Blog: 'Conspiracy of Silence' book details murder of Native girl

Thursday, February 17, 2011  

"Four white boys. One Cree girl.

Four cowards. One warrior.

Two white boys given immunity, one acquitted, one handed a life (?) sentence. A stolen and erased Aboriginal sister joins her ancestors. An Aboriginal community saddened and silenced:

This is the Helen Betty Osborne murder, court case, and disgrace.

White journalist Lisa Priest starts her sympathetic and problematic book Conspiracy of Silence with, “November 13, 1971 was cold and miserable.”

The cold and misery continued for sixteen-years until the four white boys were finally taken to trial; and November 13, 2011 makes it forty years since Osborne was killed. Really, the cold and misery started hundreds of years ago when white settlers from Britain and France invaded Turtle Island (now known as Canada).

Cold was the act of murder by four boys in Manitoba’s community known as The Pas. Cold was the conspiracy of silence by the white townspeople, police, and politicians of The Pas for sixteen years! Cold was the attitude and beliefs of white people before, during, and after Osborne’s murder. Cold is the reality of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada, USA, and the entire Western Hemisphere that goes uninvestigated and unpunished by police and governments."

Get the Story:
BREAKING THE SILENCE ABOUT CANADA’S MISSING AND MURDERED ABORIGINAL WOMEN: AN INTERVIEW WITH EDEN ROBINSON AND A REVIEW OF “CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE” (Black Coffee Pot 2/14)