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Discourses of Blame: An Analysis of Media Coverage in the Robert Pickton Case Jori Dusome

ABSTRACT: When most Canadians consume their news media, they don't often consider the underlying narratives of colonialism, racism, and classism that can be spread through media representations of marginalized peoples. Such is the case with Indigenous women in , who die violently at five times the rate of other Canadian women, but are given three and a half times less coverage in the media than white women for similar cases. News media articles covering Indigenous women's deaths are also less in-depth and less likely to make the front page. Prior to the apprehension of Robert “Willy” Pickton in 2002, media coverage of the dozens of missing women on 's was minimal, and often portrayed the women as the harbingers of their own misfortune. The Vancouver Police Department also failed to take action, citing the women’s “transient lifestyles” as reason to believe they would return soon. However, even after widespread recognition of the issue began, media coverage continued to attribute a level of “blameworthiness” to the missing and murdered by regularly engaging with tropes and stereotypes that individualized the acts of violence against them. In this paper, I look to explore that phenomenon by asking how the women of the Downtown Eastside are named as culpable or blameworthy in the violence enacted against them, as evidenced in the media coverage of the Robert Pickton case. My analysis found that while an identifiable killer like Pickton provided the news media a temporary cause for the women’s deaths, sex-working and drug using women maintained blame in the public eye both during and long after the case, due in equal parts to their use of drugs, their status as sex workers, and their proximity to “tainted” geographical regions like the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. As evidenced by this research, Indigenous women are continually and systemically blamed for the violence enacted against them. Keywords: MMIWG, sex work, media bias, Downtown Eastside, gendered violence

In some way or another, most Canadians are one of the nation’s most marginalized and regularly consume news media. Be it through at-risk populations. Indigenous women die papers or television updates or, increasingly, violently at five times the rate of other the use of social media, the regular Canadian women, but are given three and a consumption of news media is a huge source half times less coverage than white women for of collective knowledge in Canadian society. similar cases; articles are also less in-depth However, news media coverage is by no and less likely to make the front page means unbiased, and has been historically (Gilchrist, 2010:373). The media perpetuates known for its allegiance to systemic narratives colonial systems of violence against of racism, sexism, and colonialism. At the Indigenous women by constructing a intersection of all three of those issues sits hierarchy of victimhood, where the more media coverage of Indigenous women, who “relatable” stories of white women sit front Discourses of Blame 2 and centre, while both the individual and gone missing (Gilchrist, 2010; Jiwani & systemic issues affecting Indigenous women Young, 2006). More than 70 of these go largely unmentioned. This hierarchy was disappearances have occurred amongst especially evident in the coverage of the women inhabiting Vancouver’s Downtown infamous Robert Pickton case, wherein Eastside, an area known well for its Pickton abducted and murdered at least 49 relationship with drugs, poverty, and the sex women from the Downtown Eastside of trade. Prior to the apprehension of Robert Vancouver without detection. Pickton was “Willy” Pickton in 2002 for two counts of allowed to carry out his violence for years first-degree , both pertaining to without repercussion, while the news, the missing Downtown Eastside women, media police, and the state turned a blind eye, largely coverage of the missing women was minimal because of who the missing women were; and often portrayed sex workers as the drug users, sex workers, the poor, and the harbingers of their own misfortune. Despite Indigenous were deemed unworthy of saving. loud public outcry and annual demonstrations To better understand the nature of the from the families of the continually news media coverage surrounding the missing disappearing women, the Vancouver Police and murdered indigenous women in this case, Department (VPD) also failed to take action, 29 articles were analyzed from the two highest citing the women’s “transient lifestyles” as circulation papers in , The reason to believe they would return soon Province and The Sun, using four theoretical enough (Pitman, 2002). It wasn’t until 1998 frames. The frames include the pathological when reporters from the began deviant, or how Indigenous lives are seen as publishing a series of stories on the increasing inherently helpless beyond repair; the numbers of missing women that the concern Madonna and the whore, which positions began to gain traction both locally and women as good versus bad depending on their nationally, as more and more stories hit the conformity to traditional feminine traits; newsstands about these disappearing women. spatialization, or the way certain spaces However, even after widespread recognition become containers and stages for disordered of the issue began, media coverage continued behavior and deviant people; and the single to attribute a level of culpability to the missing deranged male, a news media narration that and murdered by regularly engaging with blames solely the perpetrator for the violence tropes and stereotypes that individualize acts committed against women, instead of of violence against them (Lindberg et al., positioning their lack of safety as a failure of 2012). the state. This historical practice of blame is part of These lenses are used to explore how what Gilchrist (2010) describes as the Indigenous women are ignored or even “symbolic annihilation” of Indigenous blamed for their participation in the violence women, which contributes to their continued that is committed against them, and how news exclusion and marginalization in a variety of media ignores the larger social factors that social structures, including in news media (p. push Indigenous women into these positions 385). Whether erased entirely or conjured into of danger. symbolic “folk devils” of deviance and degeneracy, Indigenous women are routinely I. Research Topic & Significance othered in the media, especially in the context of Study of sex work (Hugill, 2014). Their bodies and Since the 1980s, more than 500 their neighborhoods are utilized as distinctive Indigenous women and girls in Canada have social indicators to make clear the boundaries INvoke Vol. 6 3 of what Razack (1998) calls race and space, further enforce gendered and racialized which she argues creates the