In this age of crime podcasts and burgeoning internet sleuths, I think there may be room for a podcast or blog, whose topical subject would be all the “false” or “fictitious” information around murder cases; we could call it “Jumping to Conclusions” or “Spreading the Lie”. I was inspired to this notion this morning when I somewhat absently listened to the Simi Sara show on CKNW. Simi is the celebrated morning host for the station; who is always willing, armed with little or no knowledge I might add, to offer up solutions to fix all the wrongs in our current society. (Spoiler Alert: the solution is always more resources or more monies) She is a quick worker and can usually figure out a problem and find a solution in five minutes or less. Her investigative or journalistic “technique” is to mirror a viewpoint of her guest, a guest who always comes with an agenda, and she never feels the need to challenge or show any curiosity, she is there to agree and reinforce, on the one condition of course that it fits within the progressive acceptable dialogues.

Today’s topic on CKNW was the Highway of Tears; which was in turn entirely prompted by the finding of the body of Chesley Anita Quaw (Heron) age 29, who went missing on October 11, 2023. Chesley was an indigenous young woman who went missing from the Saik’uz First Nation, a Nation located about 85 kms west of Prince George. But the crux of the CKNW story was founded on the fact that because of where the Nation is situated, next to Highway 16, the “Highway of Tears”. And this fact alone is all the invitation that is needed for CKNW to draw a conclusion and a headline, and conflate the Indigenous narrative.

So Ms. Sara and her fellow journalists and editors at CKNW, despite having no information about the actual circumstances surrounding the death of Ms. Quaw, inferred that she must have been murdered, and that she is another victim of the “Missing and Murdered”, those that have ended along the Highway of Tears. The Highway of Tears story is an over-extended narrative which almost all news reporters have been feasting on for several years now. The Indigenous spokespeople in turn continue to fuel the narrative, after all it works in their best interests in terms of demanding a re-focusing to their plight and corollary to the need for more services and funding. So on this day, CKNW needed a guest who would talk about the “Highway of Tears” and the death of Ms. Quaw so it came about on this day that journalism was taken down another notch by Ms. Sara and her illustrious team of no fact-checking journalists. The 10 minute story was completely irresponsible, and not based on a single fact. It was shameful, and should offend anyone who relies on the news to at least bear some shred of truth and authenticity.

This was not inadvertent. Simi Sara started the show with the disclaimer that there “are no details yet”. This is an age where corroboration or confirmation is fleeting at best, although still taught in the journalism schools, it is no longer being exercised in the field. So having no details was not a deterrent to going ahead with the story, their story, one based on assumption and conjecture. They were also more than willing to comment and form a conclusion– the goal of which clearly was to resurrect the Highway of Tears narrative for dramatic affect. Her selected guest was Morgan Asoyuf, an “artist” from the Ts’msyen Eagle Clan, who was more than willing to reinforce and illustrate the CKNW investigative assumption. No need to bring on someone with at least some minimal credentials, just someone willing to be part of the act, someone that would not deterred by the lack of fact.

The show started with Simi pondering and talking about her general exasperation on having to deal with another story involving this infamous highway: “Why we are still talking about deaths on the “Highway of Tears?” She followed that up with the burning and completely inane question to her guest “Has it got any better?” (meaning one can only presume the murders on the highway) No, was the sought after answer and the guest quickly complied, and then warming to the narrative, went one step further, and added that in fact it had “gotten a lot worse”.

Simi mimicked the artist’s concern and asked her to of course elaborate. So Ms. Asoyuf went on to describe the “multiple incidents of potentially violent situations” she had encountered over these many years in driving on the highway, and then weirdly laughed when telling of the evidence that she had many times encountered “men yelling at me”. Simi was clearly dismayed and asked her how she copes with this potential violence and how she manages to fend off this always lurking danger– “how do you protect yourself?” Ms. Asoyuf then described how when she drives this remote highway, she lets friends or relatives know where she is going, and what time she is leaving. “Thats sad” replies Simi.

This moronic interview continued, with Simi asking of course as to how the community is “coping” with the finding of the body. Ms. Asoyuf is clearly now emboldened to the topic offers up her insights in these matters. She prefaces her remarks by saying that of course “as native people we are always hoping to find them alive”. She then further explains that because “these are our traditional territories” that these deaths are the “direct result of colonization” and the “targeting of indigenous women…so much racism…they think that they can kill us and get away with it”.

The interview show thankfully ends with Simi thanking the guest for her time and then attempts to sum up the devastating story we had just heard by saying, that clearly there “is no adequate safety measures” in that part of the world, and asks the audience to try and imagine a world her guest had described– one in which a woman “has to take preventative measures”. The predictable solution, by the way, was a need for “more resources” and “more funding” for “murder investigation”.

