December 14, 2000 Special Committee to Prevent the Abuse and Exploitation 767 of Children Through the Sex Trade
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Special Committee To Prevent The Abuse And Exploitation Of Children Through the Sex Trade Hansard Verbatim Report No. 34 — December 14, 2000 Saskatoon Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan Twenty-fourth Legislature SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO PREVENT THE ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN THROUGH THE SEX TRADE 2000 Arlene Julé, Co-Chair Humboldt Peter Prebble, Co-Chair Saskatoon Greystone June Draude Kelvington-Wadena Ron Harper Regina Northeast Carolyn Jones Saskatoon Meewasin Don Toth Moosomin Kevin Yates Regina Dewdney Published under the authority of The Honourable Ron Osika, Speaker SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO PREVENT THE ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION 765 OF CHILDREN THROUGH THE SEX TRADE December 14, 2000 The committee met at 9 a.m. comfortable. The Co-Chair (Ms. Julé): — Good morning, ladies and Ms. Colson: — Well good morning. On behalf of the gentlemen, and we would like to take the opportunity to Saskatoon resource development network, I’d really like to welcome all of you here today. We are here today to hear from thank you for allowing us to come and provide some people within the community of Saskatoon and the surrounding information for you today around the concerns for the need for district on their knowledge about the sex trade on the streets shelter options for youth, especially those who have been that involves our children. And they’re also here, we hope, to victimized by both their family and their environment. provide us with some ideas for solutions and to let us know what kind of services and so on are being provided in the city As I begin, I’d just like to give you a very brief history on who already at this time that might help the children or help the the resource development network is. In 1997 a number of community to build in a healthy way. Saskatoon agencies and professionals began to meet regularly to discuss the needs of youth. Out of these discussions came a So we welcome all of you and we’re very fortunate to have with design to target the issues of the need for alternative housing us today Doris Colson and Norinne Shewchuk. They’re from options for youth. Saskatoon Community Resource Development Network. And we welcome you today, ladies, and thank you very much for From 1997 to 1999 this committee made a number of coming. applications to both private and public funders, such as population health, the Saskatoon Action Plan for Children, the Before we hear your presentation, we’d like to take the Saskatoon Foundation, etc., looking for the ability to get some opportunity to introduce ourselves to you, the committee funding both to create some alternative housing options as well members, and we will start just over at this end of the table. as to be able to go out and find out what those options needed to look like. Ms. Draude: — Good morning. I’m June Draude and I’m the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) from We were unsuccessful at getting any funding for any of these Kelvington-Wadena. programs, but in 1999 we resubmitted again to Health Canada and did receive a grant to conduct a youth-driven needs Mr. Toth: — And I’m Don Toth, the MLA from Moosomin. assessment to determine if in fact alternative housing for youth was even required in this city. The Co-Chair (Ms. Julé): — Arlene Julé, MLA, Humboldt. So the Saskatoon Youth Resource Development Network Mr. Yates: — I’m Kevin Yates, the MLA for Regina Dewdney. commissioned Moore Chamberlin & Associates to conduct a needs assessment in order to provide concrete evidence that we Ms. Jones: — And Carolyn Jones, MLA, Saskatoon Meewasin. are needing to develop alternative residential resources for youth in our Saskatoon community. One of the ongoing themes The Co-Chair (Ms. Julé): — And we also have Mr. Peter during our focus groups was the need to hear and include the Prebble, who’s the other Co-Chair. He’s co-chairing the voices of youth in any planning that we do in our community. committee with myself. I’m not too sure where Mr. Prebble is this morning but he most likely will be here shortly. And we We completed this assessment in four phases. Firstly, a also have Mr. Ron Harper that is not able to be with us at this literature review of both the existing information and statistics time. available in Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon and other parts of the country. Secondly, a written survey was conducted with local But we’d like you ladies to just give us a little bit about your service providers. Thirdly, focus groups were conducted in background if you could, just a short introduction on what your Saskatoon with youth and with adult service providers in the work is about, and then get right into your presentation. community. And lastly, we sent out a number of youth with cameras and asked them to photograph the places that they Ms. Shewchuk: — Norinne Shewchuk from the Saskatoon spent the night when they did not have an alternative place to Community Clinic. I do health promotion and community reside. development part time there, addressing needs of children at risk. The information presented today will include the results of our literature review as well as the results of our hands-on The Co-Chair (Ms. Julé): — Thank you very much. Yes, discussions with both youth and the service providers in this that’s great. community. Ms. Colson: — And I’m Doris Colson. I work with the Although these youth do not speak for all youth in this city, we Department of Social Services in the area of youth. feel that their discussion reflects the heart of this assessment and this information. The Co-Chair (Ms. Julé): — Okay. Thanks, Doris. All right. You can just feel free. We’re brothers and sisters as they say. So we’re going to invite you to hear the voices of these youth We’re Saskatchewanites, so relax please and feel free to just go through video. Unfortunately they’re not able to come today. ahead with your presentation in whatever way you feel And we will also present highlights of that on the Power Point. 766 Special Committee To Prevent The Abuse And Exploitation December 14, 2000 Of Children Through The Sex Trade Randy’s agreed to move it along for us and hopefully we’ll a bit, it got to the point where they thought they were using work together. We’ll see what happens. So we’ll begin. tough love, but they just ended up pushing me away. So I lived in my car for quite a while, without any support, not knowing The following is a transcript of a recording played during who to go to because having a counsellor there and letting your the presentation. It consists of statements by several parents beat up on you at the same time wasn’t very helpful for different individuals. me. The biggest issue is community and family and unhealthy Mainly with me, I never had any, like, I didn’t have my father environments within. around throughout my whole life. And well pretty much the last year I was living at home, he came into my life, and then there I guess maybe I felt that the help that was out there wasn’t was always my uncle and aunt and my mom I lived with. And really appropriate as far as my father was concerned. Like, you my uncle would always discipline me. And when it came to don’t see psychiatrists or whomever. You don’t see someone discipline, it wasn’t like one or three swats across the butt, it else going to get into your head, as you would say. was like five, six, sometimes ten. And I started standing up to him because I figured he’s not my father, he has no right to I found vulnerability to be, I don’t know, just kind of like an even touch me. action or a reaction to an action that happened in my family. I left home, but I can’t say that I never went back, because I did. Well, pretty much with me as I kind of grew up with an But I was into drugs and drinking, and my mom didn’t approve unstable home. I had to like, at the age of 4 I was probably of that. And I just figured that I’d spite her by moving out about 12. I felt like I was 12. I was looking after kids and because I wanted to continue what I was doing. And she wanted everything. Kindergarten I was cooking for my family and all to stop me and I wasn’t going to let anybody stop me from what that. It’s just in some cases kids have to grow up so quick and I wanted to do. And I guess it was the whole thing about a then they kind of do a lot more mature things at an earlier stage problem with authority. in life. And it gets to you. You make the wrong decisions and everything. And also with the abuse and everything I’ve had, it I was told because I was feeling abandoned and because I was kind of made me a little bit vulnerable and that’s pretty much always being left alone. And then whenever I would go out, I’d why I left home. like stay away from home for so long, and it felt like my parents didn’t really care, because they never even tried to make an I know I’m kind of on the same track as Joey here.