perfect binaries (Gilchrist, 2010; Pitman, 2002). conditions for violence against women to occur with impunity. II. Research Question Pickton’s eventual confession to 49 How are the women of the Downtown was consumed by the media with Eastside named as culpable or blameworthy in fervor, and he was quickly constructed as the the violence enacted against them, as perfect predator, or as I call it, the single evidenced in the media coverage of the Robert deranged male. I argue this construction of Pickton case? Pickton may have changed the dynamic of news media coverage of the women as victims III. Literature Review and redirected some of the blame for this The inspiration for this research comes violence onto Pickton himself. Analyzing mainly from the media analyses of Jiwani & articles from the periods before his Young (2006) and Hugill (2014), who have apprehension, during the period between his each researched the impact of news media release and re-apprehension, and after charges narratives on women on the Downtown had been laid, I will analyze the four Eastside by analyzing newspaper texts discourses in an attempt to distinguish a released both before and after Pickton’s change in perceived culpability towards the incarceration. women. Through this analysis, I hope to I will begin with exploring the discourse untangle some of the intricate connections of spatialization through Hugill’s piece between the common discourses of race, “Dazed, Dangerous, and Dissolute,” which place, and gender, and to explore the investigates the ways in which the imagery of processes by which Indigenous women the Downtown Eastside becomes associated become depicted in the media as complicit in with poverty and deviance, not only as a their own deaths. As well, I will attempt to physical space but also as a symbolic one uncover the impact that the “single deranged (2014). When all of the “immorality” of male” narrative has on the women’s own deviant lifestyles are collected into one neatly victim status. In analyzing a variety of packaged area, it becomes what Culhane newspaper articles from before, during, and (2003), Hugill (2014), and Jiwani and Young after Robert Pickton’s arrest, I aim to gain (2006) all identify as a place that can be easily insight as to whether the language used to forgotten and classified as “waste” (Razack, describe sex workers and the harm that comes 2016:291). to them fluctuates when there is a figure to Hugill (2014) discusses the ways in “blame” for their misfortune. I would also like which physical space becomes associated to examine how the rhetoric of “high risk with decency or degeneracy, and how deviant lifestyle” is mitigated or exaggerated in the spaces become seen as a “shared destiny” (p. context of a visualized, named predator. 138) for all their inhabitants. Lowman also Analysis into the overlapping factors of discusses the formation of this space, and oppression that often culminate in argues that as society shifts, those deemed participation in the sex trade is critical to degenerate are intentionally isolated into these understanding the violence that affects sex hopeless locales (2000). This space becomes workers at an endemic level. Media is a what Razack (1998) calls a “cordon sanitaire,” crucial avenue of exploration, as news media designed to prevent the contagion of is widely known to influence stigmas and immorality from spreading to the “good” stereotypes of marginalized peoples, and citizenry (p. 367). Over time, these neglected Discourses of Blame 4 spaces, and the people within them, become redeemed by their ability to fit into these naturalized as deviants, and function as a structures, or regarded as worthless for their tangible storefront of opportunities for failure to conform to them. Within this domination (Razack, 1998). This increased framework, the authors identify the ways that observation into degenerate spaces, especially violence against these women becomes by news media, has led to what Lowman individualized, and more specifically, how (2000) defines as the “discourse of disposal,” their perceived degeneracy and lack of wherein women are seen as disposable, morality contributes to discourses of blame allowing violence to be committed against for their victimhood. Narratives about sex them without pause (p. 1003). workers are compounded by news media’s I believe it is also worth noting the reporting on them as largely poor, Indigenous recurrence of the word “transient” in media women, which has consequences for and police coverage of the situation. As Hugill Indigenous communities in life as well as in and Razack write, neo-liberal nationalism has death. They argue that, in creating a created a language of belonging in a select ‘degenerate’ characterization of the women time and space. Belonging depends on the that occupy the Downtown Eastside, a binary concretization of participation in the social is inherently created that allows for the sphere, and as such, when sex workers are presence of the good girl, or the Madonna. In regularly dismissed as transient, their fact, this binary is reinforced so often that displacement comes to be seen as a Indigenous women have become fully pathological aspect of their existence, associated with the whore identification – effectively eliminating their position of violent, drug addled, licentious, and belonging in society (Razack, 1998). Pitman dangerous (Jiwani & Young, 2006; Razack, (2002) argues that identities of deviance 2016). Victimhood becomes patterned, and become symbolically tied to a city’s identity, specific types of women are separated from which further enforces a “good/bad” binary by victimhood by virtue of their race and class, depicting those who live there as “a world while Indigenous women are assumed to fit apart” from “normal” society (p. 180). This the pattern. It becomes socially accepted that vivid illustration of the bad neighborhood also being Indigenous is simply an immitigable sets the stage for “morality tales,” or repetitive risk factor (Lindberg et al., 2012). This results tropes that clearly communicate norm in what Jiwani and Young (2006) have violations, such as drug use and sex work, and identified as the dichotomy of invisible and the associated consequences (Pitman, 2002, p. hypervisible – “Invisible as victims of 179). An excellent example of this can be seen violence and hypervisible as deviant bodies” in this case study, when the missing poster for (p. 89). However, it is critical to note that the the disappeared sex workers distributed by the connotation of a drug-using, sex working Vancouver Police Department (VPD) listed Indigenous woman is rarely offset in media by them not as Vancouver women, but women the larger social context of racism and from the Downtown Eastside (Pitman, 2002). colonialism that surrounds Indigenous Jiwani and Young’s analysis more women’s victimization (Jiwani & Young, largely focuses on what McLaughlin (1991) 2006; Lindberg et al., 2012). has identified