Helen Betty Osborne

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Helen Betty Osborne, or Betty Osborne (1952 - November 13, 1971), was a Cree Aboriginal woman from Norway House reserve who was kidnapped and murdered while walking down Third Street in The Pas, Manitoba on the evening of November 13, 1971.

She was born in Norway House, Manitoba, the eldest of many children born to Joe and Justine (née McKay) Osborne. Her ambition was to go to college, and the only way to succeed in doing so would be to continue her education away from the reserve (as secondary education was not available) It was then that she was sent to live with a white family (in a government program where the families were reimbursed for hosting Native students) in The Pas, Manitoba, a culturally-mixed town of whites, Métis and Cree Native people.

On the evening of her death, she was walking home when she was abducted, brutally beaten, raped and killed. Her unclothed body was found later by police.

Police at first suspected her boyfriend, Cornelius Bighetty, but his name was later cleared.

Four young local white men were eventually implicated in her death: Dwayne Archie Johnston, James Robert Paul Houghton, Lee Scott Colgan and Norman Bernard Manger. It was not until December 1987, sixteen years after her death, that any of them were convicted of the crime, and then only Johnston was convicted, as Houghton had been acquitted, Colgan had received immunity for testifying against Houghton and Johnston, and Manger had never been charged.

The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission conducted an investigation into concerns surrounding the length of time involved in resolving the case. The Commission concluded that the most significant factor prolonging the case was racism.

The RCMP officially closed the Osborne case on February 12, 1999.

A formal apology from the Manitoba government was issued by Gordon Mackintosh, Manitoba's Minister of Justice, on July 14, 2000. The apology addressed the failure of the province's justice system in Osborne's case. A scholarship was created in Osborne's name, by the province, for aboriginal women.

However, to this day, the small town of The Pas, Manitoba is still affected by this event. There is a racial divide between Aboriginal people and white people and racism deeply divides the town. Recently, there has been a movement by the Aboriginal community to make strides in building healthier communities and this is having a positive impact on the town and surrounding community.

[edit] References

Priest, Lisa. Conspiracy of Silence.
Culhane, Dara. “Their Spirits Live within Us: Aboriginal Women in Downtown Eastside Vancouver Emerging into Visibility.” American Indian Quarterly 27 (2003): 593-606.
Gibson, Lisa. “Innocence and purity vs. deviance and immorality: the spaces of prostitution in Nepal and Canada” Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton. MA Thesis. September 2003.
"Conspiracy of Silence". Telefilm. 1994.