|
Trisha Baptie: Reporting from the heart December 17, 2007 Trisha Baptie is a former sex-trade worker who is covering the Pickton trial for the Vancouver-based citizen journalism site Orato.com. After attending the trial daily, she shared with JournalismEthics.ca her reflections on the verdict, the media and her journalism career. What was your reaction to the verdict? It was the most horrifying process. It needs to be explained to people who are going to go through it. When we heard the jury foreman read "not guilty" to first-degree murder, there was an eruption in the court room, the life force was sucked out. It was so creepy. But then he keeps talking and you realize they find guilty on second-degree. It was such a relief. It was something you just can’t describe. I wish they had warned us as to how they were going to read the counts. |
 TRISHA BAPTIE |
|
| Are you happy with the six second-degree murder convictions? I am. I’m sad for the families because they truly believe it should be first-degree. But if you look at the evidence with the jury’s blinders on, if you look at it with the judge’s charge in your head, it makes sense. He’s not going to see the light of day again and I think that’s what everybody wants. What was it like to cover the trial for Orato.com? It has given me healing that I don’t think I could have gotten any other way. It empowered me to become passionate about things I didn’t realize I was passionate about. I didn’t realize that it’s actually what I think my calling is. I just hope that I got people talking about subjects they wouldn’t otherwise talk about. I mean, not everyone has an ex-hooker as a best friend. I hope I gave them a different perspective. Did you find it difficult to keep track of what you could and couldn’t report on due to publication bans? Oh, totally. There is so much more to this story and people are still arguing about what should and shouldn’t come out because there’s still 20 more counts of murder against him. So no one knows if the publication ban is truly gone. But there’s so much more of this story that needs to come out. How do you think you help shaped the coverage? I hope I just brought these women to life. I wanted to give them a voice and offer a different way of looking at this situation and a way into talking about drug addiction and prostitution that are on the Downtown Eastside. Do you think the trial made Pickton a celebrity at the expense of the victims? I think that’s inherently the problem with media. But I hope what I did was give more voice to the victims than to Pickton. In death we need to celebrate these women more than we ever did when they were alive. How do you think the media will remember this trial? I hope that in ten years we can look back and say this was a groundbreaking event because it opened up issues and started to affect real change. I hope that this case is a catalyst for some serious issues to be analyzed and looked at. The number of these women that were a product of the foster care system, perhaps we need to go back and revamp that. I was a foster child. I got put into care when I was 12. If the government was ultimately these women’s guardian, how did we fail them so terribly? How did you become involved with Orato.com? I wrote a letter after I read an article that said Orato was considering giving this position to a woman whose views I disagree with. And they actually contacted me within the day asking me if I would consider taking the position. And I said “no, oh no, I just wanted to tell you who not to get, I’m not trying to apply for the position at all.” Then I talked to them and after I heard their passions, I said “okay, I think I can do this.” I mean, my children had no idea of my past, I went to great lengths to hide my past, so to be in the media I would be coming out to a lot of people about my background. And it was hard. But my kids heard me and supported me. What did it mean to you to cover this trial as a citizen journalist? It meant so much on so many different levels, I feel like my future has been shaped by all of this. I found out who I was and what I was passionate about. I found out the Downtown Eastside for everything it is, is also an amazing place of resilient people. It’s also a place that I’m passionate about and it’s a place I have friends in, I mean my girlfriends are still drug addicted prostitutes on the Downtown Eastside. It caused me to analyze so many things within myself. I think it was in the last ten days. The victim’s families honoured me beyond belief and let me hang out with them for 11 hours a day. I got to hear their stories in such a personal way, and they challenged me. It is something that will definitely change my future in honour of those family members. So what do you want to do with your future now? I think for the next ten days I’m going to curl up in the foetal position and recover from all this. Then, once I unfold from that, I’m going to really get behind causes that I believe in and try to be very vocal about these issues. Would you want to go into journalism? I don’t know what my future holds in all honesty. I have so many doors open and I just need to find out which one ignites my passion. Do you plan to write a book? I promised the families I would, so we’ll see. |
||