as the Madonna/whore This Madonna/whore dichotomy, Pitman dichotomy. This framework suggests that (2002) argues, functions to provide a sort of women and our perceptions of them are boogey man for the status quo, a narrative defined in relation to existing structures of which warns white suburban women that if heteronormativity, wherein women are you don’t behave like “them”, you won’t end INvoke Vol. 6 5 up like “them” (p. 180). Lowman (2000) as poor because of their complete lack of expands on this, arguing that the lesson control. Prostitution is seen as a compulsion, portrayed is not to avoid things that will bring equally as powerful as drug addiction, that you harm, but instead to simply avoid being holds women captive while simultaneously mistaken for a prostitute, as prostitutes are portraying them as unwilling to change. perceived as “throwaway people” whose McLaughlin references Foucault’s (1991) victimization is justified by their whore status conceptualizations of sex, implying that the (p. 995). This speaks to Lowman’s pathologizing of prostitution is in actuality a characterization of certain places as pathologizing of women’s sexuality. This, in transforming the bodies within them to turn, posits women as victims of their own deviants, and also speaks to McLaughlin’s sexuality, as well as perpetrators, for inducing (1991) notion that while any woman can be and entertaining the immoral sexuality of raped, prostitution only “happens” to certain others. As well as sexuality and Indigeneity, people in certain places. Razack argues that displacement itself has Counter-framing this discourse is the become pathologized. As mentioned earlier, Madonna, structured around dialogues of nationalism has constructed displacement as a family and friends. Missing women’s binary antithesis to belonging, which Razack respectability and humanity is reaffirmed believes has pathologized displacement into a through traditional tropes of the good woman chronic condition. Thus, the perception of – the daughter, the sister, and the mother. transient women becomes one of a group of These frames contrast the sex workers as they people who will never properly adjust to are, presently, with how it’s believed they “normal” society, and thus should be left out should behave, according to common of it, continuing historic notions of the conceptions of femininity and understandings “uncivilized” nature of Indigenous peoples of the “good” and “bad” woman (McLaughlin, (Jiwani & Young, 2006). As a majority of sex- 1991). This contrast is often also employed to workers on the Downtown Eastside are provide a primer or a background to stories of homeless or in tenuous housing situations, the women’s fall from grace, or as Hugill their spatialization compounds with the notion (2014) calls it, “the descent” (p. 135). of the chronic hooker and pathological deviant Sex work, substance use, and poverty have to geographically construct a group of people also been pathologized, especially in relation undeserving of victim status or understanding. to Indigenous women, associating their Another critical aspect of pathologizing position amongst drugs and the sex trade as a I’d like to explore is Razack’s discussion of chronic and inescapable way of being. Razack “thingness,” a concept originally posited by (2016) phrases this as “Indigenous Alexander Weheliye (2016, p. 295). I would pathology,” referring to the ways in which the argue that the way Indigenous women’s danger Indigenous women face every day is bodies and lifestyles have been medicalized explained away through their “high risk and pathologized has led to a common lifestyles” or violence from “their own” (that understanding among colonizers of their is to say Indigenous) men (p. 306). Culhane position as objects as opposed to humans. (2003) and McLaughlin (1991) also explore Razack (2016) argues that for Indigenous the “chronic hooker” and the addict, and the women, sex work is often the pathway ways these two super statuses are through which colonizers exhibit force and pathologized as precursors to poverty. Instead domination over racialized bodies, a process of holding poverty responsible as the cause for enabled by their identity as “things.” Because these social phenomena, sex workers are seen of the pathological othering of Indigeneity and Discourses of Blame 6

Indigenous life that is regularly displayed in is all despite the fact that Lowman (2000) and the media and the criminal justice system, it is many other scholars agree that the murder of understood that the Indigenous body has been, sex workers is not the responsibility of a and will continue to be, an encouraged place single killer, but is a “systemic pattern of to express “political domination” and violence” (p. 998). “colonial masculinity” which has led to a While all the articles focused on the medical model of understanding that posits gendered relations that often make up sex Indigenous women as inevitably damaged and trade activity, I noted that none of the authors inherently disposable (Razack, 2016, p. 295). made a point to acknowledge the often- Lastly, I’d like to explore a frame I compounding factors of queerness and identify as the single deranged male. Though Indigeneity. It is well known that LGBTQ and somewhat crass, the phrase “if it bleeds, it two-spirit sex workers are some of the most leads” is accurate when it comes to what victimized of any sex worker demographic, makes the news. Jiwani and Young posit that and I believe it would have enhanced the newsworthiness is most commonly found in analysis to explore the importance of the reporting of homicides, and the changing gender and sexual identities sensationalism surrounding these stories only amongst street-based workers. Further, I increases in the case of a (2006). believe this research would benefit from a However, because of the desire for these significantly larger sample size, so as to sensationalist stories, news media often has a explore the media trends not just within tendency to ignore the systemic issues British Columbia, but across Canada, surrounding violence. Jiwani and Young considering the case has received both (2006), Pitman (2002), Lowman (2000), national and global attention. Culhane (2003), Razack (2016) and Hugill (2014) all discuss the willingness of the media IV. Methodology to buy in to depictions of sex worker’s To gather the texts being analyzed in this attackers as deranged individuals, hunting research project I utilized the database down women to fulfill some sort of Canadian Newsstream, provided through the compulsive need for violence. Creating this University of Alberta library database system. framework allows us to maintain the narrative I used the initial keywords “prostitute” or “sex that violent men are not, in fact, everywhere, trade worker” or “hooker” or “whore” and but function as single outliers who have applied filters after the initial search to narrow strayed away from the social order (Jiwani & the results. I implemented custom date Young, 2006). This individualized limitations to correlate with key moments in perspective allows for the Madonna/whore the case. Because the first news stories broke dichotomy to continue, by making these in relation to Pickton on February 5th, 2002, I women responsible for being in situations began the search dates exactly one month where the social norms are more likely to be before, on January 5th, 2002. The end search ignored (Hugill, 2014). If men are labelled as date was set as March 22nd, 2002, exactly one mentally unwell, there is no need to address month after Pickton was apprehended and the serious systemic issues underlying the charged. This time frame was chosen to violence, which allows us to continue encompass articles that discuss sex workers participating in what Culhane (2003) both before the introduction of Pickton as a identifies as “race blindness” – that is suspect, and after his identification as a pretending we are all equally vulnerable to the perpetrator, so as to potentially illustrate a same forms of marginalization. (p. 595). This change in blameworthy language over time INvoke Vol. 6 7 and across publications. In applying more Madonna and the whore, spatialization, and filters to the search, I chose to narrow down the single deranged male, I aimed to notice by publication name, choosing the two highest patterns of language and narration that reflect circulation papers in the local region, the how said discourses become structured, and Vancouver Sun and the Province. This search how institutions are able to direct and denote with these three key filters resulted in culpability. approximately 80 results, which I then pared down by removing editorials and duplicates, V. Findings of which there were many. In the case of Despite the use of a relatively small articles that had two editions, national and sample size, all of the articles provided fruitful provincial, I selected provincial iterations to information and rich content on which to provide a more boots-on-the-ground conduct analysis. The first variable coded for, understanding of local coverage. The outcome race, is not directly related to any of the was 29 articles for analysis; 18 from The Sun qualitative frames, but was instead intended to and 11 from The Province. offer a statistical lens into who exactly is To analyze the texts acquired, I utilized a recognized as a vulnerable population in the combination of quantitative content analysis news media. Of the 29 articles examined, only and qualitative discourse analysis. For content 2 of the articles directly mentioned the race of analysis, I created a codebook with eight the victims, using phrasing like “aboriginal variables to track common tropes in news Abbotsway” and “a tiny 31-year-old native reporting of the Downtown Eastside, like woman” (Bolan, 2002a; Douglas, 2002). Of mentions of race, substance use, parental the two articles previously mentioned, one status, and interviewees known to the victim, also made reference to a different woman’s as well as more systemically inclined Cambodian ethnicity, and one additional variables, like spatialization, depictions of article indirectly mentioned race through perpetrator mental illness, and descriptions of the woman as blond with blue acknowledgement of systemic social issues. I eyes (Bolan, 2002a). Overall, race was kept the codebook small in order to provide a mentioned directly and indirectly in only clear snapshot of the composite changes in 10.1% of articles examined. These findings writing style as they move through the various are significant considering 50-80% of the sex- time periods, and intend to more heavily rely workers on the Downtown Eastside are on discourse analysis. Creating the codebook Indigenous, and it is estimated that anywhere was a critical step in creating clear categories from 33-67% of Robert Pickton’s final victim of analysis to streamline and focus the count were Indigenous women. Of the six research (Trimble & Treiberg, 2015:233). murders Pickton was convicted of, four were For qualitative analysis, I challenged Indigenous women (Hugill, 2010:46; Razack, tropes and frames commonly utilized in news 2016:294). This refusal by the news media to media in order to examine the meanings and acknowledge the obviously differential representations that are conveyed through suffering experienced by Indigenous women discourse, in an effort to “expose everyday in Vancouver contributes to the erasure of understandings of social and political life” Indigenous women’s stories. To add to this, through minute textual details (Trimble & the news media frenzy that happened as Treiberg, 2015, p. 228). Through an Pickton’s story leaked to the public created a exploration of the four main discourse sensationalized lore surrounding what frameworks discussed in my literature review, happened to the missing and murdered including the pathological deviant, the Indigenous women of Vancouver, gorily Discourses of Blame 8 detailing violence and disembodiment, associated therein as a master status to those despite for many years prior ignoring equally who are victimized as a method of pressing stories of Indigenous women’s delegitimizing victimization of “disposable” disappearances. The implication of such bodies and assigned blame to the victims coverage is that the epidemic violence themselves (Jiwani & Young, 2006, p. 900). committed against these women is normal and Often the drug use was mentioned in same thus not deserving of coverage, or is simply “a breath as the women’s relation to sex work, lack of respect for women and girls on such as “Debra, age unknown, was a known reserves” enacted by Indigenous men and drug user and sex trade worker in the Indigenous men only (Kappo, 2014, para. 15). Downtown Eastside when she disappeared” Ultimately the blame for Indigenous women’s (“The Missing,” 2002). In this same article, 50 victimization is laid at the feet of Indigenous other women’s names and information were communities themselves, not the systems that listed alongside their mugshots. Of the fifty have created the involved social structures. names on the list, 33 of them (66%) are The lack of regular coverage of these described in their one sentence biography as a crimes seemingly stems from a near sex trade worker and drug user. Some feeble compulsive desire for “exotic” forms of attempt is made to humanize the women, violence, or what Indigenous author Dara though often this falls short. For example: Culhane (2003) identifies as outside of the “Diana, 20, always had her hair in a ponytail “ordinary and mundane brutality of everyday and was a drug user and sex trade worker in poverty” (p. 595). In vigorously covering the area of Victoria and Hastings” (“The sensationalistic stories associated with Missing,” 2002, para. 15). Also worth noting Indigenous women and girls, while ignoring is that this often repeated yet frequently the omnipresent threat of violence that