Mysteries, Solved and Unsolved

Featured in the week-end papers, an old story. A miserable, dreadful story. Of young aboriginal women, women of all ages, hundreds of teens, women in their 20s and 30s, suddenly absent over a period of decades from the presence of those who know them best. And then there are those aboriginal women, and they are numerous, whose bodies have been found in isolated areas, leaving their family members bereft.

And railing against public safety authorities for not being sufficiently engaged in discovering why it is that young aboriginal women are disproportionately represented among the abused, the murdered and the carelessly discarded - and among those large numbers of women who suddenly disappear without a trace. It might be related to the same pathology that sees a disproportionate number of young aboriginal males incarcerated in the country's jails.

It might be that and much, much more. Lack of care in raising strong young minds who see a place for themselves in the country as valued citizens. And the miserable truth that First Nations people find themselves discriminated against socially, in the workforce, through life's many opportunities, and anywhere they appear. Offered fewer opportunities to advance themselves.

From inadequate housing and the needed encouragement to rise above the poverty they're mired in. To schooling that doesn't match the quality of education offered to other Canadians. To exposure to a better way of life, an appreciation of the need to first acquire a sound education and then go forward, determinedly, despite setbacks, from there.

In the case of the two young girls missing for a full year, friends from the Kitigan Zibi-Maniwaki area, whose parents and communities are desperate to find them, there appears to have been some initial official buck-passing in the belief that the two girls decided between them - though they took none of their personal belongings - to depart their homes for greener pastures.

Both girls were of a socially rebellious age and clearly meant at some future date to leave their homes. It does not appear logical that they would do so in such a startlingly abrupt manner, leaving all their possessions behind them, and not advising their families of their intent. Fears abound of enslavement to the sex trade, and alternately that they might have been the victims of murder.

The whereabouts of the two friends, the discovery of what has become of them, whether they are still alive, and alternately if they are deliberately maintaining a distance from their families should be seen as a priority. Yet, in the Ottawa area alone we're informed that between 1,500 and 2,000 children disappear each year.

One such child is a 16-year-old Ottawa girl whom her mother last saw on Friday morning, and who advised the Ottawa Police later that night that her daughter was missing under mysterious circumstances. It was not like her daughter to simply disappear, her worried mother informed the news media.

A police search was initiated, the media published the story and asked anyone with information to contact the police. Posters identifying the girl were put up notifying the public of the girl's disappearance, asking for help in finding her. Two days later she was discovered to be in the company of new-found friends, unaware that anyone was searching for her.

"She's very embarrassed" said her mother. "She didn't mean to upset everybody and have them look for her. I still have anxiety, like tight chest, but I think it will probably subside." This mother with the palpitating heart appears not to have adequately instilled in her child a sense of personal responsibility.

But there is a photograph of three beaming family members; mother, returned daughter and separated father.