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Day of Action for Ashley Machisknic

Sep 27, 2010 | Indigenous Women, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Violence against women

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DAY OF ACTION FOR ASHLEY will be held on Monday, October 4, 2010 from 5:00 pm-8:00 pm.

We will meet in front of the Regent Hotel which is just down the street from the Carnegie Centre. We will then march from the Regent to the alley way where Ashley lost her life. There will be drumming, singing, speakers. An elder will do a ceremony for her. From there, we will then march to the police station. (More info within the next few… days)

*Please bring your hearts, drums, your voices and wear your regalia*

“ASHLEY MACHISKNIC was a beautiful First Nations woman whose young life came crashing to the ground Sept. 15 in a sordid lane behind the Regent Hotel in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Area residents and community leaders are convinced that Machiskinic, despite her off and on battles with drug addiction, did not take her own life.

They say Machiskinic, just 22, was the latest of several women to be killed or punished in a highly public way by drug dealers who want to send a message to women about what will happen to them if they don’t pay off their drug debts.

“Women get their heads shaved for a $30 drug debt, they’re killed for $50,” said Carol Martin of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.

Martin and others familiar with the area say drug dealers are doing a booming business on the eastside, and that women, predominantly First Nations women, are still the primary victims of violence.

“Our women are the mules, they are sex-trade workers, they’re drug-addicted, they’re holding or selling drugs for dealers and they’re paying with their lives, now more than ever,” said Martin.

Drug dealers, doing a brisk trade Thursday just after “welfare Wednesday,” boast of profits as high as $15,000 a month.

Their collection methods, if they front a woman drugs that she uses or loses, can be brutal.

“There’s been a few women lately thrown out of windows, at the Balmoral, the Regent, women missing fingers, wearing wigs because their heads have been shaved,” said Gladys Radek, organizer of the annual Walk 4 Justice in support of missing and murdered women in Vancouver and along the Highway of Tears.

“Whoever threw Ashley out chose the busiest time when the alley was full of people buying drugs, to make a point — don’t rip us off.”

Martin was one of the first to the scene after Machiskinic’s death.

“I ran over to her right after she fell and she was staring straight up, just gasping her last breaths — I was totally traumatized and I’ve worked down here for 15 years,” she said.

Eastside leaders charge that drug dealers are able to kill or maim with impunity, because Vancouver police, short of witnesses willing to come forward, write off the women’s deaths as drug overdoses or suicides.

“Violence against women down here … is worse than ever — it’s at an all-time high,” said Dave Dickson, a former Vancouver cop who worked in the eastside and is now a well-respected outreach worker.

“I’ve known Ashley since she was 15. She was an attractive, quiet young woman and there is absolutely no way on earth that she committed suicide by jumping out of a fifth-floor window of the Regent Hotel,” said Dickson.

Standing in the alley in front of a memorial poster put up by Machiskinic’s grieving mother, Cheryl Strongarm, Dickson is approached by people who trust him enough to talk, even with a reporter present.

“Ashley was a beautiful, good-spirited person and she didn’t deserve what those assholes did to her, throwing her out in the alley like a bag of garbage,” said an angry young native man, hiding his face from nearby dealers.

“I was right here when her body hit the street with a sound I’ll never forget. “Are we intelligent people? Give me a break — Ashley didn’t commit suicide by jumping out of the Regent Hotel. She was thrown out to send a message to pay up your drug debts, or else.”

Hiding his face behind an umbrella, he added: “Those dealers are just laughing. They know the police can’t prove nothing down here.”

Marlene George of the Carnegie Centre, who will lead the Oct. 4 Sisters in Spirit March to the spot where Machiskinic perished, agreed: “There’s a code of silence down here. The worst thing you can be is a rat.

“It is very difficult to get the police to speak about this and to acknowledge the drug dealers are behind these events.”

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton called Machiskinic’s death “a tragic rumour that has not been corroborated … a case of what appears, after investigation, to be someone taking their own life.”

Houghton, who also knew Machiskinic, urged anyone with information to come forward to police, saying that her death is still an “ongoing investigation.”

* In the rain-sodden lane Thursday, a rose and a sheet of paper posted by the dead woman’s mother paid tribute to “Ashley Nicole Lori Machiskinic. You are sadly missed and never forgotten … Rest in Peace, you’re in a better place. Love Mommy.”

sfournier@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Women+being+pushed+their+deaths+drug+dealers+Downtown+Eastside+advocates/3572655/story.html#ixzz10TsITDmA

Remembering Our Loved Ones

Aug 24, 2010 | Events, Indigenous Women, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

From Crab-Water-For-Life…Considering the raw emotions of the country, we have confirmed Sunday, August 29, 11: 00 am for ceremonies  We have invited community participants to gather at CRAB park, 10:30 am Sunday.

 

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The conductors will render opening ceremonies 11:00 am. Table set for the memorial service at the park. The ceremonies are closed to press. Although we are hosting press conference call prior to the ceremonies on site, for your information, and considerations. Please be advised that our hands are up to all involved in creating Memorial Marches, for decades, now the time is now, to support the families, communities, in sorrow, at this time of grief.

Developing Safety Strategies for Aboriginal Women on Highways

Nov 11, 2009 | Indigenous Women, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Violence against women

Developing Safety Strategies for Aboriginal Women on Highways

In Canada, Aboriginal women are five times more likely than other women to die as a result of violence, and the numbers of Aboriginal women who go missing without a trace are staggering.

This is perhaps best known in Vancouver as a result of the eventual investigation into the disappearances of over 60 women from the Downtown Eastside. It is also being recognized as an issue in Northern BC on the ‘Highway of Tears’ where at least 18 women and girls have vanished. Current statistics state that there are 137 missing Aboriginal women in BC.  This problem spreads across the country, and there are reports that more than 500

Aboriginal women are missing in Canada. In response to this crisis, Amnesty International has tabled two reports – Stolen Sisters (2004) and No More Stolen Sisters (2009).

Since 1994, Battered Women’s Support Services has been working in the fight to bring public awareness to the ongoing problem of missing and murdered women. In April of this year, BWSS was given a recent report from the FBI called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. This report exposes the clear connection between long-haul truckers and cases of missing and/or murdered women in the United States. With this information, BWSS began looking into a possible connection between the cases of missing and murdered women in Western Canada and the trucking industry.

This project will develop research that supports the creation of an inter-provincial coalition and safety model to reduce the risk of harm to Aboriginal women on western Canadian highways. While both students will work together on this project, the scope is large enough that the two research areas will be distinctly different. Following is a more detailed breakdown of the proposed work to be accomplished.

Tanisha will focus her annotated bibliography on literature that specifically addresses issues in policy and legislation relating to the investigations into disappearances and murders of women (law enforcement responses, jurisdictional problems, etc). Jamie will research structural and causative issues that lead to abductions and murders of women (MCFD (child protection), trucking industry, safety, etc).

Through this community research project we will seek to  implement strategies that work for systemic change, industry engagement and to seek justice for women and their families.