Insights From the Streets

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Inquiry?
The call for a national inquiry into missing

and murdered Indigenous woman is everywhere in the media as I am

writing this. By the time you read this, maybe one will have been called
by the government.

The amount of violence against all women I have seen in my

career is staggering. At this point, in my opinion, this is not a national

issue; each and every case is a local issue and a local investigation. Each

and every woman or girl who is missing or whose murder is unsolved is

the responsibility of the police who have jurisdiction and the community

where the victim is from. This is the simple truth in Canada of criminal
acts and their investigations. Short of creating a national task force to
do these investigations, this is how they will be done for the foreseeable

future. Even if a national task force were formed, it would be years before

it was effective, as every case would have to be revisited, and by the time
the mechanics were figured out, much ground would be lost. Calling an
inquiry would buy time for everyone who should be taking a lead and

providing a solution. Time is the enemy of any open murder or missing

persons case being investigated. The leads and solvability grow colder
every day that we just talk.

The term high-risk lifestyle has been used to describe the

some of the victims pre-murder behaviour. The outcome would seem

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unavoidable as sometimes some of the victims lifestyles were extremely

high risk. When an extreme sports athlete is killed, however, most of us

do not classify them as living a high-risk lifestyle. We do not try to move

some of the blame to the victim. Instead, we call them adventurous or

free-spirited. But we consistently do this with women who are murdered.

In reality, the term high-risk lifestyle just diminishes the impact of the
murder on the sensibilities of the community. Putting values on a victim

doesnt change the fact that they were the victim of a violent act. In many
cases of other pre-murder or assault behaviour, the only risk factor was
being an Indigenous woman.

The women and girls are not numbers to bolster each groups

argument for or against an inquiry. They are people with families who

deserve answers to where they are or how they came to be where they
were found. Case by case, investigation by investigation is the only way

this will truly get done. The strength of each investigation depends on

any number of things: the training and skill of the assigned investigators,
the co-operation of the community, and the evidence available. These
will, in the end, provide the only real answers.

There is no quick and easy fix to these cases. No inquiry,

no matter how far-reaching or in-depth, will solve individual cases. It

comes down to police work, co-operation of witnesses, and evidence.

There will be missed clues and opportunities. There will continue to be

investigations that fall short of the mark. There will be suspects who
maintain their silence and who dont co-operate.

In the early nineties, I took a call from a teenage girl I had

known since I started with the Saskatoon police. She was involved in

the solvent-sniffing crowd when I first met her, but she turned it around
on her own. She was a troubled kid with a great attitude and a big
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smile. Her promise was always that she would do better. On the phone,
she was clearly upset and told me that two men had invited her to an
apartment. Once they had her there, they had used markers to paint on

her breasts. She knew one of the men by name. The second man terrified

her, and she was so agitated she would not even begin to describe him.

The complainant was a good kid making bad choices, but I believed her.
I knew the man she named, and after getting a statement, I went to his

apartment and arrested him for sexual interference. He was unrepentant

and asked why I believed the complainant, whom he called a lying little

cunt. I was unable to get the second suspect identified, but I did not give
it much thought because there was so much going on at the time.

The matter never came to trial, or at least I never received a

court notice. My complainant had gone missing, but no one ever told me.
It was not until the bodies of three women and a teenager were found on

a golf course outside of Saskatoon that I found out where this girl was.

My sergeant told me the names of the victims and asked if I knew them.
I told him I did, and I cannot describe the sadness I felt and still feel. She
had been murdered by a serial killer, John Crawford. The man I charged

was his buddy. If I had been more persistent with the girl, I suspect

the second man who had sexually interfered with her would have been
identified as Crawford. It will always be one of those situations where
you will never know what could have happened. It was a relatively minor

sexual assault charge, but it could have been enough to stop Crawford
from murdering those other women.

I do not know, and I will never know. I do know that I had no

malicious motive or intent to miss such an opportunity. An inquiry would

find many missed opportunities and human errors in investigations at its

completion many years from now. It could also assign blame or make for

better investigations. It also may divide us even further on racial lines and
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lead to much more discord.

In the end, though, it is about victims and perpetrators.

Whatever the motive, whatever the crime, racist sexual predators, pimps,

and gangs keeping women in check, partner violence, or an opportunity

sexual assault and murder of a vulnerable woman, the perpetrators need
to be brought to account. No inquiry, short of giving a sordid and tragic
overview of all 1,200-plus cases, will ever bring them to justice and give
the families any closure.

An inquiry would cost untold millions of dollars. The Pickton

trial and inquiry cost over one hundred million dollars, and no one

seemed satisfied with the results. A national inquiry would easily cost
ten times that, and it would require witnesses to come to it or it would
have to go to them. Money should not be the determining factor, but it is

something to consider. Would it not be better spent providing education,

shelter, and training to those at risk and those who are charged with their
protection?

True leadership by everyone involved is what is needed.

Realistic expectations need to be presented and action taken now. If a

woman asks for help, it should be available. If a working police officer is

approached by someone wanting help, the officer should be able to steer

them in a clear direction. Action, real and visible, is what will end the
disproportionate victimization of Indigenous women. Case by difficult

case, investigation by investigation, there is no easy way to do this,

national inquiry or not.

My own experience with inquiries is what I am drawing from.

The Stonechild inquiry actually was the catalyst for many positive changes
in Saskatchewan between the First Nations and police services. Though

by no means perfect, the relationship has improved tremendously from

where it was. It was one case, and the inquiry cost twenty million dollars.
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