Author Archive

OP-ED: Harsh Penalties Don’t Deter Youth from Committing Violent Crimes

OP-ED by S. Mark Pancer
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University

Whenever there is an uptick in youth violent crime there are inevitably calls to give harsher penalties to youth for such crimes. “May be time to toughen punishments for youth involved in violent crime, says police chief” read the headline in the Kitchener City News on March 2. The chief had suggested in a recent radio interview that young people committing violent crimes be tried as adults – meaning harsher sentences for these youth – in the hope that this will deter young people from committing crimes.

The trouble with this approach is that it just doesn’t work. Indeed, an overwhelming volume of research shows that harsher penalties for young people make them more likely, rather than less likely, to commit violent crimes. Much of this research comes from our neighbours to the south. In the 1990’s, during a time of high violent crime rates among youth, many states in the US made it easier to try youth as adults. This nearly doubled the number of young people serving time in adult facilities. Subsequent research showed that these youth were significantly more, rather than less likely to commit violent crimes after their release. Not only that, but youth who served time in adult facilities were more likely to be sexually assaulted than adults in those facilities, and were five times as likely to take their own lives, compared to youth who served time in youth custody facilities. There was also clear evidence of racial bias in terms of which youth were tried as adults; more than 8 times as many Black youth were incarcerated in adult institutions than were white youth. It would be no surprise if such policies implemented in Canada resulted in even greater numbers of Black and Indigenous individuals in Canadian prisons. A recent article in the New York Times rightfully describes the policy of trying juveniles in adult courts as “horrific”.

Some have argued that while youth who have been tried in adult court may not have been deterred from committing further crimes, the possibility of facing harsher penalties may deter youth in the general population from committing crimes – a notion referred to as “general deterrence”. Again, the research evidence indicates that youth in general are not deterred from committing crimes by such policies. One study, for example, found no reduction in the number of youth committing violent crimes after the introduction of a 1978 New York State law that automatically tried young people (as young as 13 years of age!) as adults for crimes such as murder, assault and rape.

If harsh penalties don’t work, what can we do reduce violent crime, or any kind of crime, in youth? To answer this question, we must seek to understand the root causes of violent crime in young people. This is exactly what Roy McMurtry and Alvin Curling did in their 2008 report on the roots of youth violence to the Government of Ontario. According to their report, the most significant determinants of violence in youth are factors such as poverty, racism, a lack of recreational and employment opportunities, a lack of youth voice, and a justice system that does not meet young people’s needs. There are many rigorously evaluated programs that address these root causes and have proven extremely effective in reducing youth crime. Many of these programs provide young people with opportunities for engagement in recreational and cultural activities. For example, the PALS (Participate and Learn Skills) program provided increased sports, music and other recreational opportunities to youth in a low-income neighbourhood in Ottawa. During the 32 months in which the program was in operation, there was a 75% percent reduction in the number of criminal charges against youth from that neighbourhood. Other programs have addressed the needs for employment in young people. For example, the One Summer Plus program provided summer jobs as camp counsellors or community garden workers and the like to youth enrolled in 13 high-violence schools in Chicago. Results indicated that youth in this program showed a 43% decrease in arrests for violent crime when compared to a randomly assigned control group of youth who did not receive the program. These programs provide young people with skills, social connections, a sense of belonging, and a feeling of empowerment – things that go a long way towards counteracting some of the root causes of crime.

Let’s stop building more prisons, hiring more police officers to fill them, and paying more social workers to deal with the pain and anguish that crime causes for both perpetrators and victims.  Instead, let’s use our resources, both financial and human, to address the root causes of crime and to give young people the opportunities they need to become thriving citizens who will contribute to their communities and to society.

A Message from WRCPC – New Mailing List & Social Media Accounts Closing March 31st

After 28 successful years of ground-breaking work, the Crime Prevention Council’s administrative and funding relationship with the Region will come to an end on March 31, 2022. We are deeply grateful for the support from Regional Council that made this work possible over these many years. As of March 31st, 2022 our social media channels will be closing (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). Resources and our YouTube videos will continue to be accessible through our website www.preventingcrime.ca

Thirty years ago, few people talked about addressing the root causes of crime. Now, topics like basic income and safe supply – even the term “upstream” – are part of robust mainstream conversations. Without the skills, knowledge, commitment, and courage of a stellar ‘dream team’ staff past and present, none of this would have been possible. We’re very proud of our role in sparking these critical conversations in new and creative ways, of providing robust research, and of decades of multi-sector collaborations that broke down silos, reached new audiences, and created new paths forward.

