[BeaverFever]

$1:

Fort St. John is situated in northern B.C.’s Peace River region, a landscape that is a beauty to behold. Statistics Canada lists the city’s population at about 20,000, but locals are quick to acknowledge that they live in a place containing two distinct communities: one that’s from here and one that isn’t—a “shadow population” that roughly doubles the resident number, depending on the season.

...For years, Fort St. John has been an epicentre of stories involving sexual assault and missing Indigenous women. In 2017, the city had a sexual assault rate of 100.01 incidents per 100,000 people, nearly double the national average of 56.56. The Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society says 15 First Nations women from the area are missing or have been murdered.

A growing number of critics attribute the statistics to the presence of the worker colonies—dubbed “man camps” by activists in a piece of nomenclature that rankles many camp-based workers and the companies that employ them. Yet First Nations leaders, women’s advocates and female residents say the time has come to face up to an unacknowledged truth. There were 20 recorded sexual assaults in Fort St. John in 2017, and all signs suggest that number captures only a fraction of the problem. Of the 11 women who spoke to Maclean’s for this story, detailing a range of sexual assault and harassment, only one took her allegations to police. But the common thread in their accounts was the perpetrators who were in the area to work, some of them lodged in camps.

A little more than a year ago, when the fight to prevent the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline was in full swing, the looming arrival of work camps—and their links to increases in reported sexual assaults—became a rallying cry for activists and land defenders across the country. Women from B.C. to Manitoba and beyond spoke up about their experiences, encouraged in part by the wave of sexual assault cases arising from #MeToo. Their stories come after last year’s report from a government agency in Manitoba, which detailed explosive allegations of sexual abuse and rape on the part of Manitoba Hydro workers encamped near a northern town in the 1960s. Afterwards, RCMP referred the allegations—including claims implicating some Mounties in the assaults—to external agencies: the Ontario Provincial Police and Manitoba’s policing watchdog. Concern about the camps, however, remains alive today.

Two years ago, a report from the Firelight Group, a consulting organization that works with First Nations and municipalities, raised warnings about the “hyper-masculine” “rigger” culture in remote camps in Western Canada. It noted a correlation between the arrival of the camps and sudden growth in the sex trade; a rise in sexual harassment and workers propositioning women inside and outside the workplace; concerns about men “blowing off steam” after long hours, often with drugs and alcohol; and how it all leads to sexual assault. RCMP data, the report notes, showed a 38 per cent increase in reported sexual assaults in northern B.C.’s Fort St. James area during one industrial project’s first year, 2011. “As a society, we have created the conditions where we think it’s acceptable to put a very large group of men in a small location next to a community,” says Ginger Gibson, the lead author of the report and director of the Firelight Group. “The social consequences are sometimes quite negative.”

...Driving through Fort St. John, Greyeyes points out all the stores that sell alcohol, counting five along a brief stretch of road. She points out the strip clubs, or where former ones used to stand. There is a sign offering discounted haircuts for Site C workers and a casino where camp dwellers are picked up and dropped off by bus. There are few places to shop for women and children, Greyeyes notes, and the result, aesthetically speaking, is a male-dominated environment. (Calls to the mayor, council office and RCMP in Fort St. John for this story were not returned.)

Greyeyes knew many of the 15 missing and murdered Indigenous women from Fort St. John. One of them, 28-year-old Abigail Andrews, a waitress at the Frontier Bar and Grill, disappeared on April 7, 2010. When tragedy strikes, the city’s relationship with industry often manifests itself in disturbing rumours involving the transient population. Andrews was known to be pregnant when she disappeared, and is listed on the MMIWG database. Local people say she was dating an outside worker at the time, but he has not been identified.

...Tammy’s 72-year-old mother Marvelene recalls being abused and subjected to racism in the 1960s during the construction of the W.A.C. Bennett dam. When Tammy was growing up, her father would befriend transient workers employed at various projects, five of whom, she says, abused her. She never told her parents. In one case, when she was five or six, a man staying at their family home called her into his bed to have a nap. She agreed, and the man gestured for her to touch his penis. “He was hard,” she says. “I had enough nerve to know it was wrong and jumped out of there.” She never told her parents about her experiences.

