Written by Leonard Cler-Cunningham
Video Credits:
Illustrated by Thomas McKinnon
Direction & Voice Over by Leonard Cler-Cunningham
Editing by Mel Yap
Music – Henryk Górecki – Symphony of Sorrowful Songs – 2nd Movement
Rose Marie Roper was a 19-year-old Shuswap girl who worked as a kitchen aide at the nearby Williams Lake residential school.
She went out for drinks on a Friday night at a popular local tavern.
Towards the end of the evening, she accepted an offer from three young white men she had just met, for a ride to her aunt’s house.
They each tried to have intercourse with Rose Marie Roper, and when she fought back they threw her out of the car.
“…at some point they turned off the highway onto a road that led to a garbage dump, where they stopped… there was evidence of a violent exchange between the girl and the respondents… the girl would not give them what they wanted. In exasperation because she had spilled some beer, one of them struck her across the face. They all participated in stripping her… The trio left her there and drove away with her panties flying from the car’s radio aerial and continued their evening’s sport at the dance in Lac La Hache. The next morning the girl’s dead body was found at the garbage dump; her neck was broken and she suffered other injuries.”
According to British Columbia Court of Appeal documents:
One of the men was found innocent of any charges.
The other two were convicted of common assault and ordered to pay a $200 fine.