Shelby Raymond

CO-COORDINATORS of Terrace's Take Back the Highway event this Saturday Arlene Roberts, left, and Shelby Raymond are unified in their zero tolerance stance against violence.The event is a way to remember the victims who have disappeared along Hwy 16 where the pair stands.Raymond says she was aghast recently when she saw a young woman hitchhiking under the sign.
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"Take Back the Night is the basis for Take Back the Highway, in addition to the relevance of missing women," says Shelby Raymond, the head of the Terrace Amnesty International Action Circle A80. The highway that will be symbolically reclaimed, says Raymond, is the 720-kilometre stretch of Hwy 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert.The road has been dubbed the Highway of Tears due to a number of disappearances - almost all First Nations women.An Amnesty International report done in 1996 pegged the number of missing women in the area at 33.Of the 33, five have been found dead and all but one was indigenous."When you look at the stats and indigenous women are five times more likely to die from an act of violence than others in Canada, it becomes a really important issue and important to find out why and address the issues," says Raymond.The 40-year-old secretary at Northwest Community College says that indigenous women have been made historically more vulnerable by several means.She lists the residential school legacy, the vulnerability to social and economic marginalization and the cultural deprivation stemming from unjust laws."Up to 1985, if an indigenous woman of status married a non-indigenous man, she wasn't allowed to live on reserve," says Raymond.
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Raymond and Roberts say they're happy to have representatives from the RCMP at the march even though the police force only recognizes six disappearances along the highway."(The RCMP) are part of the solution and we don't want to alienate them," says Raymond, though she adds police could improve how they work with indigenous people without creating fear and suspicion.
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"Amnesty International agreed men should be involved," says Raymond.

Shelby Raymond, an Amnesty International representative in Terrace who works at Northwest Community College, said she couldn't provide an entire list of names of the women that Amnesty claims are missing or murdered. "It's what's called a soft statistic," she said.

Shelby Raymond Program Officer, Terrace/Kitimat sraymond@nwcc.bc.ca Direct: 250.638.5408 Toll free: 1.877.277.2288 Ext. 5408

Photos courtesy Dennis and Shelby Raymond -- Pipers led a group of marchers in Terrace, British Columbia during the recent Take Back the Highway event condemning the deaths or disappearances of 32 women and girls - most of them Native - during the 1990s. (Inset) Event Regional Coordinator Kathy Wesley, Nisga'a Nation, with participant Blaine Stensgaard.
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"I saw the sister and niece of Ramona Wilson [who went missing at age 15] holding tightly onto each other," said Shelby Raymond, spokesman for Terrace Amnesty International Action Circle, one of many national and local organizations that participated in the event.

''I saw the sister and niece of Ramona Wilson [who went missing at age 15] holding tightly onto each other,'' said Shelby Raymond, spokesman for Terrace Amnesty International Action Circle, one of many national and local organizations that participated in the event. ''I realized this was a deeply needed statement, a moment to control one small section of highway, a moment to say we will remember every precious young woman who disappeared.

Shelby Raymond

Shelby Raymond, an Amnesty International representative in Terrace who works at Northwest Community College, said she couldn't provide an entire list of names of the 33 women that Amnesty claims are missing or murdered. "It's what's called a soft statistic," she said, using her fingers to make quotation marks around the word soft.

Shelby Raymond, AA Liberal Arts, Bismarck College

Shelby Raymond, an Amnesty International representative in Terrace who works at Northwest Community College, said she couldn't provide an entire list of names of the 33 women that Amnesty claims are missing or murdered.

"It's what's called a soft statistic," she said, using her fingers to make quotation marks around the word soft.