STC closure puts lives at risk

This is in response to Murray Mandryk’s June 3 column in which he says there is no evidence STC’s demise endangers the lives of young indigenous women.

In B.C., the so-called Highway of Tears (the 720-kilometre section of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert) spawned reports regarding 19 murders over several decades, most of them aboriginal women; other organizations countered with missing and dead women numbering 40. The reports state that because of poverty in First Nations communities and no bus service, women were hitchhiking.

My story: In the 1970s, my cousin and I were hitchhiking on Albert Street in Regina. The men who stopped drove towards outside the city, but my cousin swung the hub cap we picked up earlier at the driver’s head. It gave us enough time to get out of the car. Next day, a woman called and said she found my purse in her husband’s car. I asked her his name, but she hung up on me. Someone’s husband in Regina was willing to kidnap and hurt us because they thought we were vulnerable.

In Saskatchewan, there are 61 cases of missing and murdered women. We have the highest rates of aboriginal women being killed by strangers and acquaintances, at 44 per cent.

We also have the highest rates of domestic violence because of men who target our most vulnerable. JoAnne Dusel, co-ordinator of the Provincial Association of Transition Houses, said “Cutting STC will put more women at risk.” She called the bus service a lifeline for those women living in rural areas. Mr. Mandryk, do your research; it is a dramatic situation.