My Book of Life By Angel

by Martine Leavitt

  Angel, Serena, Melli, Widow, Call and Daddy Dave are my own invention. But inside my made-­up story is much that is true.

  It is true that a young girl is commonly lured into prostitution because the man she thinks is her boyfriend turns out to be a pimp. Sometimes he is the one who introduces her to street drugs. Often, once she is “turned out,” she takes drugs to help her tolerate the lifestyle. She stays for many reasons: because she must feed her addiction, because she is afraid she will be beaten or killed if she leaves, or because her pimp has threatened to hurt her family members if she leaves. Each girl’s story is different.

  It is true that, beginning in 1983, a number of women disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area notorious for its poverty, open drug use and high rate of HIV infection—­one of the highest in the world. Most but not all of the women who vanished from the Eastside ­were sex workers. Over the next thirteen years, families and friends filed missing-­persons reports, giving reasons why they thought their loved ones ­were not just missing but dead. Nothing was done.

  In 1997, the same year that eleven more women went missing, Robert William “Willy” Pickton handcuffed and attacked a sex worker, who fled naked with knife wounds to her stomach. The charges against Pickton ­were stayed, however, because the sex worker was not considered a reliable witness. She cannot be named because a court ban prohibits using her real name.

  In 1998, an additional ten women went missing. Police ­were told that bloody clothing and a number of women’s purses, complete with ID, had been seen lying around Pickton’s farm. That same year the Vancouver Police Department issued a news release saying that law enforcement officers did not believe a serial killer was behind the disappearances.

  By the time Pickton was arrested in 2002, nineteen more women had been reported missing. Investigators found on his farm the remains and the DNA of thirty-­two of the missing women. Pickton admitted to the murders of forty-­nine women; he was convicted of six counts of second-­degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty-­five years.

  I respectfully acknowledge that the names I use on pages 49 and 117 refer to several of the real missing women: Debra Jones, Dawn Crey, Dianne Rock, Sarah de Vries and Janet Henry.

  The Missing Women of

  Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside*

  Yvonne Abigosis

  Sereena Abotsway

  Sharon Abraham

  Elaine Allenbach

  Angela Arseneault

  Sherry Baker

  Cindy Beck

  Yvonne Boen

  Andrea Borhaven

  Heather Bottomley

  Heather Chinnock

  Nancy Clark

  Wendy Crawford

  Marcella Creison

  Dawn Crey

  Sarah de Vries

  Sheryl Donahue

  Tiffany Drew

  Elaine Dumba

  Sheila Egan

  Cara Ellis

  Gloria Fedyshyn

  Cynthia Feliks

  Marnie Frey

  Jennifer Furminger

  Catherine Gonzalez

  Rebecca Guno

  Michelle Gurney

  Inga Hall

  Helen Hallmark

  Ruby Hardy

  Janet Henry

  Tanya Holyk

  Sherry Irving

  Angela Jardine

  Andrea Joesbury

  Patricia Johnson

  Debra Jones

  Catherine Knight

  Kerry Koski

  Marie Laliberte

  Stephanie Lane

  Danielle Larue

  Kellie Little

  Verna Littlechief

  Laura Mah

  Jacquelene McDonell

  Diana Melnick

  Leigh Miner

  Marilyn Moore

  Jackie Murdock

  Georgina Papin

  Tania Petersen

  Sherry Rail

  Dianne Rock

  Elsie Sebastian

  Ingrid Soet

  Dorothy Spence

  Teresa Triff

  Sharon Ward

  Kathleen Wattley

  Olivia Williams

  Taressa Williams

  Mona Wilson

  Brenda Wolfe

  Frances Young

  Julie Young

  * Sources: missingpeople.net and Missing Women Task Force list, 2007

  Thanks

  I wish to express my deep gratitude to Candace Fisher, Sarah Gough, Stephen Roxburgh, Julie Larios and Brenda Bowen, who gave me guidance and much-­needed encouragement as I wrote this book. I am always grateful to my family, who inspire me in my work. I am especially indebted to my brilliant editors Margaret Ferguson and Shelley Tanaka. Thanks also to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts for their timely support.

  Martine Leavitt

  About the Publisher

  Groundwood Books, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children’s books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.

  Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.

  We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.