REPRESENTATIONS OF SECURITY AND INSECURITY IN THE HIGHWAY OF TEARS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS by Rebecca A. Tallman B.A., Brock University, 2007 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA July 2014 © Rebecca A. Tallman, 2014 UMI Number: 1526516 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Di!ss0?t&iori Piiblist’Mlg UMI 1526516 Published by ProQuest LLC 2015. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT The Highway of Tears is a local term that refers to a stretch of highway in northern British Columbia where an estimated 18 to 35 women and girls have disappeared or have been found murdered since the 1960s (Culbert and Hall 2009). Drawing on feminist approaches to security and International Relations, this thesis explores the concepts of security and insecurity in the case of the Highway of Tears. I use critical discourse analysis to answer the following question: How are the concepts of security and insecurity represented in the discourse of select media related to the Highway of Tears? It was seen that each narrator framed and located security and insecurity differently. Despite varying individual assumptions, the concepts of security and insecurity were represented by two broad shared understandings of security in the context of the Highway of Tears. These shared understandings uncovered a tension in the discourse between traditional conceptions of security and critical, feminist and Indigenous approaches to security. Ultimately, this research has disrupted mainstream assumptions of International Relations and security. Therefore, it provides new insights into research and advocacy for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in northern British Columbia and across Canada. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Acronyms v List of Figures vi Acknowledgements & Dedication vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 My Research Journey: How did I get here? 2 1.3 Research Objectives, Question and Thesis Statement 7 1.4 Chapter Summary 9 1.5 Contributions and Conclusion 14 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature 15 2.1 Introduction 15 2.2 Unpacking the Theory of Security 16 2.3 Maria Stem: Security and Identity 22 2.4 Critiques of Feminist Security Studies 26 2.5 Conclusion 29 Chapter 3: Methodology 31 3.1 Introduction 31 3.2 Feminist International Relations: Approaches to Research 31 3.3 Research Methodology 36 3.4 Conclusion 44 Chapter 4: Case Study: The Highway of Tears 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Epidemic 46 4.3 The Highway of Tears and its Investigation 48 4.4 Memorial, Activism and Policy Recommendations 55 4.5 Conclusion 61 Chapter 5: Representations of Security & Insecurity in the Media Discourse of the Highway of Tears 63 5.1 Introduction 63 5.2 Key Words and Identifiers of Security and Insecurity 63 5.3 Safety and Protection 70 5.4 Vulnerability and Protection: Who Counts? 77 5.5 Narrators of Security: Locating Security and Insecurity in the Discourse 84 5.6 Conclusion 96 iii Chapter 6: Analysis and Conclusion 98 6.1 Introduction 98 6.2 Reflections and Conclusions 99 6.3 Contributions 108 6.4 Conclusion 113 Works Cited 116 Appendices 129 Appendix A: Template 129 iv ACRONYMS BC British Columbia MLA Member of Legislative Assembly NDP New Democratic Party NGOs Nongovernmental Organizations NWAC Native Women's Association of Canada IR International Relations RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police UN United Nations LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Map: The Highway of Tears ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Loretta Saunders, a young Inuk woman who went missing and was found murdered in February 2014. Loretta was a student at St. Mary’s University researching missing and murdered Indigenous women. If I could honour her in any way it would be through this research. This work is also dedicated to the 1,181 Indigenous women and girls who have disappeared or been found murdered across Canada. I would like to thank my supervisor, Heather Smith, who sacrificed so much of her time and energy so that I could be successful in writing this thesis. Thank you for advocating for my success, pushing me when I needed it, giving me time when I needed it and for always coaching me along the way. To my committee members, Paul Bowles and Tina Fraser, you were both incredible throughout this entire journey. Thank you for supporting me and guiding me through this process. To my sounding board, Charelle, who by now likely knows more about my thesis than I do. Thank you for always lending your time and your ear so that I could vent and work through the struggles I faced during this research. And finally, to my patient and supportive husband Samuel. Thank you for always being there and for supporting me without question over the past three years. And more importantly thank you for hopping in a truck and moving to BC with me, it’s been an incredible journey and I would not have done it with anyone else. Without each of your sacrifices and unconditional support this work would not have been possible, for this I will always be grateful. Thank you. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 - Introduction In 1998 families and community members gathered in the town of Terrace, British Columbia to remember six First Nations1 women who had disappeared over the previous ten years along Highway 16(Terrace Standard 1998). Those in attendance held up photos in memory of missing daughters, sisters, granddaughters, mothers and friends (ibid). This event marked the first time the term “The Highway of Tears” was used to describe the alarming number of missing and murdered women and girls in Northern British Columbia (Rolston 2010; Terrace Standard 1998). Since the 1960s an estimated 18-35 women and girls have gone missing or have been found murdered along highways in northern and central British Columbia (Human Rights Watch 2013; Culbert and Hall 2009). A majority of the missing women and girls are of First Nations descent and range between the ages of 12 and 33 (Culbert and Hall 2009). The high rates of violence experienced by women and girls in Canada, particularly Indigenous women, are a part of a national epidemic (Human Rights Watch 2013, 7). Despite calls for action from a number of human rights groups, communities, families, and government officials, Indigenous women and girls continue to go missing or 1 In this thesis I use the terms “Indigenous”, “First Nations” and “Aboriginal” to refer to the ethnicity of a number of the missing and murdered women along the Highway of Tears. These terms are the most common terms used in the literature around missing and murdered women and girls in Canada. While these terms vary in their meaning, they are all used to represent the first inhabitants of Canada. The terms “Indigenous” and “Aboriginal” are umbrella terms that refer to First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples (University of British Columbia 2009). Aboriginal is most often used in the national context by the federal government while Indigenous is common language used in the global context of missing and murdered women. The term “First Nations” is used to describe Aboriginal peoples of Canada who are ethnically not Metis or Inuit (ibid). In the literature, First Nations is most often used in the local context of the Highway of Tears. Depending on the context, I will be using each of these terms throughout my research. 1 be murdered across Canada in unacceptable numbers (Amnesty International 2009; Human Rights Watch 2013). The case of the Highway of Tears is a local site where widespread and targeted violence has threatened the safety of women and girls for decades. In this thesis I frame the Highway of Tears as a site of security and insecurity. In order to do this, I explore how the concepts of security and insecurity are represented in select media discourse of the Highway of Tears. It will be seen that while each narrator will frame and locate security and insecurity differently there will be shared understandings of what it means to be secure and insecure in the context of the Highway of Tears. These shared understandings uncover a tension in the discourse between traditional conceptions of security and critical, feminist and Indigenous approaches to security. In this chapter I will reflect on my research journey that shaped this thesis. I will introduce the research objectives of this work, identify my research question and provide my thesis statement. I will then summarize the chapters that make up this thesis. I conclude by reflecting on the broader contributions my work will make to the field of International Relations. 1.2 - My Research Journey: How did I get here? Before I describe my research objectives, questions and thesis statement, it is important that I first reflect on how I got to these points. The story of how I came to this research is an important deliberative moment that has not only shaped how I define myself as a researcher, it has also informed how I theorize and understand International 2 Relations (Ackerly and True 2010,42).