Comments on: The Niagara Region Is Not The Honeymoon Capitol

By: jerry

jerry — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:14:06 +0000

Renee,
Thanks for your article and your courageous stand. I’m a male feminist and I recently wrote a book about how women have been treated down through the ages.
Why don’t we just admit that we live in a phallocentric society and stop pretending otherwise? The Greeks worshiped the phallus in public. In a PC world like ours it has to be all private and under the table. Many men think of women as dirt ant that’s the way they treat them. So when women “go bad”–come to think of it, isn’t it men who came up with the ideas of sin and evil, and women-as-evil because of their sinful/sexual nature?–men seem to think they have special license to rape, torture and kill them.

By: Renee

Renee — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:10:36 +0000

Yesterday I found out about the death of a young girl as well and her father is flying her body back here for burial. I am now wondering if we are talking about the same person.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:39:50 +0000

last night i went home and found out a girl i went to elementary school with was murdered on the job, as an escort.
although it happened in alberta, she was from niagara falls…
ah, i feel so helpless..

By: Renee

Renee — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:51:25 +0000

Rczack is having his sentence appealed. Hopefully he will serve more time, as he is a threat to our community. The judge claimed that his time in pre-trial custody was the equivalent of a 30 month sentence and therefore he was only made to serve one additional day. The ironic part is that he served about a year awaiting trial so even the 30 month claim does not add up.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:20:15 +0000

just to add to that, there needs to be a much harsher punishment for these crimes, and something in the community that makes citizens recognize that these women are PEOPLE, with families, children, etc. (renee lets do it!)
i’ve had heated debates with friends who truly think these women “arnt people” and are basically “asking for it” because of the work they do.
people need to put their own morality to the side, and try to help the situation instead of ignore it.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:10:51 +0000

Renee, I live and have grown up in Niagara Falls, ON.
I’ve heard about most of these in the newspaper over the years and it disgusts me.
just a few months ago (not even) in a St. Catharine’s man killed a woman (Stephine Beck), threw her in a ditch and only spent ONE DAY in jail (because she was on his property?)…of course it would be different if she wasn’t a sex-trade worker.
such bullshit.
I know people were really angry about this and tried get justice, but I’m not sure what came from it.
http://bastardlogic.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/what-the-fuck/

By: Liza

Liza — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:49:50 +0000

Reply@ Liza I was talking about Niagara Falls, On. Our side just looks prettier but it is just as dirty.

K…well everything I said was directed more at the NY side. I guess I’m still not surprised, especially if you’re confirming it’s as high crime an area in ON as it is in NY. Sad, really, because the area has a built-in, natural tourist trap, you’d think they’d be able to make it a nice area. But no.

By: Esther

Esther — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:52:49 +0000

Beautiful writing, Renee. Thanks for this.

By: Radfem

Radfem — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:12:58 +0000

@Robyn:Last year, the bodies of four murdered women were found in a marsh behind a motel in my area. The murders are still unsolved, and they are STILL being referred to as “the four prostitutes” whenever the case is mentioned on the local news. I was watching the local news with my mother the other night and said, “Why can’t they refer to them as ‘women’? They had names, families, lives!”

And that really hurts the families b/c yeah, many have families. I met the aunt of one woman who was killed by a local serial killer years later and that part of it still hurt a lot. She did say that it was lucky that one female detective who started a fund for the orphaned children of these women who were killed cared enough to practically bully the task force into viewing them as women, outside of being sex workers or drug addicts. But she paid the price later on within her department.

Still, it can take years like Green River. And I remember the Green River Task Force came to my city to get information on the murders as they did in San Diego County as San Diego County did in my city to see if they were related. Dozens of women dead or missing in all three areas. But not a lot of attention.

By: Renee

Renee — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:39:37 +0000

Or is it that people may hear “prostitute” and think of a two-dimensional caricature?

Exactly that…I managed to get a hold of Mrs.Dort Stephines mother and will be doing a post on what Stephine was like. Any reporter could have taken the time to do that but it is much easier to write sex trade worker slain than to invest the victim with a little humanity.

What I am saying is that we are more than our worst day and until we start to see these women as equals and recognize our shared humanity the community will not view them as a loss.