Pubdate: Thu, 17 Jan 2008
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Dean Pritchard, Sun Media
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

'SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF YOUTH IS CHILD ABUSE'

After years of misguided treatment and instability,  14-year-old Tracia 
Owen was finally receiving the care  she needed when she hanged herself in 
a squalid West  End garage, a judge said in an inquest report  recommending 
sweeping changes to the child welfare  system.

"The attention and effort was given years too late and  if given earlier, 
might have prevented Tracia being in  the situation she found herself," 
wrote Judge John Guy  in a 57-page inquest report released yesterday.

Owen, a native of Little Grand Rapids, was working as a  prostitute and 
addicted to drugs when she hanged  herself in a Victor Street garage in 
August 2005.

The inquest heard Owen was among the more than 400  children a year who are 
exploited in Winnipeg's visible  sex trade.

"It is difficult to understand why there is not public  outrage about 
14-year-old children standing on the  street at all times of the day and 
night selling their  bodies to support a drug addiction," Guy wrote.

"In some way, public awareness must be raised so the  public accepts the 
fact that sexual exploitation of  addicted youth is child abuse, is 
unacceptable and must  be combatted strenuously."

A ward of Southeast Child and Family Services, Owen  spent her short life 
moving from one foster home or  child care facility to another before 
spending her  final months at the Neecheewam group home in Winnipeg.

Owen was seized from her alcoholic parents when she was  two months of age 
and returned to them 17 times before  becoming a permanent ward of Child 
and Family Services.

Among the inquest report's 28 recommendations, Guy  called for a "summit" 
of child welfare workers, police,  justice officials, aboriginal groups, 
and other  stakeholders to tackle the problem of sexual  exploitation and 
drug abuse of children on the streets.

Guy also called for a comprehensive review of Southeast  Child and Family 
Services and recommended improved  standards for maintaining case files to 
prevent  children like Owen from falling through the cracks.

Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said the  report "screams at the 
federal government to enhance  its support for child welfare on reserves."

Mackintosh said the province is moving immediately on  Guy's recommendation 
to convene a summit on sexual  exploitation, which will occur before the 
winter is  over.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D