possible but the lives of Aboriginal girls do not worth that much. It is a sad but true commentary. We still have a way to go to bring about equity in our society.

Something needs to be done and done right now. This rampant violence against Aboriginal women cannot be allowed to continue.

There are about 75 missing Aboriginal women in Manitoba as I write this. It is unacceptable.