As we wrap up CPC’s work within the ROW, we look forward to highly promising, novel approaches that are emerging in the community. In particular, Community Justice Initiatives is establishing the Justice Centre, an exciting new model that will engage a rich community collaborative to guide the creative integration of restorative justice responses with an upstream focus on preventing conflict and harm. This reflects the kind of innovative thinking this region is so well known for and is the product of seeds planted by generations of community leaders and activists. We can’t wait to see the transformative changes that will result.

To stay connected as we move forward, please visit our website. If you would like to be added to our new mailing list please email upstreamWR@gmail.com

Signed Richard Eibach, Chair and Irene O’Toole, Vice Chair

The Record: Opioid epidemic warrants tough medicine

The Record – March 9, 2022: When a deadly illness defies every conventional treatment, it’s time to reach for new medicine. That’s where Waterloo Region stands today in its battle against the opioid epidemic. We enlisted the police, courts and penal system to wage a war on dangerous, illicit drugs. It didn’t work. We turned to doctors, nurses and social workers — even opened a drug consumption and treatment centre in Kitchener. Those measures made a positive difference and saved many lives. But the crisis grew.

In 2021, 155 people in this region died of drug overdoses — more than the number of people who succumbed to COVID-19 here in the same period. It was also more than the 145 people in this region who died of drug overdoses in 2020 and the 105 killed by opioids the year before that. With numbers like these, we need to own up to our collective failure as a community. We need to admit that what we face is not primarily a criminal problem but instead a public health emergency. And we need to seriously consider a solution that until recently seemed impossible: legalize the simple possession of all drugs and regulate them — including the opioids that have for so long been such a scourge to us all.

The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council recently endorsed legalization and regulation as the best way to reduce the harm being caused by these substances. If their proposal went forward, all drugs would be treated similarly to alcohol and cannabis, with strict regulations over production, distribution, sales, possession and consumption. The drug supply would be safer. Instead of laying criminal charges, police would focus on connecting individuals with the community supports that are available, such as addiction treatment as well as housing and income assistance.

Sounds radical? The legalization and regulation of all drugs would be more than just taking a big step; it would be a giant leap forward into unexplored territory in Canada. But it is also an option increasingly being recommended to our lawmakers. Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin endorses the change. So does the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, of which he is president. Ditto for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. Waterloo Regional Chair Karen Redman and Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry are receptive to the idea. And across Canada — where 23,000 people died of opioid overdoses between January 2016 and March 2021 — the push for decriminalization is gaining momentum.

Last year, the British Columbia government and the cities of Vancouver and Toronto asked the federal government to provide an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that would permit the personal possession of illicit substances in those jurisdictions. That would be one way, a limited, localized way, to give decriminalization a try. Another approach would be for the federal government to make this change nationwide. While that will seem a more drastic move to some people, it could allow the federal and provincial governments to provide more co-ordinated and comprehensive medical and social service support for the change.

The important thing, in our view, isn’t to predetermine what the federal government’s response should be but rather for it to respond in some way to the proposal in terms of careful study and then, if appropriate, informed policy. In moving ahead, it can draw on its experience in decriminalizing cannabis — a move that seemed revolutionary a few years ago but one that Canadians have taken in stride. For those in Waterloo Region who remain apprehensive, it’s worth remembering that a consumption and treatment centre is saving lives in Kitchener, as is a safe supply program in that city. Both of those initiatives also seemed shocking — and to many unacceptable — just a few years ago.

Keep in mind that the fallout from the opioid crisis extends far beyond the drug users themselves. In addition to the rising number of deaths and near-deaths from drug overdoses, Waterloo Region has seen a surge in shootings, person-on-person robberies and break-ins, many of which police say can be traced back to drugs. Indeed, Waterloo Region has the sixth highest rate of opioid-related offenses in Canada and the second highest in Ontario. If nothing else does, that should encourage our regional government to officially support some form of decriminalization. After all, their best efforts to date have not been enough to end the opioid crisis.

Click here to read the original article on The Record.

The Record: ‘We’ve never been here before,’ say Waterloo Region outreach workers

CTV Kitchener – March 7, 2022: WATERLOO REGION — In an unprecedented time of drug poisonings, homelessness and COVID-19, outreach workers who help the region’s most vulnerable people say their expertise needs to be acted upon to reduce harm and make structural changes.

Jesse Burt does outreach work for The AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA.) That includes outreach with those living in encampments. He said three crises have intersected to make the work even more complex, yet front-line outreach workers aren’t being consulted on how to make changes.