...Ashley Watson, one of Tammy’s daughters, has been sexually harassed in different camps in northern B.C. In 2015 and 2016, she worked at Site C as a medic and labourer for a bridge-building company called Ruskin Construction. She recalls having to constantly dodge a co-worker who would repeatedly ask her questions about her sex life. Watson was once asked to drive the man to Fort St. John to catch a flight. “He asked me if I would break up with my boyfriend and what kind of things I like to do,” she says. She reported him verbally around February 2016 to a supervisor, who assured her that he would talk to the employee. But the harasser, she says, remained on the job. She recalls all the posters encouraging women to report sexual harassment, but “when you do, nothing happens.” Indigenous female workers would also receive racial taunts, she says: “Crew members would drive past us and say, ‘One little, two little, three little Indians.’ ” Ruskin Construction president Corey Ross said he didn’t know of the incidents that Maclean’s was referring to and refused further comment.

Ashley Watson turned down an apprenticeship with Ruskin after her contract ended. Her experiences drove her away. She’s now 28 and a student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, studying political science and environmental studies. She wants to dedicate her life to protecting treaty rights.

Kate Watson, Linda’s eldest daughter, spent last summer working at Site C. Before that, she was a heavy-duty mechanic in the oil industry. “I felt very sexualized,” the 28-year-old says of her experience working in resource development in northeast B.C. “I was a piece of meat for some kind of hungry person.”

...In Nak’azdli Whut’en, a First Nation near Fort St. James in north-central B.C., community nurses have documented increases in the sex trade and trafficking, as well as the spread of STIs. About 60 km from Nak’azdli sits the Mount Milligan mine, where about 300 workers dig for copper and gold at any given time. Liza Sam, a nurse, says there have been instances where men have stopped by Nak’azdli gas stations asking employees “where they can pick up women.” Sam has witnessed firsthand what appeared to be exchanges for sexual services. “You see work vehicles picking up girls,” she says. In the nearby Lake Babine Nation, along the route of two planned natural gas pipelines, rape kits are stocked at the health station before the camps arrive....

https://www.macleans.ca/how-we-treat-women/

[Freakinoldguy]

I'm having a tough time believing that these camps are the sole cause of the problems because it appears that once again the our natives are trying to put the blame where it may not belong belong.

So, until the natives and their champions start looking inward these types of crimes are going to continue. But hey, nobody wants to hear what the statistics say because it's just easier and alot more profitable to blame someone else and the truth be damned.

$1:

70 per cent of murdered aboriginal women killed by indigenous men: RCMP

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson has confirmed assertions by Canada's Minister of Aboriginal Affairs that 70 per cent of the aboriginal women who are murdered in Canada meet their fate at the hands of someone of their own race.

Mr. Paulson's decision to back up statements by Bernard Valcourt comes after several chiefs said the minister should be fired for blaming aboriginal men for the tragedy, a position they dismissed as unsubstantiated and demeaning.

Mr. Paulson wrote on Tuesday to Bernice Martial, the Grand Chief of Treaty Six in central Saskatchewan and Alberta, who was among the native leaders to express concern, saying the RCMP has not previously released information on the ethnicity of the offenders in the spirit of "bias-free policing."

The RCMP released a report on Canada's missing and murdered aboriginal women last May based on statistics from police agencies across the country. It said at least 1,181 indigenous women and girls were murdered or went missing between 1980 and 2012.

Noting that Mr. Valcourt has now divulged unreleased information about ethnicity collected by the RCMP, Mr. Paulson wrote: "The consolidated data from the nearly 300 contributing police agencies has confirmed that 70 per cent of the offenders were of aboriginal origin, 25 per cent were non-aboriginal, and five per cent were of unknown ethnicity."

Despite Mr. Paulson's statistics, Ms. Martial is unconvinced that responsibility for the tragedy can be pinned on native men.

"How are they collecting and compiling all this information? To me, it just doesn't drive," she said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "The RCMP is under the federal government, they have to comply with their policies and whatever they are told, they have to do. What I would like to see is an independent national inquiry."

Mr. Valcourt and other members of the federal Conservative government have rebuffed calls for an inquiry, saying enough studies have been done and they are addressing the problem through broad public safety and criminal justice measures.

Last fall, Mr. Valcourt said the deaths and disappearances came down to a lack of respect among aboriginal men on reserves for aboriginal women, and urged chiefs and councils to take action.

