Canadian tragedy of missing, murdered indigenous women dates back decades

OTTAWA — Cases of aboriginal women going missing or being found dead, often with little or no public attention, date back many decades. The outcry that has prompted the federal Liberal government to call a public inquiry into the tragic phenomenon is of a more recent vintage. Here are some key dates:

November 1971: Helen Betty Osborne, a 19-year-old Cree student, is abducted, sexually assaulted and slain in The Pas, Man. It would take 16 years to convict one of the four culprits.

1970s: Women disappear along the Yellowhead Highway between Prince Rupert and Prince George in northern B.C., earning the route the nickname “Highway of Tears.”

December 1987: Dwayne Johnston is convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the Osborne murder.

April 1988: The Manitoba government establishes an inquiry into the administration of justice and Aboriginal Peoples. In 1991, it reported that the justice system in the province had failed aboriginal Canadians. An implementation commission was established in 1999.

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August 1991: A federal Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples is created.

1991: Relatives of a growing list of missing women in Vancouver, along with advocates for sex-trade workers, establish an annual Valentine’s Day remembrance and press for tougher police investigation.

1996: The royal commission issues a five-volume, 4,000-page report which urges new arrangements between Canada and Aboriginal Peoples.

1997: Sex trade workers begin to go missing in Vancouver at a rate far higher than the lower historical patterns, prompting concerns among some police officers.

1997: Robert Pickton, a Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farmer, is charged with the attempted murder of a prostitute, but the case is dropped the following year.

April 1999: The Vancouver police board posts $100,000 reward for information in missing women case as police struggle with split jurisdictions and changing priorities.

May 1999: A senior Vancouver police officer says the best explanation for the missing women cases is a serial killer.

February 2002: RCMP officers, accompanied by missing-women task force members, enter a property in suburban Port Coquitlam on a firearms warrant. The search is soon expanded and Pickton is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder.

2005: The group known as Sisters in Spirit began to assemble statistics about violence against aboriginal women. Their initial report tallied 592 missing and murdered women.

December 2007: Pickton is convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to life without chance of parole for 25 years.

June 11, 2008: Then-prime minister Stephen Harper delivers a formal apology in the House of Commons to students of residential schools.

August 2010: The Crown decides not to proceed with 20 more murder counts against Pickton.

Aug. 20, 2010: In an internal review, Vancouver deputy police chief Doug LePard blames his own department and the RCMP for failing to catch Pickton much earlier.

September 2010: British Columbia sets up a Missing Women Commission of Inquiry under former judge and attorney general Wally Oppal.

December 2012: Oppal’s commission slams the police for the handling of the Pickton case.

2014: The RCMP reports that between 1980 and 2012 there were 1,181 police reports of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

2014-15: Stephen Harper refuses repeatedly to hold a public inquiry into the problem, saying there have been enough inquiries already.

Aug. 17, 2014: The body of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine is found in a bag in Winnipeg’s Red River, eight days after she was reported missing.

December 2014: Oppal, head of the B.C. inquiry into missing women, says a national inquiry isn’t needed.

February 2015: Indigenous families and leaders, premiers, provincial, territorial and federal ministers hold a roundtable on violence against indigenous women and girls.

August-October 2015: During the election campaign, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau promises to hold a national inquiry if he becomes prime minister.

December 2015:  Raymond Joseph Cormier, 53, is charged with Fontaine’s murder.

December 2015: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission releases its voluminous report into the residential schools scandal.

Dec. 8, 2015: Trudeau, now prime minister, formally announces his government’s intention to hold a public inquiry.

Aug. 3, 2016: The commission’s membership and terms of reference are announced.

The Canadian Press