“We started off with a housing crisis, there’s a long history of the failed drug policy crisis that’s been worse every year, and then we added COVID,” Burt said. “This work was already extremely complex, and now — we’ve never been here before — this is even more complex.”

In 2021, 158 people in Waterloo Region died of drug poisoning. That’s up from 145 in 2020 and 105 and 2019. Homelessness is at a high for this region, with 1,058 people identified as homeless during a point-in-time count that was released in November. In 2018, that number was 333.

“You can either care about the humans who are dying and therefore it’s the compassionate route or you don’t even have to be compassionate, you don’t even have to care about people you can just care about how much money we’re wasting on ineffective solutions,” Burt said. “That all of the issues you feel unsafe or uncomfortable with could be addressed.”

Sara Escobar has been doing outreach in the region for more than 20 years. She said COVID-19 shouldn’t be an excuse to stop doing good work,

“(Let’s) not allow this pandemic to become the excuse to change things up,” she said. “Things were working; things were working better than they are right now.”

She said people who use unregulated drugs or are experiencing homelessness are so much more than stereotypes. Simply forcing someone into a shelter or trying to get addictions treatment is too simplistic a view. It’s the complex structures and failed drug policies, Burt and Escobar said, that are the true barriers to reducing drug poisoning deaths, harm and homelessness. Those include prohibition and criminalization.

Waterloo Region has the sixth-highest rate of opioid-related offences in Canada and the second-highest in Ontario, according to a February report to the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council, but that hasn’t stopped people from using drugs or being poisoned by them.

Pre-COVID, there were working tables and groups in place that did seek lived input. That included a group that brought people with living experience to the table with Region of Waterloo staff, Escobar said.

Those with living experience offered input on reports and items that would be going to regional council for decisions. It reflected the “nothing about us without us” approach. That is no longer the case, Escobar said. She wants to get back to that type of meaningful consultation.

But that’s easier said than done.

“You have to have people coming and actively participating and being heard and their feedback actually being used as opposed to just a token representative,” Escobar said. “So when you see programs that usually sometimes will have one peer worker, that’s tokenism.”

The realities of vulnerable populations aren’t being reflected at the political and community levels, Burt said.

“There’s a real disconnect in terms of understanding the complexities of the problems that we face and the realities that are told to all levels of government and the public,” said Burt. “These are things that we wrestle with all the time.”

So what is working?

For starters, there’s the consumption and treatment services site on Duke Street in Kitchener and a safe supply program operated out of two downtown locations, including the CTS site.

Safe supply provides prescription drugs to those struggling with addiction. It prevents deaths from unregulated street drugs and allows those with the challenge of addiction to take their focus and time off worrying about getting the drug they need and instead work on other challenges like housing, employment or health care.

It’s an upstream approach, Burt said, because it’s preventing harm caused by poisoning or death.

Most of the incidents commonly referred to as overdoses are actually poisonings that occur when a substance contains something the person ingesting is not aware of or if the potency of the drug is stronger than expected.

There are more tools available to municipalities that would significantly reduce harm.

The option endorsed by the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council was to legalize and regulate all drugs. The council passed a motion to that effect in February.

All drugs would be treated similarly to marijuana and alcohol, with strict regulation of production, distribution, sales, possession and consumption. The consumption site could go further to address how people actually use drugs by allowing inhaled drugs. Many of the poisoning deaths the Ontario coroner saw in 2020 and 2021 were people who chose to inhale drugs.

Locally, research by the crime prevention council in 2020 showed those using fentanyl prefer to smoke them. All of the respondents, 43 people, had witnessed an overdose before COVID. Seventy-four per cent overdosed at least once before COVID, and 33 per cent overdosed at least once during the pandemic.

The crime prevention council wrote to regional officials asking them to secure the necessary infrastructure for Duke Street to allow people to smoke their drugs. Under federal regulations, this can be permitted. Municipalities can also apply to establish what is known as urgent public health needs sites.

These are different from safe consumption sites in that they are short-term facilities to deal with the drug poisoning crisis and can be set up faster than a safe consumption site. They’re similar in that the same core function occurs. Staff monitor people while they use a drug to prevent drug poisoning deaths.

“Some of the urgent solutions that need to be implemented now, these are not easy things to wrap your head around,” Burt said of the need for outreach workers to be consulted. “These are not things that you can learn by one staff presentation.”

There is frustration and burnout in the outreach community as front-line workers watch preventable deaths and harm occurring — whether that be squeezing under a bathroom stall door to rescue someone who is on the brink of death by drug poisoning or knowing that the harm is preventable.

Escobar said the work outreach workers do is just as complex as the issues being experienced in vulnerable populations.

