Tribute to Writer Trisha Baptie

Courage to Come Back Award Winner Offers Hope, Inspiration

Trisha Baptie, who was one of Orato.com's Robert Pickton serial killer trial citizen correspondents last year. The remains of at least 26 women, most survival-sex prostitutes with drug addictions, were found on Pickton's pig farm. In the first trial, Pickton was found guilty on 6 counts of second degree murder, but he is implicated in the deaths of as many as 50 of the more than 60 women who disappeared from Vancouver, Canada.

Trisha counted some of Pickton's victims among her friends. Now, she wins the Courage to Come Back Award for her bravery in leaving her life on the streets, for giving the murdered women of Vancouver, Canada's Downtown Eastside a voice through her trial coverage, and for her ongoing activism.

Each year in British Columbia six people are honored for their courage to overcome and recover from illness, injury or adversity. Trish Baptie was a prostitute in 2000 and was visiting a street outreach team associated with Union Gospel Mission in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. She was a member of the Parent-Teachers' Association and a cocktail waitress, and in the other world she was a well-known prostitute.

Pickton Trial Coverage

In the last year citizens of Canada have had the opportunity to hear her conviction and dedication to the rights and lives of those sexually exploited through her account of the Robert Pickton serial killer trial.

She offered her story with no financial compensation except for coverage of basic expenses, despite considerable emotional and mental strain.