Bad Date: The Lost Girls of Vancouver's Low Track [Paperback]

With more than 50 women missing from Vancouver, you'd think there would be a lot of books and writings on this unbelievable story. However, Trevor Greene appears to be the only one with guts to tackle this horrific story.

Reminiscent of the Green River killings, but more prolific, these missing women are out there somewhere. Trevor does a great job of keeping objective as he talks about a tradegy that is beyond most of our understanding.

BAD DATE by Trevor Greene is a combination sociological/social work study of the many prostitutes on Vancouver's Low Track who have gone missing since the 90s. Greene's focus is on the life style of the prostitute/victims, most of them drug addicted, and on their families, making it clear that the women are no less human than any of the rest of us. There is also focus on the sick men who physically victimize - to the point of killing - these women who are among the most vulnerable and who due to their addiction and transience are the least likely to be immediately missed. For the sexually conflicted, bullying men who need to satisfy their Madonna/whore lunacies by battering women who have done nothing to them, the prostitute/addict is a gold mine.

Greene's work touches all bases of the subject including law enforcement, politics, disease, in addition to the main areas I've mentioned.
Two items of note: 1. BAD DATE is not true crime. 2. It was published before Vancouver pig farmer, Robert Pickton, was arrested and charged with the murders of some of the missing women, but this doesn't make the book any less interesting.

Trevor Greene has written about what is to me a heartbreaking subject and while doing so has demonstrated his understanding that we are all human beings and that the most troubled of us is as valued as the rest.
Highly recommended.

This information contained in this book my seem to be dated or lacking since it was written just before Robert Pickton was arrested and charged with the murders of several missing women from the Vancouver area (some of whom are mentioned in this very book). Despite that, I think that anyone interested in the subject of these murders or with the plight of poor, drug addicts will find this book to both an illuminating and riveting expose. This book provides a glimpse into the horrific lives of some of the people at the lowest rung of society.

This book will definitely not appeal to everyone. It is, first of all, deeply sad and disturbing for anyone not used to seeing or hearing about people who live their lives on the fringes of society, and who lives are a constant struggle for survival from day to day. Their lives are a constant cycle of getting high and finding the means to stay high. First of all, they get addicted to whatever their drug of choice is. Then they find that they must feed this adiction. Usually whatever income they have is not enough to support the habit or they cannot continue to hold a regular job and they must resort to other means of supporting the habit (like stealing or prostituion). If they don't feed their addiction, they must suffer withdrawal and that for them is a pain like no other. So, they steal or sell their bodies or whatever they must do in order to finance their habit. Prostitutes often are addicted to drugs in order to ease the pain of servicing so many.

Also, not everyone would care to read this book because not everyone is sympathetic to such people. That never ceases to amaze, shock, disturb, or anger me. Often times, I have found that the reaction some people have to the pig farmer murders is more like amusement or indifference. The general concensus among many is that these women were lowlife, drug addicted prostitues who got what they deserved and that society is much better off without them. What is ironic here is that many of these women did not start out their lives this way and that for whatever reason they chose to or were forced to take the wrong path in life. Almost all of them had family and friends who cared for them and loved them deeply. For those victims who did not even have that, I say that they deserve even more sympathy because they never had a chance. No one has the right to make the decision if these victims deserved to live or not.

One part of the book that really shocked and disturbed me was an excerpt taken from the diary of Sarah De Vries (one of the missing women mentioned in the book and linked to the pig farm). By all accounts, Miss De Vries was a lovely, smart young woman who was very much loved by family and friends. Why she would choose to do what she did is a mystery. In this excerpt, she wrote about a close call with a john who had picked her up for a "date" and then taken her out into a desolate, wooded area and tried to kill her. He nearly accomplished this, but she was able to escape. Trevor Greene says in his book that this is like a rite of passage that ALL prositutes go through, and even if they survive the first, there are bound to be many other similar experiences. Sarah survived that one, but she obviously had another that she did not survive. I would also like to point out that one would think that after the first "bad date" experience, Sarah would have learned her lesson, but drug addiction is so very powerful that she and others just like her ultimately disregard the dangers that exist and put their lives in jeopardy just to stay high

Anyone with young children should read this book or a least be aware of the message. Most people think that this would never happen to their kids. I bet most of the parents of these victims thought the same. It is not hard to get mixed up with the "wrong" crowd.

Trevor Greene must indeed be an kind and compassionate person for having researched this subject and then written a book about it. This is the kind of person who I admire and respect. I read recently that he was badly injured in Iraq while he was serving there. I hope he's well now.

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