faces remodelled phrase hits on two key frames: this population, the “normal” or non- spatialization, through the geographically sensational depictions of Indigenous women’s relevant notation of two Downtown Eastside murders are seen as standard and in no need of crossroads, and the pathological deviant, due coverage. to the woman’s entire identity being taken up The second variable coded for was the by deviant labelling. presence of drug or alcohol abuse mentioned The amount of substance use mentioned in in reference to the victims. Substance use was the articles varied throughout the phases of coded simply as 0 or 1, mentioned or not Pickton’s arrest and apprehension. In period mentioned. Of the 29 articles, substance use is one, prior to the direct involvement of Pickton explicitly listed as a characteristic of the in the storytelling, eight out of ten articles missing women in 18 of the articles, for a total featured references to substance. representation of 62%. Of the 18 articles that Contrastingly, in period two, when Pickton is feature substance abuse, half of those arrested, released, re-apprehended, and mentioned drug or alcohol abuse in the charged, the number of articles featuring drug headline, byline, or very first paragraph. This use plummets significantly, featured in only is significant, given that the headlines act as three out of eleven articles. However, this what David Hugill (2014) identifies as cessation of drug use as a primary story-telling “cognitive organizers,” which set the tone for agent is short lived, as in period three, the how we perceive the rest of the information number of articles that feature substance use portrayed in the article (p. 137). This jumps back up to eight out of ten articles. I exemplifies the way in which news media hypothesize that this is in part due to the typically assigns drug use and the deviance distraction offered in speculating on the life INvoke Vol. 6 9 and habits of Robert Pickton and the (2002b) of the Vancouver Sun, a woman identification of a potential serial killer, which whose body has been found is named in the provides a temporary abdication from sex- title as a “mother of three”, and in the byline workers as blameworthy in their own and the second paragraph she is bluntly victimization. However, this understanding of described as being a crack cocaine user and a blame and violence is not built to last, and sex worker. Several paragraphs later, her appears to be only a fleeting change in parental status is mentioned again: “her cousin perspective that is not strong enough to drown said she believes the mother of three was out existing social narratives of substance use murdered,” it reads. The very next sentence and deviance. continues, “Williams smoked crack cocaine” I also analyzed parental status and (2002b). The proximity of the woman’s character references to determine the motherhood to her drug use is a frame utilized frequency of redemptive or damning tactics in by the news media to act as a reminder of telling the story of Downtown Eastside deviant behaviour. In reminding the audience women. The importance of this coding is of the presence of a child in an already tragic paralleled in the framework of the Madonna environment, those that are posited as and the whore, where a sex worker is bringing the children into such a cruel world redeemed through her relation to traditionally are constructed in the public perception as an “good” people, like their children, parents, inherently villainous, unredeemable figure. and or other street-involved or community The women are deemed culpable in their people. Parental status was codified as a assaults by virtue of their perceived inability simple mentioned or not mentioned response, to maintain their maternal instinct. and five articles made mention of the parental However, there are also positive status of a missing or murdered woman, for a depictions of the women with their children, total of 17%. Three of the articles fall in though they often occur later on in the article, period one, and two are in two. There were no after the sensationalism has been spun. articles that mentioned motherhood in period Towards the end of the article Bolan (2002b) three. writes from Williams’ funeral “Speaker after The articles I examined displayed a speaker told of [her] friendly, easy-going different tone to what I had initially manner and her love and commitment to her hypothesized, which was that children would children, of whom she was hoping to regain be used to humanize and soften the depiction custody.” It is worth noting that while her of the murdered woman in question, based on attempts to restore the connection with her the Madonna and whore dichotomy as children are potentially redemptive, this quote described in Jiwani & Young (2006, p. 900). is the only positive sentence about her On the contrary, the tone of many of the parenthood in the article, and it is written in articles utilized the mention of children almost conjunction with her deviant status. In as an accusation or example of the unfitness positioning the woman as a loving parent, of the mother, alongside her occupation and though a failure at retaining custody, we are her substance use. While all but one of the reminded of her deviance. This exact articles also mentioned positive and touching juxtaposition can also be seen in another of characteristics of motherhood, they were often Bolan’s articles (2002a), where he writes “her abruptly juxtaposed with the pathological family is devastated about the loss of the deviance that ripped these women from woman they called “an absolute angel” who “normal” motherhood. For example, in this was committed to beating a drug problem to article written in period one by Kim Bolan regain custody of her children.” Discourses of Blame 10

To further assist in analyzing the Madonna family and friends is little more than one or and the whore trope and the potential two sentences. Further, the familial aspect of redemptive language attributed to sex- the women’s lives is often rapidly juxtaposed working women, I chose to analyze and code alongside their deviant identities as sex data on who speaks for and about these workers, street people, and substance users. 