Not enough consultation on new law

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After six years of recommendations, the Alberta government gave final approval to Bill 1, the Protection of Children Involved in Prostitution, which will come into effect on Feb.1. An Aboriginal sub-committee on Bill 1 held a forum on Oct. 21, last year after concerns were raised about how the Bill will affect Aboriginal children.

"The biggest issue is the lack of consultation," said Jackie Norman, family intervention worker with Metis Child and Family Services. Norman is part of the sub-committee that is addressing issues specific to Aboriginal children under the new Bill.

"Some statistics say 50 per cent of these kids are Aboriginal. I think it's higher, but I don't have any proof," she said. The participants of the forum stated they want to see programs developed for Aboriginal children by Aboriginal people and the Aboriginal agencies involved in providing the care needed.

Programs need to be inclusive of all Aboriginal children and youth regardless of status is one of the three major recommendations that came out of the forum. The re-connection to an Aboriginal child's community was also included.

"One thing that was also brought up at the forum was the fear that these children have about saying who they, especially if they have been involved in child welfare," said Norman.

There needs to be more input to provincial task force on prostitution from the Aboriginal community that also includes the youth involved, recommended the sub-committee and cut out the red tape, so service for youth prostitution doesn't become part of a bureaucracy.

MCFS will be going into contract service with the main stakeholder, Catholic Social Services, who will be providing the protective safe house to confine children and youth who are apprehended under the new law. The safe house has been in operation for nearly ten years.

Alberta is the first province to implement this kind of law and more than $5 million is going into implementation.

Whether or not the new law will be effective in protecting the youth involved in prostitution is irrelevant, indicated Norman. It's going to happen, so we want to be involved, said Norman. Her concern with Bill 1 is about the rights of the children. They have no rights, she said.

A couple of weeks ago a prostitute was killed in Edmonton and if a law would been in place to protect her 16 years ago she might be alive today because 95 per cent of the women who become involved in prostitution do so in their adolescence, maintains DeWayne Brown, outreach worker for the Crossroads outreach.

"Finally we are starting to look at this as abuse," said Brown. He considers the young prostitutes who are out there as children that are being sexually abused. For the last ten years that Brown has been with Crossroads, he has seen a lot of what is happening to prostitutes and maintains that society and government cared little about them.

"You've been raped of your childhood," said Brown. A lot of the kids Brown deals with are Aboriginal, but he couldn't say how many. Brown did notice that prostitution is generational with some of the Aboriginal women.

The level of denial that a person uses to deal with what they are doing is a big part of sexual abuse, he said. Then there's the pimps, most if not all women who become prostitutes do so because of a pimp, said Brown.

As a outreach worker Brown has a duty to report to child welfare if he suspects the prostitutes are youth. He stated often the youth were let go because welfare says its a lifestyle choice. "These girls don't find the prostitution trade at a career fair," said Brown.

"My belief is that in five years we will see youth prostitution drop by 50 per cent," said Brown. If the kids are reached at certain point they can be turned around, he said. He's concerned that when the police start picking up the youth involved in prostitution that related services will be able to handle the need for intervention, but Brown feels the things will level out after the initia implementation of Bill 1.

Brown believes if all parties involved in the new law work together that it will be very effective.