Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) is notorious. It’s only 4 square kilometers in size, but it’s a dangerous place for at-risk people. For decades, the streets have been used as a hunting ground for vulnerable women. For example, Robert Pickton, one of Canada’s most heinous criminals, walked these streets in search of victims.

Massive drug operations have headquartered in the derelict hotels of East Hastings, and when enslaved drug mules or sex workers don’t pay their debts, they meet fates as heinous as being thrown out of 5- or 6-storey windows.

The DTES is a complicated, convoluted world, and no match for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), which has proven time and again it falls short of effectively handling the cases of marginalized women who meet their demise in its streets.

Additional Reading:

Missing Women Commission of Inquiry

The Tyee: Vancouver Now Owns the Balmoral and Regent, but Their Histories Still Haunt

Source Material:

APTN National News

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province

Newspaper – The Province Editorial

Newspaper – The Vancouver Sun

Newspaper- The Vancouver Sun

The Ridge

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun

Audio Clip:

YouTube - Noelle O'Soup case: Man found in unit with decomposing remains was wanted on Canada-wide warrant