10 missing women. To do this, I coded according articles (34%) fell under subgroup two, which to three main relational subgroups who spoke included other street-based people like fellow in the articles either about either the women users or women who may have worked the specifically or the general situation, either via streets with them, street-involved boyfriends direct quote or through the authors words. The and friends, and extended to community- three relational subgroups were 1) immediate based organizations like WISH Society and friends and family of one of the victims, 2) Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and other street involved people, be they Education Society (PACE). Interestingly, 4 employers, friends or acquaintances, and also out of the 10 subgroup two articles provided including local community-based character references from associated members organizations, and 3) people in positions of of local churches, including a pastor, two authority or otherwise unrelated to the reverends, and a teacher who was introduced victims. As well as police, emergency to a missing woman through a church responders, and academics, subgroup three program. I found this interesting considering was expanded to include comments from the context of the missing women’s relation to neighbours, non-Downtown Eastside based the church is often not in relation to their services, and more. I also coded the values of personal religiosity, but instead comes from 0, for no applicable character references, and their proximity to social services offered by for 4, meaning multiple types of reference in the church. Further, four other articles (14%) one article, at which point the multiple featured in subgroup two reference local, subgroups themselves were also coded down community-based non-profits, like WISH to the individual reference form. Nine of the Drop-In Society, Pace, and others. One article articles were coded as having multiple went fairly in-depth in the local community, references, and as such there is some overlap citing three non-government organizational in the total observed percentages. Of the 29 representatives in one two-page article, which articles analyzed, six had no character is surprising considering only the one article reference, quotable or otherwise, to elaborate previously mentioned consulted with more on the victim(s) and their experience. In these than one community-based resource. This articles, the narrative was entirely constructed seems shocking, considering community by the author and provided little humanity or partners are likely the people who should be personalization to the victims. The articles are able to provide investigative journalists with evenly spread in timing across all three the most information given their direct lived categories. experience of working with street-based 11 of the articles (38%) feature interviews women. However, it is also somewhat or statements from close family friends of the surprising that a number as statistically victims. This number is more than I originally significant as 14% can be attributed to the would have expected, considering the voices of community organizers, as within tendency of the authors to assign drug use and “tough on crime” (2015, Comack, Fabre & sex work as the women’s master statuses, Burgher) political environments that tend to however it is worth noting that the content in vilify drug users and sex workers as drains on four of the articles containing input from society, non-government organizations can INvoke Vol. 6 11 often be seen as enablers of deviant and/or agencies. In the case of the concerned licentious behaviour. neighbours, they seem to exist in the The most frequent relational references narratives to serve as what Beverly Pitman are those in subgroup three, including the refers to as a “morality tale”, to provide RCMP, VPD, other agencies or persons urgency and proximity to the deviant unrelated personally to a missing or murdered behaviours taking in place in what “should” be victim. Subgroup three references were a non-deviant space (Pitman, 2002, p. 179). present in 16 out of the 29 articles, comprising These quotes serve to not only villainize sex a total of 55%. One of the most commonly workers and drug users, but also to spatialize cited speakers in this category is VPD media “their” neighbourhoods as a world apart from liaison officer Constable Catherine Galliford. the world these women live in. For example, Galliford, who “speaks for the missing women one article is titled “One community’s victory task force” is utilized as a consistent is another’s new problem” and goes on to use representative figure and face of the RCMP buzzwords like “hookers and dopers” and (Kines & Bolan, 2002a). I believe, given the “thieves and hookers” and “criminals and regularity with which Galliford’s voice is used hookers” to create a correlative habitus to answer tough questions asked by media, between sex work and illicit and dangerous that her status as a woman is utilized as a tool activity. As the interviewee in the article to soften the criticisms of racism and sexism continues “We are not ever going back to being faced by Vancouver police in the case. I where I have to walk my kids past prostitutes also believe that the prevalence of police on the way to school,” the physical voices in this reporting is significant, as it importance of moral taint is clearly portrayed contributes to the perception of police voices (“One community’s victory,” 2002). In as the most trustworthy and necessary, above another example of the erasure of the and beyond the families and friends of the humanity of missing and murdered women, women who cry out for justice that has gone one article from period two and subgroup unserved. It is particularly telling that over three contains no reference to the anything half of the total articles feature input from personal about the four murdered women, police, despite one of the running theories other than where their bodies were found and surrounding the mass of disappearances being their status as sex workers, but contains three police incompetence and discrimination. entire paragraphs referring to the welfare of Beyond input from the RCMP and the animals found on Pickton’s farm, including VPD, both as organizations and from direct interviews with a manager at the British individuals within the organization, there is Columbia SPCA. While the women’s names also interesting commentary from the Mayor are only mentioned three times with no of Port Coquitlam, multiple “concerned” personal or identifying information, there is a community residents, a representative from full inventory listed of exactly what and how the Vancouver SPCA, an anthropologist from many animals were taken from the farm, and Simon Fraser University and several the quote from the SPCA reads references unrelated to the women, from ““Our concern ultimately was for the friends of Robert Pickton. Seven total articles health of the animals and it felt the best feature commentary from someone not thing for the animals was to remove them associated with law enforcement and mostly from the site,” said Shawn Eccles, unrelated to the victims, such as those manager of field operations [emphasis mentioned above, though all of these articles added]” (Jiwa, 2002, para. 3) also include input from law enforcement Discourses of Blame 12