“You’re told your job is easy,” Escobar said. “Oh, it must be so fulfilling. No, no it’s just not, because you don’t want to fund us, you don’t want our government to fund us, so it’s not easy, and it’s not happy, and it’s not fulfilling.”

There’s frustration with the seeming neutrality in the community.

“If we changed policy in this region that’s going to improve the life of some, not going to change the life of anybody else, it’s literally only going to improve the life of some, why fear that change?” Escobar said. “What’s the hesitation?”

“It’s not trying to convince you why you should care, it’s wondering what’s keeping you from, what’s not allowing you to care,” Burt said.

There is significant turnover in outreach work as people experience trauma and watch people die.

So what do Escobar and Burt stay?

Escobar said she had a change in thinking at some point that clarified everything for her. It was the realization that some people will live their entire lives in shelters, using drugs to soothe the pain they have experienced in their lives.

“So I choose to stay because that person needs love and care the whole way through,” Escobar said. “They exist, and they live, and they are our neighbours, they live in our community, they share our buses.

“They exist, and so they deserve to be loved, and so I stay because where else are they supposed to go? Who is going to love them? So I stay because they’re going to need love the whole time.”

Burt said he’s inspired by the people he works with.

“Watching the people I support hold on to hope and love each other despite everything that they’ve gone through and the systems that have failed and the fact that they can still press on,” he said. “They teach me a lot.

“They teach me a lot about love.”

He added, “We’ve done them a disservice by painting them as a community that is helpless and hopeless. There needs to be change but it does not take away people’s rights and autonomy and love and creativity and talent.”

Click here to read the original article on CTV News.

CTV: “the right tool may be legalization with regulation.”

CTV Kitchener – March 4, 2022: A Brantford man faces charges after an international operation that the RCMP say took 1.5 tonnes of cocaine – valued at nearly $200 million – off the streets.

The drugs, hidden inside the cargo of a marine container, were seized by border services officers in Saint John, N.B. in early January.

In a media release the RCMP said the “major” bust represents the largest amount of cocaine seized from a marine shipping container in Atlantic Canada in three decades. […]

Click here to read more and watch this story in the original article on CTV News. […]

IMPACT ON LOCAL STREETS

Michael Parkinson with the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council says, “while opioids are the most predominant substance, most overdose fatalities are the result of multiple drugs and that includes cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.”

Parkinson said there isn’t a lot of data available in regards to how much cocaine is used in southern Ontario.

“Because certain drugs are criminalized it’s hard to get a sense of how many people are using what kind of unregulated drugs.”

However, data shows cocaine is present on the streets and does contribute to deaths.

“We know that many people within Waterloo Region and Ontario do use cocaine and sometimes that is reflected in overdose fatality data.”

Parkinson said that while the large seizure of cocaine in Atlantic Canada is a great thing, it’s essentially only a small blip on the radar in comparison to the size of the illegal drug market.

In terms of positively impacting the supply of currently illegal drugs Parkinson said, “the right tool may be legalization with regulation.”

Observer: Illustrating the perils of human trafficking

Illustrating the pervasiveness of human trafficking on stage – or, in this case, virtually – is the goal of Chelsea’s Story. The play mirrors how children and teens can be lured online from their own bedroom.

Click here for more information and registration.

The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council (WRCPC), MT Space and Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASCWR) partnered for the fourth year to present Chelsea’s Story and bring awareness to exploitation. SASC’s anti-human trafficking program saw a 29 per cent increase in access to supports over the last two years.

“As the community became isolated due to COVID, and everybody moved online, including our use, this just gave exploiters anonymous access, really easy anonymous access into people’s homes through apps and games and the virtual world,” said Nicky Carswell, program coordinator at SASC.

“Chelsea’s Story brings a lot of awareness, and it is perfectly matched for that target audience. The average age of entry into trafficking is 13,” she said. “The bulk of our work is with young folks. So, when you have something like Chelsea’s Story showing how easily and how quickly this can happen in a way that is suitable for that age and really hit that age, that is the best way to build awareness.”

Chelsea’s Story is based on a true story and written to help educate young adults about exploitation and the dangers of human sex trafficking. It centers on three students who find the diary of a young girl named Chelsea, who is being targeted by a man.

“I think what’s really eye opening is how this really could happen to anybody,” said Pam Patel, artistic director at MT Space and director of Chelsea’s Story in the region for the last four years. “We’re trying to make it as realistic a portrayal as possible.

“The characters are very relatable for parents and teenagers, preteens and youth. The characters are basically high school students. We’re trying to also adapt the scripts to keep it up to date with things like Tik Tok references. There’s also a teacher character who I think is a real anchor for the parents in the audience and the teachers in the audience that offers a glimpse into how to talk about human trafficking and consent and exploitation.”

