Well-known Downtown Eastside women’s advocate dies
Posted June 4, 2013 7:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – She was known as the Erin Brockovich of the Downtown Eastside for her outspoken defense of Vancouver’s missing and murdered women.
Bonnie Fournier was a registered nurse who ran an outreach van for survival sex trade workers during Robert Pickton’s killing spree, becoming a second mother to many of them.
“There really are very few people like her left on the Downtown Eastside,” admits Ruth Meta, who once ran a nearby laundromat and also knew her from the Neighbourhood Safety Office.
“She saw the women she worked with everyday as her children.”
Meta notes Fournier was one of the first to speak out about women going missing from the neighbourhood, long before police would admit it was a problem.
“Everybody knew that there was a serial killer long before any of the police actually did anything,” says Meta.
“She was speaking out about, ‘Women are going missing! Women are going missing!’ long before anyone was paying attention about women going missing.”
Fournier also made news last year for her fight to testify at the Pickton Inquiry.
She died Sunday morning.
One of her children posted a favourite saying of hers on Facebook: “I aspire to inspire before I expire.” Many in the community would argue she did just that.