He sent a wave of anger rippling through First Nations on March 20, when he told a private meeting of chiefs in Calgary that unreleased RCMP statistics show "that up to 70 per cent of the murdered and missing indigenous women stems from their own communities."

Several chiefs, including Ms. Martial, emerged from that meeting to demand that the RCMP release numbers to support Mr. Valcourt's claim and any other data about the crimes it has withheld.

Mr. Paulson told Ms. Martial in his letter that the race of the offender is not relevant to the RCMP in tackling the issue but the offender's relationship with the victim.

The force's report of last May did not contain information about the ethnicity of the known perpetrators. But it said that, in 62 per cent of the cases, aboriginal females who were victims of homicide were killed by a spouse, family member or intimate relation. It also said the number was higher – 74 per cent – for other Canadian women who are murdered.

The RCMP says it is releasing a second report on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in mid-May that is expected to be an update on the force's response to the numbers released last year.

Even though the RCMP have now confirmed Mr. Valcourt's numbers, the minister may have difficulty repairing his relationship with some of the chiefs.

Chief Bernard Ominayak of the Lubicon Lake Nation said in an e-mail on Thursday that the opinion of the RCMP commissioner is irrelevant to demands for a national inquiry, and the statistics he presents "are useless without the documentation that backs up his claims."

"The government of the Lubicon Lake Nation duly supports all our indigenous women in their continued call for an independent inquiry," Mr. Ominayak said, "and we believe if the minister cannot commit to doing so, he should resign."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/po ... e23868927/

So, they'll keep demanding more money and more inquiry's just to keep the charade up while having no problem letting their own women die at the hands of their own men just so they can blame whitey.

That kind of a mindset is fucked up.

[BeaverFever]

You’re off on a tangent. This article is about the actual known harm that work camps are actually known to cause in nearby communities.

[fifeboy]

[quote]70 per cent of murdered aboriginal women killed by indigenous men: RCMP

Whatcha wanna bet that if the news came out that 25% of women of European decent who were murdered were murdered by Muslims, that there would be at least a few on this forum insisting on an inquiry. Watcha ya think?

[Freakinoldguy]

Just because you don't like the article doesn't make it any less accurate and as the matter of fact it was you who highlighted this part of the Macleans article.

$1:

...For years, Fort St. John has been an epicentre of stories involving sexual assault and missing Indigenous women. In 2017, the city had a sexual assault rate of 100.01 incidents per 100,000 people, nearly double the national average of 56.56. The Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society says 15 First Nations women from the area are missing or have been murdered.

I don't know about you but it certainly sounds like it's relevant to the Globe and Mail article to me?

Although, the article is a little late when discussing the social cost to natives especially since the Gov't run Canadian Museum of Human Rights has declared that you and I and every white person in Canada committed and is committing genocide against the natives.

$1:

The conversation came about in a public but subtle way, after a recent visitor had asked the museum on Twitter if its stance had changed. The museum replied that it considers the entire colonial experience in Canada, from first contact to today, as genocide.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/cmhr ... -1.5141078

So, other than the utter PC bullshit that statement conjures up it certainly put's a new light on the Macleans article doesn't it? Because, now apparently every non native in Canada and not just the work camps is committing genocide.

So, how does it feel to be committing genocide right now as we discuss this?

[fifeboy]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

Just because you don't like the article doesn't make it any less accurate and as the matter of fact it was you who highlighted this part of the Macleans article.

$1:

...For years, Fort St. John has been an epicentre of stories involving sexual assault and missing Indigenous women. In 2017, the city had a sexual assault rate of 100.01 incidents per 100,000 people, nearly double the national average of 56.56. The Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society says 15 First Nations women from the area are missing or have been murdered.

I don't know about you but it certainly sounds like it's relevant to the Globe and Mail article to me?

Although, the article is a little late when discussing the social cost to natives especially since the Gov't run Canadian Museum of Human Rights has declared that you and I and every white person in Canada committed and is committing genocide against the natives.

$1:

The conversation came about in a public but subtle way, after a recent visitor had asked the museum on Twitter if its stance had changed. The museum replied that it considers the entire colonial experience in Canada, from first contact to today, as genocide.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/cmhr ... -1.5141078

So, other than the utter PC bullshit that statement conjures up it certainly put's a new light on the Macleans article doesn't it? Because, now apparently every non native in Canada and not just the work camps is committing genocide.

So, how does it feel to be committing genocide right now as we discuss this?