From this quote and the structuring of the of the women, which contributes to the frame article, it is clear which lives are prioritized I identify as the single derange male. I coded more heavily by news media. The coverage of for this information using three variables, animal lives at a higher frequency than those including 1) the mental illness of the of missing and murdered women contributes perpetrator is named directly, either by a to what Razack identifies as the “colonial justice or medical official, 2) the mental story of whose bodies have value,” as illness of the offender is speculated through emphasized by news discourse (Razack, 2016, words like crazy, insane, psycho, stalking, p. 291). predator, etc., and lastly, 0) which was a code In order to speak to the importance of for no mention of mental illness, speculated or spatialization in determining the blame otherwise. attributed to victims, I also coded for Six of the 29 articles pointed to the presence spatialization as a variable. I coded for any of a singular crazed psychopath in relation to articles which specifically placed the women the murders of the women, for a total of just on the Downtown Eastside, distinctly placed over 20%. This framing is significant, as it them outside the Downtown East side, or a shifts blame entirely to a conjured image of an mixture of both. Overall, 23 of the 29 articles unhinged individual instead of discussing the explicitly mentioned the women’s association endemic levels of violence that are faced by with the Downtown Eastside in their reporting marginalized women, and in particular for a total of 79%, showing the prevalence of Indigenous women, and the negligence and linkage between the deviance of sex work racism from several systems that contributes with the spatialized area of the Downtown further to this oppression. Coding examples of Eastside. I had hypothesized that this value include headlines, like “Violence spatialization would be the key in determining stalks Downtown Eastside [emphasis added]”, culpability in missing and murdered sex quotes, like “a serial killer may be preying on workers, but five articles that made no the vulnerable women of the Downtown mention of the Downtown Eastside as a factor Eastside [emphasis added]” and even bylines, in the women’s lives and disappearances show like “investigators searching for a serial killer resistance in using spatialization explicitly, believed to be hunting prostitutes in even when the option is readily available Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside” (“Missing- through the content of the article. For women list grows to 50”, 2002; Bolan, 2002c; example, instead of referring to the Tanner, 2002a). Downtown Eastside, the authors discuss “the What was even more surprising about North Shore”, “the Lower Mainland”, “in the this level of analysis was that nearly the same last decade in B.C.” and reference to the number of articles positioned Pickton after his murder site via “Port Coquitlam” though not arrest and charge, both in period two and the originating location of the murdered period three, as a colloquial “good guy” and women (“Killings may hold clue”, 2002; pillar of the community – shocking Berry, 2002; Jiwa, 2002; Tonner, 2002). considering in period two he had been charged These examples are interesting, as they step with weapons offenses, and in period three outside of the critical spatialized identifiers with multiple homicides. References from that Razack (1998) coins “zones of close friends as well as acquaintances degeneracy” (p. 339). provided insight that contrasted the The last variable that I analyzed was accusations Pickton faced both during the the prevalence of notions of insanity or initial arrest period and after charging. psychopathy in association with the murderer Character references included people Pickton INvoke Vol. 6 13 sold pigs to, neighbours of the farm, and even thus limiting the public’s perception of the a woman known to “party” with Pickton who women as victims with whom we should claimed to have “known him for years” (Kines sympathize and assist. & Bolan, 2002d). This and other articles go on In correlation with this binary, the fact that to describe Pickton as a ““nice caring man” most references in the news media came from who likes to help out single mothers in the authority figures or organizations constructs a community” and an “honest and generous” view of the women and their voices as person and “very nice community-minded unnecessary or irrelevant in the context of [man]” (Kines & Bolan, 2002d; Kines & their own victimization. Despite much of the Bolan, 2002c). Considering he snuffed out the causational narrative surrounding the murders lives of dozens of women, it is truly telling being based in police failings, continuing to that the media would still attempt to make provide the police a more prominent platform Pickton a redeemable figure, often at the of communication than families or other street expense of the deceased women. involved people only enables the supremacy of the police state over marginalized bodies VI. Discussion and stories. Aligning with my initial suspicions, the Further, the analysis showed, pathological deviant frame remained true in unexpectedly, that Pickton was nearly equally relation to drug use and sex work, though not likely to be seen as a “good guy” as he was to in relation to race. I had initially hypothesized be seen as a “predator.” The news coverage that due to racialized understandings of provided a stronger drive in understanding trauma and substance use, Indigeneity would and investigating into the background of be a key factor comprising the basis of the Pickton, and disputing or confirming the pathological deviant, but racial identity was actualities of his life and persona, than was absent from almost all of the news coverage ever provided into the lives of the missing and examined. Addictions and status as sex murdered women. I believe more research into workers, however, were relegated as a master this area is necessary to determine exactly status in the identities of the missing and what impact more sympathetic coverage of murdered women. This frame functioned to the women and their lives would have in the position the missing as fallen women, out of future. Additionally, I would like to further control, unable to fight back against their explore the impact of gender on the addictions and abuses, yet still degenerate construction of the offender in the news media enough to continue deviant behaviours. This to determine whether male identity and deviancy discouraged sympathizing with the masculinity has anything to do with the way a women, ultimately critiquing their deaths as suspect’s guilt is questioned, and if there is nothing more than the product of bad decision more leniency for male offenders in providing making. In creating imagery of the missing a “well-rounded” analysis of their character as women as junkies, hungry enough for the next opposed to a female offender. I would also be fix to get in the car with a stranger while a interested in doing further research that deranged killer is on the loose, these women analyzes who exactly is allowed by the news are posited as blameworthy for the potential media to speak on behalf sex workers and damage their vices may bring. Despite the their inequalities, if the “expert” voices other series of identifying characteristics in utilized by the media are inherently gendered, the women’s lives, like their families, faith, and what the impact of that gendered analysis talents, and histories, drug use and sex work is. are consistently assigned the master status, Discourses of Blame 14

