An Uncomfortable Comparison
How does an entire family disappear with no clues whatsoever? A mom, dad, and two children vanished from their home in Prince George, B.C., in 1989.
Ronnie and Doreen Jack were travelling from their home to just outside of the city for work. No one ever saw the young family again. Their disappearance has never been solved.
In 2014, a family went missing from a home in Calgary. The grandparents and a grandson were missing and presumed abducted. Before their bodies were found, the alleged killer had been arrested and charged.
While it is uncomfortable to compare the two, it is not without merit. Indigenous families have said time and again that investigations into their missing or murdered loved ones have been mishandled. The RCMP and police forces have had to admit and apologize for the mishandling of cases many times.
If the Jack family had been non-Indigenous, would more resources have been used at the time of their initial disappearance? After all, there were four human beings who were just gone.
This country has been coldly indifferent to the plight of Indigenous people; whether it is residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, child and family services who continue to take our children, or the over 1200 confirmed cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Are we who call this country home doing enough to stop the perpetuation of racism? How do we stop our women from being sex trafficked? We, as human beings, have the solutions to stop this. The question is why don’t we want to? The easy answer is money.
When we are ready, families, women and girls, will once again be safe.
Sharing the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is important work. The team that brought you Taken worked hard to care for the women’s and their families’ stories. They have done their best to provide a platform to help shed light and perhaps bring new clues to their murders or disappearances. Some of these stories have been turned into a 10-part podcast series. We hope you will listen and share them with your networks, in the hope some of these crimes will be solved.
Kim Wheeler is a writer and publicist. She is the original writer/researcher for Taken. Her daughter, Katarina Ziervogel, is walking in her mom’s footsteps. Katarina also worked on Taken as a writer and social media producer. Kim is holding the doors open for her daughters to walk through.