Extreme views for sure. However, in a roundabout way the point I was making is that women tend to be murdered by their spouses, most aboriginal women are married to Aboriginal men. Most women are murdered by their husbands/partners. I strongly suspect that most Filipino women in Canada are murdered by Filipino men,,,their partners. However, don’t downplay the fact that 25-30% of murdered indigenous are murdered by non natives. They have a right to be upset.
Racism in Canada ( well, I can only speak for Saskatchewan ,Manitoba and NW Ontario ) is a harsh fact of life for Aboriginal people.
Seen it too much!

[BeaverFever]

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/20 ... able-3.xls

81.6% of white murder victims are murdered by other whites according to US crime statistics.

So FOG logic on Muslim terrorist attacks must be:

$1:

“So, until white people and their champions start looking inward these types of crimes are going to continue. But hey, nobody wants to hear what the statistics say because it's just easier and alot more profitable to blame someone else and the truth be damned.....So, they'll keep demanding more money and more inquiry's just to keep the charade up while having no problem letting their own women die at the hands of their own men just so they can blame Mohammad.

That kind of a mindset is fucked up.

But you’re still on a tangent. First it’s a known fact, not a mere accusation, that camp workers commit these attacks. Nobody is saying they’re 100% responsible for every single aboriginal death but it’s a fact that the workers do rape and murder locals, most of whom happen to be FN. Second, why focus on just the First Nations aspect, when the title of the article is How We Treat Women and it’s really about how the workers at these camps victimize women generally, not just FN ones.

[N_Fiddledog]

So, I read Kyle's article in Macleans.

I don't think I'm ready to join him in ripping my hair out and weeping on the streets over the horrors of Fort Saint John.

I've been there. I knew a woman who worked in the camps. Last time I was there, there was in big boom time. Yes, there were many man there in the bars from many places not Fort Saint John. There were "indigenous" women in bars too. More than what my guess would be of the statistical average of the area. Much more.

Into this environment comes Kyle of Macleans. "Arise from your freshly wetted beds, protectors of realm" cries Kyle. "There were 20 recorded sexual assaults in the boom town of Fort St. John in 2017. More men are working in the boom town and making more on boom town jobs than women."

While investigating the bars of Fort Saint John oozing sympathy and moral superiority Kyle was able to find 11 "indigenous" women who complained of what Kyle tells us was inappropriate sexual contact.

The horror!!!

Stay out of boomtown bars ladies. Settle town social justice bedwetters. Or at least stop wasting our time just clutching your pearls. If you think there's a problem and you have an actual solution, let's hear it.

[N_Fiddledog]

Come to think of it I'd be interested in hearing what Beave and Fifer would like to do to about this tragedy they see in Fort Saint John.

If you see a problem, what's you solution, boys? Ban Boom Town jobs? Have more women working on the rigs? Give more power to "Progressive" politicians. What exactly do you want to do about this problem Kyle has you grasping for your smelling salts over?

[housewife]

Oh ffs believe it or not the murdered and missing isn’t really about who did it. It’s about getting answers to why no one gave a F. No one looked to see if there was a crime scene no one looked into anything. Oh they just ran away was too often the answer. When families keep after police eventually someone would say nothing to find now it’s too late. How many people tried to get police to look into the missing homeless and prostitutes in Vancouver. The point is to make people do their job be aware and not say we don’t have to look into it cause natives or gay or prostitutes. Whatever. Their still people.

[Freakinoldguy]

fifeboy fifeboy:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

Just because you don't like the article doesn't make it any less accurate and as the matter of fact it was you who highlighted this part of the Macleans article.

$1:

...For years, Fort St. John has been an epicentre of stories involving sexual assault and missing Indigenous women. In 2017, the city had a sexual assault rate of 100.01 incidents per 100,000 people, nearly double the national average of 56.56. The Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society says 15 First Nations women from the area are missing or have been murdered.

I don't know about you but it certainly sounds like it's relevant to the Globe and Mail article to me?

Although, the article is a little late when discussing the social cost to natives especially since the Gov't run Canadian Museum of Human Rights has declared that you and I and every white person in Canada committed and is committing genocide against the natives.

