Canada\'s Missing Women From 1964 to 1998

Canada's Missing Women

From 1964 to 1998 Canada saw a severe increase in the amount of violent crimes against native women. During this time, hundreds of women went missing later to be discovered as victims of violent murders. This increase in victims is only reflected in the native Canadian peoples, which had led many justice studies specialists to determine the theories and implications of the violence and the reasons behind the violence.

The best theoretical perspective for explaining this phenomenon is one of dehumanization. During the 1960's the Canadian government began removing native children from their families and displacing them to foster homes and into government schools. The purpose was to assimilate the children into society in the attempt to remove their native culture. This created issues of isolation and segregation within the schools. As a result, many native children fell through the educational cracks and once old enough returned to their native reserves and the native way to life.

In order to further remove the native people from their land, the government began eliminating the native lifestyle by placing restrictions and requirements on practices such as fishing. This resulted in many native people moving to the cities in order to find work and support their families. Those natives moving to the cities were very poor and were forced to raise their families in projects and take the lowest income jobs such as house cleaning. These poor conditions led to further problems including alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and prostitution for the natives. As time passed, natives became viewed by the public through the eyes of the media and other outlets as easy targets for crimes and a public nuisance.

This was further caused in the 1980's when the Canadian government began a movement to remove prostitution from the streets of their cities. Now, the native women who were working the streets were seen as a government and public nuisance. While unjust, this made the idea of committing crimes against this group seem easier and more inviting to those prone to such instincts.

This theory is further supported by the rise in violent crimes and missing women that happened between 1980 and 1998. During this time hundreds of native women began disappearing from the streets and highways. Those who were found dead, the victims of violent crimes. To proliferate the problem even further, those victim's attackers were typically not tried until years after the incident, if at all. So, through various means conducted by the government and society, native Canadians were dehumanized to a point that they became easy targets for attackers.

Democrative racism is the decisive manipulation of public opinion on a certain race. It is done by the prevailing party in a government through outlets including legislation and the media. This trend was historically seen in Germany with the Jews and the United States with African-Americans. In Canada, the victims of this practice are the native people, especially women.

Democratic racism began its inception into Canadian culture when the native people were forced off their land and into the cities to "integrate." In fact, this integration was really the creation of a lower working order to provide employees for the wealthy. This evidence can especially be seen in the many socioeconomic reports published about Canada. The bottom race regarding total income and employment has consistently been natives.

The effects of democratic racism in Canada can be summed up in one word, "Squa." This racial term, the equivalent of "Nigger" in America, is freely used in Canadian society to describe and dehumanize native people. This dehumanization is further pushed by the media who consistently publishes criticisms of native people and their way of life and by the government who continues to make policies that force native people from their reservations. The culmination of all this causes the conclusion that it is no surprise that native people are quickly becoming the victims of crimes.

To finalize this thought and rational, one must look at the native women through the eyes of a criminal. Criminals develop in Canadian society believing and rationalizing that native people are of a lower race then themselves. This viewpoint is further perpetuated when politicians and police prompt campaigns to rid the streets of what they consider crimes. In an attempt to aid the government and police, the criminal now has a race that he/she feels led and entitled to exterminate. With such a mindset it becomes that much easier for someone with an already deviant mind to take advantage of a woman already exposing herself to dangerous activities.