Before we go any further, here are a couple of basic facts about this particular case. Chesley Quaw was found in a wooded area “on reserve land.” Currently, there is no tie-in to the highway. Secondly, the police say that this is a Coroners case, which implies that the cause of death was not readily apparent, and the cause of death may not even be homicide. Cause of death had yet to be determined, so everything said in the media and bandied about on the social networks was nothing more than pure speculation.

This over-sized myth of murdered and missing grows and grows, by repetition, not by evidence. It is time for some context. Here are some numbers recently provided by Statistics Canada; and let us also agree that bald numbers for the most part don’t lie. They can be fudged and twisted, but they don’t lie.

These statistics are for the years 1980-2014, and during this time, there were 6,849 female homicide cases reported in Canada. Of that number 16% were indigenous women, clearly a number in greater representation to their 5% or less of the entire Canadian population. Since 1991, the number of murdered non-indigenous women has declined, while the rate of murdered Indigenous women has remained stable. Therefore, the rate of homicide for Indigenous women was almost six times higher than non-indigenous women– and in 2014 they accounted for 21% of female homicide victims. Clearly and undoubtedly there is a problem in the Indigenous community, clearly Indigenous women are getting murdered at an alarming rate. That is not a question.

The question is– is this due to colonization? Or Racism? According to the Indigenous of course it is, everything ties to colonialism. But the true answer is much more nuanced.

Between 1980 and 2014, half (53%) of the Indigenous homicides were committed by a family member, another 26% by an acquaintance– and a mere 8% by strangers. Therefore 79 % of Indigenous women were killed by a family member or a friend and acquaintance. Another interesting fact is that only 66% of those indigenous women were killed in a residence, in comparison to non-indigenous women, who were killed in a residence 88% of the time. So 17% of those indigenous women killed were killed on a street, road, or a highway, which is probably a reflection of a dangerous led lifestyle by the victim.

So the story and headline should be that Indigenous women in the vast majority of cases are being killed by their own friends and family. If Ms. Quaw is in fact a victim of homicide, the first place to look as an investigator, is to her family and friends. Not to a passing motorist on Highway 16. That is just the sad fact.

So Ms. Sara– lets do a story on the problems that infect and flourish on the reserves or Indigenous nations of this country. Take your pick on the topic. The poverty, the drug abuse, the alcoholism, the rampant birth rates, the dysfunctional families, or the ongoing in-house violence. Is the poverty the result of colonization, or is it the fact that many reserves are in un-sustainable economic regions, allowing poverty and needed government support to become a way of life? If you find poverty and drug and alcohol abuse you will undoubtedly find violence. Is ill-education the result of historic abuse or a much broader cultural and social disconnect with the 21st century? The residential schools after all were set up, however badly they performed, to address a culture and a society which was in the opinion of the politicians at the time, being left behind. Now, with guilt thrust upon us, billions upon billions of dollars are now being expended for the same reasons towards education, health and economic start ups. Is anything working? Do we need to re-examine the current concept that more money will insure success? Most importantly is there any level of personal and social responsibility in play here? Is it possible to have some introspection, or is it all the fault of the colonizers? It is easy to blame historic treatment, but surely even this argument’s validity diminishes over time.

Ms. Sara wants you to believe that Ms Quaw died because of a highway driving serial killer– there is a much greater chance she was killed or died unnaturally, because of how she lived, where she lived, and the people she was surrounded and raised by. It is time to deal with those facts and to address the underlying and dominant issues of violence and death in Indigenous society. I was offended by this story by CKNW, both as a former homicide investigator, but just as importantly as a human being wanting to find answers.

It is undeniable that we are currently in a place and time where no current government, at any level, has the courage to answer the relevant questions because of the risk of being branded as a neanderthal racist. There is no corporate entity who does not facilitate or play to the “enlightened” vocal few, there is no university willing to question rather than comply. Until there is, solutions seem unlikely, as it seems that all hard truths are only uncovered by open, fair, and honest and questioning discourse. The Report in 2019 from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls said that the “victims” was the result of a “Canadian genocide”, that the violence occurred through “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies”. As the years tick by, it’s becoming a weaker and weaker argument.

Maybe its time to look a little deeper, maybe its time for the Indigenous leadership to look a little inward. Maybe the answer is not just “economic reconciliation” but a reconciling and an accurate accounting of the human tragedy inside the Indigenous nations of which they are a part.

Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons via Adam Jones – Some Rights Reserved