$1:

The conversation came about in a public but subtle way, after a recent visitor had asked the museum on Twitter if its stance had changed. The museum replied that it considers the entire colonial experience in Canada, from first contact to today, as genocide.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/cmhr ... -1.5141078

So, other than the utter PC bullshit that statement conjures up it certainly put's a new light on the Macleans article doesn't it? Because, now apparently every non native in Canada and not just the work camps is committing genocide.

So, how does it feel to be committing genocide right now as we discuss this?

Extreme views for sure. However, in a roundabout way the point I was making is that women tend to be murdered by their spouses, most aboriginal women are married to Aboriginal men. Most women are murdered by their husbands/partners. I strongly suspect that most Filipino women in Canada are murdered by Filipino men,,,their partners. However, don’t downplay the fact that 25-30% of murdered indigenous are murdered by non natives. They have a right to be upset.
Racism in Canada ( well, I can only speak for Saskatchewan ,Manitoba and NW Ontario ) is a harsh fact of life for Aboriginal people.
Seen it too much!

Your point is taken and I'll agree that some racism still exists in Canada towards natives but that's not what my post was about.

It was that, some Natives are quick to accuse others while allowing their own problems to fester and as long as they do nothing correct that problem nothing will change because when you abrogate responsibility you ignore reality.

The only way to this "reconcilliaton" they keep talking about is for everyone, natives and whites to accept responsibility for their actions and stop playing the blame game.

[Freakinoldguy]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls

81.6% of white murder victims are murdered by other whites according to US crime statistics.

So FOG logic on Muslim terrorist attacks must be:

$1:

“So, until white people and their champions start looking inward these types of crimes are going to continue. But hey, nobody wants to hear what the statistics say because it's just easier and alot more profitable to blame someone else and the truth be damned.....So, they'll keep demanding more money and more inquiry's just to keep the charade up while having no problem letting their own women die at the hands of their own men just so they can blame Mohammad.

That kind of a mindset is fucked up.

But you’re still on a tangent. First it’s a known fact, not a mere accusation, that camp workers commit these attacks. Nobody is saying they’re 100% responsible for every single aboriginal death but it’s a fact that the workers do rape and murder locals, most of whom happen to be FN. Second, why focus on just the First Nations aspect, when the title of the article is How We Treat Women and it’s really about how the workers at these camps victimize women generally, not just FN ones.

Fair enough and the simple answer to all your questions is: Fix our fucked up justice system and start arresting and charging the people responsible for these acts be they white, native, or any other colour because until the problem assholes are rooted out of the camps reserves and northern cities there's going to be issues.

I hate to say it but, from where I sit the article sounded far to much like some social justice warrior at Macleans trying to shut down big oil than one with a genuine concern for the victims of this violence.

[Thanos]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Second, why focus on just the First Nations aspect, when the title of the article is How We Treat Women and it’s really about how the workers at these camps victimize women generally, not just FN ones.

The entire article is about FN women so you can't cop out like that.

[BeaverFever]

Thanos Thanos:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Second, why focus on just the First Nations aspect, when the title of the article is How We Treat Women and it’s really about how the workers at these camps victimize women generally, not just FN ones.

The entire article is about FN women so you can't cop out like that.

There’s nothing that says this is exclusively a problem for FN women, I think we can infer that while FN women are disproportionately affected any woman in a place like Fort St. John would be affected.

[BeaverFever]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

So, I read Kyle's article in Macleans.

I don't think I'm ready to join him in ripping my hair out and weeping on the streets over the horrors of Fort Saint John.

I've been there. I knew a woman who worked in the camps. Last time I was there, there was in big boom time. Yes, there were many man there in the bars from many places not Fort Saint John. There were "indigenous" women in bars too. More than what my guess would be of the statistical average of the area. Much more.

Into this environment comes Kyle of Macleans. "Arise from your freshly wetted beds, protectors of realm" cries Kyle. "There were 20 recorded sexual assaults in the boom town of Fort St. John in 2017. More men are working in the boom town and making more on boom town jobs than women."

While investigating the bars of Fort Saint John oozing sympathy and moral superiority Kyle was able to find 11 "indigenous" women who complained of what Kyle tells us was inappropriate sexual contact.

The horror!!!

Stay out of boomtown bars ladies. Settle town social justice bedwetters. Or at least stop wasting our time just clutching your pearls. If you think there's a problem and you have an actual solution, let's hear it.

So you have no point except to say that the women are to blame for the high incidence of rape in work camp towns because they don’t go out of their way to avoid the men?