Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

By Jessica McDiarmid

A searing and revelatory account of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls of Highway 16, and an indictment of the society that failed them.
 
For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia. The highway is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis.
 
Journalist Jessica McDiarmid investigates the devastating effect these tragedies have had on the families of the victims and their communities, and how systemic racism and indifference have created a climate where Indigenous women and girls are over-policed, yet under-protected. Through interviews with those closest to the victims—mothers and fathers, siblings and friends—McDiarmid offers an intimate, first-hand account of their loss and relentless fight for justice. Examining the historically fraught social and cultural tensions between settlers and Indigenous peoples in the region, McDiarmid links these cases to others across Canada—now estimated to number up to 4,000—contextualizing them within a broader examination of the undervaluing of Indigenous lives in this country.
 
Highway of Tears is a powerful story about our ongoing failure to provide justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and a testament to their families and communities' unwavering determination to find it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780385687584

Jessica McDiarmid

Jessica McDiarmid is a Canadian journalist who has reported on human rights and social justice from around the world. She grew up near the Highway of Tears and has been investigating the murders for the past five years. This is her first book.

Reviews for Highway of Tears

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is fascinating and deeply disturbing. I had some general knowledge about the Highway of Tears from activists sharing information online, but I didn't have a good understanding of the whole picture. I think McDiarmid did some of the most thorough and dynamic writing about victims and families that I've ever read in a true crime style. This book makes sure that you know each girl or woman mentioned as individuals, who they were, how they grew up, their families, etc. and it centers them in the narrative, rather than perpetrators. It's heart-wrenching to read as the stories of each new individual stack throughout the story, but it also gives examples of their vitality and promise and loving relationships with families along with the deeply sorrowful losses.

I've seen several reviews complaining that this is disorganized, but I disagree. It's not exactly a linear story, but it's a book about a series of losses, investigations, and lives that overlap and intertwine in a variety of ways. I definitely recommend this if you're at all interested in true crime or want a better understanding of what the Highway of Tears actually is.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

No one knows exactly how many Indigenous girls and women have been abducted and murdered along British Columbia's Route 16, especially on the 450-mile stretch between the small, impoverished towns of Prince George and Prince Rupert. This book tells the stories of several such victims. It also highlights the systemic problems, including racism, sexism, lack of resources, and flaws in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) workplace culture, that have stood in the way of getting these cases solved. This book is particularly valuable in that it give voice to the often-overlooked families of the missing women. Highly recommended.