VII. Conclusion Berry, S. (2002a, January 27). Neighbours All of these factors contribute to and reclaim the streets for their families: enable what Kristy Gilchrist (2010) identifies They stood shoulder to shoulder and as the “symbolic annihilation” of faced down the undesirables. The marginalized bodies in the news media, and Province. distracts from or entirely eliminates any Berry, S. (2002b, February 10). The hunt for understanding of the deeply rooted social evidence. The Province. issues that simply continue the oppression of Bolan, K. (2002a, January 8). 3 bodies in the oppressed (p. 385). Ultimately, while an Delta match missing-women profiles: identifiable killer like Pickton provided the Task force looks at prostitutes' news media a temporary cause for the cases. The Vancouver Sun. women’s deaths, sex-working and drug using Bolan, K. (2002b, January 9). Cousin doubts women maintained blame in the public eye mother of three could have overdosed both during and long after the case, due in on her own: Victim found dumped in equal parts to their use of drugs, their status as Surrey didn't use needles. The sex workers, and their proximity to “tainted” Vancouver Sun. geographical regions like the Downtown Bolan, K. (2002, January 16). Missing women Eastside of Vancouver. Though the Pickton list reaches 50 with five new names. The case and the origination of a serial killer Vancouver Sun. provided some small relief to the identities of Bolan, K. (2002d, January 17). More officers Indigenous women under siege, the join in missing women probe: Task phenomenon did not last, and quickly women force grows to 30 in bid to solve mystery of the Downtown Eastside subsumed the of 50 missing females. The Vancouver master statuses that have been used to describe Sun. them for decades. As evidenced by this Bolan, K. (2002e, February 14). Sex-trade research, Indigenous women are continually workers ‘freaked out’. The Vancouver and systemically blamed for the violence Sun. enacted against them. If we as a society want Comack, E., Fabre, C., & Burgher, S. to change this, I propose we move away from (2015). The Impact of the Harper blaming women as victims, and instead begin Government's "Tough on Crime" blaming the systems that make them Strategy: Hearing from Frontline victimized. Workers. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from References https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/ ____. Missing-women list grows to 50. (2002, default/files/uploads/ publications/ January 16). The Province. Manitoba Office/2015/09/Tough on ____. One community's victory is another's Crime WEB.pdf new problem. (2002, January 27). The Culhane, D. (2003). Their Spirits Live within Province. Us: Aboriginal Women in Downtown ____. Killings may hold clue to Eastside Vancouver Emerging into disappearances. (2002, February 4). The Visibility. American Indian Vancouver Sun. Quarterly, 27(3/4), 593-606. Retrieved ____. The Missing: Since the early 1980s, from these 50 women have disappeared from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4138965 Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. (2002, February 8). The Vancouver Sun. INvoke Vol. 6 15

Douglas, T. (2002, March 12). 1998 baptism Retrieved from 'gave new life' to struggling https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new prostitute. The Vancouver Sun. s/british-columbia/key-dates-in-the- Fournier, S. (2002, February 28). Dave pickton-case/article6504398/ Pickton convicted of sexual assault in Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002a, February 8). 1992: Murder suspect's brother claimed Search of pig farm yields missing he had a clean record. The Province. women's ID: Robert Pickton a person of Gilchrist, K. (2010). "Newsworthy" interest since 1998. The Vancouver Sun. Victims? Feminist Media Kines, L. & Bolan, K. (2002b, February 8). Studies, 10(4), 373–390. doi: Police probe has troubled history: How 10.1080/14680777.2010.514110 the missing-women investigation has Hall, N. (2002, March 18). Serial rapist a been mired in controversy since 1998. long-term offender: judge. The The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver Sun. Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002c, February 11). Hugill, D. (2014). Dazed, Dangerous, and Pickton 'befriended' prostitutes: Dissolute: Media Representations of investigation the result of false Street-Level Sex Workers in allegations: friend. The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In G. Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002d, February 12). Balfour & E. Comack Investigation intensifies: Police seek (Eds.), Criminalizing Women: Gender records from rendering plant. The and (In)Justice in Neo-Liberal Vancouver Sun. Times (2nd ed., pp. 130–155). Halifax Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002e, February 14). & Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Have you visited this trailer? Police Jiwa, S. (2002, February 11). Police broaden want your DNA. The Vancouver Sun. farm probe: Investigators seek links to Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002f, February 23). murders of four other women. The Robert Pickton charged with two Province. murders: Port Coquitlam pig farmer to Jiwa, S. (2002, February 13). New list says appear in court Monday in missing 144 missing or dead. The Province. women case. The Vancouver Sun. Jiwani, Y., & Young, M. L. (2006). Missing Kines, L., & Bolan, K. (2002g, February 25). and Murdered Women: Reproducing Security to be tight at Pickton Marginality in News appearance: Names of 2 victims, among Discourse. Canadian Journal of 50 women missing from Downtown Communication, 31, 895–917. Eastside, are to be released today. The Retrieved from Vancouver Sun. http://caid.ca/MisMurWom2006.pdf Kines, L., Bolan, K., & Skelton, C. (2002, Kappo, T. (2014, December 19). Stephen February 25). Pig farmer 'a very good Harper's comments on missing, guy': Man charged in missing women murdered aboriginal women show 'lack case defended by friends. The of respect'. CBC News. Retrieved from Vancouver Sun. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/st Lindberg, T., Campeau, P., & Campbell, M. ephen-harper-s-comments-on-missing- (2012). Indigenous Women and Sexual murdered-aboriginal-women-show- Assault in Canada. In Sheehy E. lack-of-respect-1.2879154 (Ed.), Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Key dates in the Pickton case. (2012, Legal Practice and Women’s December 17). . Activism (pp. 87-110). OTTAWA: Discourses of Blame 16

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