Sunday, the annual Women’s March for Missing and Murdered Women wound its way through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, only a block from the route of a Chinese New Year parade earlier that morning.
An estimated three thousand marchers followed the families women who have disappeared or been killed in the area. As drums opened the event, some members of the crowd pointed eagerly to three eagles circling high above the intersection of Main and Hastings.
Many of those who attended wore their traditional regalia to celebrate the lives of these women and demand greater action on the part of all levels of government to protect the women who live and work in marginalized areas such as Vancouver’s East Side. Alaina Tom of the Secwepmc Nation near Chase, B.C. held a carved staff aloft as the crowd sang during the opening ceremonies.
"It's important to show that we support the families of these women," said a marcher named Lone Buffalo Woman who had travelled from St. John New Brunswick to attend.
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"There is not enough action on these issues," said Tom at the end of the memorial march, holding her staff aloft as a signal for her family. "Sometimes I use this so my kids can find me," she said with a smile.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association legal observers accompanied the march, at times helping marchers and drivers navigate the route.
For more photos see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimkim/sets/72157623445427722/
APATHY KILLS
The rally was winding down, so we departed, traveling through Vancouver's Chinatown, where the local community was celebrating the Chinese New Year. Emotions frayed from having just attended a memorial for hundreds of missing and murdered women across this nation, we ended up colliding with crowds of shopping tourists and celebrating Chinese Canadians on our route home.
Picking our way through the festivities, we happened to come across our illustrious mayor, Gregor Robertson. Gregor was decked out in his Chinese New Year's attire, giving his full support to the voters and tax payers that possess the potential to greatly advance his political career. How he can attend this event and yet abstain from the other is no mystery. The voting and financial power of the Chinese Canadian community obviously overshadows that of their neighbors whose lost and murdered relatives resided for a time in the Downtown Eastside.
Angered by this slight to my social conscience, I approached our Mayor to throw a question his way, “Mayor Robertson, why aren’t you showing your support for the murdered and missing women of the DTES today?!” To this he quickly responded, “I’m heading there now, to Oppenheimer Park,” a somewhat fractured smile, stretched across his face. I decided to leave it at that, partly due to the sudden nature of the encounter and my being flustered over the issues at hand and therefore unable to formulate a response that I could have been proud of. So instead of continuing the dialogue, we passed each other on the sidewalk, moving in opposite directions in more ways than one.
While I do give Mayor Gregor credit for the fact that he actually attended the Vigil, I can’t help but think that when I had left, the vigil’s numbers had depleted by nearly half, following a passionate and heart wrenching series of speeches in front of Vancouver's DTES Police Station, that were the climax of the entire event. This spot was chosen by the organizers, to insure that our incompetent police force would finally get the message and begin to work for all citizens, be they wealthy taxpayers or the most vulnerable amongst us. I wonder; if it had been hundreds of middle or upper class women that were now murdered and missing, would the ineptitude and Johnny-come-lately attitude of both our police force and our elected officials even have been a factor in this tragedy? On that issue, I don’t think I need to answer my own question; it’s too obvious. Mayor Robertson, like all those to have come before, has revealed that his priorities, and those of the moneyed interest that run this City, haven't shifted or skipped a beat, even with the international media spotlight provided by the 2010 Corporate Games.
Gregor will arrive at the tail end, when the numbers are depleted, and like our infamous Prime Minister, Herr Harper, and our Auctioneer Premier, Gordon “Red Mittens” Campbell, will be there at the 'right' moment, for that critical photo op. Politicians come and go; their promises and empty rhetoric echo through the streets of the City and then disappear into the sea of collective apathy and greed that keeps this flawed system running. Wake up Canada! It’s time we rose from our apathy induced slumber and began to care for our neighbors. It’s time we shelved our collective narcissism, and turned this ship of self indulgence around. We should be better citizens than we are. The time has come to react, before it’s too late, before we succumb to our baser natures and leave all hope behind. Truth before lies! Morality before greed! Not only accountability, but action is required for the absent voices that are no longer heard in our downtown streets and across our fractured nation.