Performances are now underway, running through Saturday online, showcasing the actors’ abilities to stay connected with their audience and other actors over Zoom while emphasizing what human trafficking can look like in a modern setting.

“The audience can connect with Chelsea herself as she goes through this experience of being groomed and being trafficked. But then it can switch to the classroom, where the kids and their teacher are sort of unpacking what it is that’s happening and some other options about where some interventions could perhaps happen,” said Julie Thompson, community engagement coordinator with the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council.

“The audience that the play was really intended to reach was that very young audience where they could sort of see themselves or their friends depicted in this throughout parts of the play,” Thompson explained.

The organizations aim to bring awareness to human sex trafficking and prevent further victimization. As it becomes easier for predators to enter a young adult’s bedroom through electronic devices, it’s important for parents to be aware of their child’s online activity, especially as the pandemic has increased isolation and the time youth spend on these devices.

“A piece that’s come up a lot in conversation, especially now, is how exploitation and trafficking can happen without ever having to leave your home. So that’s another piece that we want parents to hear as well: what are those kinds of things they can look out for to ensure that their child is still remaining safe while they’re online,” said Patel.

“The stat is that it’s about 93 per cent of people who are trafficked are girls and women. The average age of recruitment is 13. Locally, they’ve been seeing kids as young as 11 seeking support services,” added Thompson.

Chelsea’s Story is aimed at youth aged 12 and older, educators, parents, and families, a bid to help them notice the signs of human trafficking and exploitation as well as how to intervene. They plan on taking it on a school tour starting in April to help bring more awareness.

This is the first time Patel has directed a play virtually and found the challenging experience allowed them to be creative with their method of filming.

“My approach to directing this was really through that lens of telling the actors ‘let’s not ignore that we’re on Zoom. Let’s actually embrace it and use that.’ So we adapted all of the settings of the show to either being in the Google Classroom or being a FaceTime call. The main character, Chelsea, is meeting this other character through a video chat, so we adapted everything to that,” she explained. “We could be a little more creative – that kind of opened us up to really looking at, ‘OK, now how can we make this really engaging and have the actors actually playing to the camera, which would be their audience?’

“Part of the magic of performing theatre is what happens backstage, like running on and off and having your costume changes. There’s still an element of that because all the actors are playing more than one character. What we’re doing is all of the characters have their own device, so all the actors are using two devices to perform the show – they have a little bit of technical gymnastics they have to do behind the scenes to keep switching back and forth. It’s been really fun, actually.”

More information and registration can be found online.

Click here to read the original article.

Human Trafficking Awareness Day – Chelsea’s Story 2022

There are many myths about human trafficking, to find out the truth click here to read our Myth or Fact Twitter thread. Not on Twitter? Check out our Myth or Fact Facebook Post or Myth or Fact Instagram Post.

Chelsea’s Story is based on a true story. It centres on a group of three students who discover the diary of a 15-year-old girl named Chelsea, who is targeted and groomed by a man posing as her boyfriend to be trafficked for sex. This play and talk back was written as a tool for both adults and youth to understand and recognize exploitation, what to do if they see it, and how to keep themselves and their friends safe. All performances are open to the public & families (ages 12+) and will have a facilitated conversation following the play. Each performance’s talk back will be geared to a specific audience: February 22 at 7PM (Q&A for Caregivers & Community), February 23 at 7PM (Q&A for Educators and School Board), February 24 at 7PM (Q&A for Parents & Children, *this performance is available in two language options: English and Arabic), and February 26 at 2PM (Q&A for Parents and Children).

The Record: Continued drug poisonings ‘outrageous,’ front-line worker says

The Record – Feb 19, 2022: WATERLOO REGION — Outreach workers in Waterloo Region had a colder start to January than most, as they dealt with 16 drug poisoning deaths in the first weeks of the year.

“It’s absolutely outrageous,” said Michael Parkinson, community engagement worker for the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council.

“And the crime prevention council, more than any other organization in Canada, we predicted this crisis and called for an urgent and proportional response and largely watched a preventable crisis of death and injury unfold before our eyes.”

The numbers are stark. In the year 2000, there were 111 opioid-related deaths in Ontario. In 2021, there were 4,000. Locally, deaths from drug poisoning climbed from 105 in 2019 to 145 in 2020 and 158 last year. If the trend were to continue, nearly 200 lives could be lost by year’s end.

Direct service staff in outreach, shelter and other roles are feeling desperate.

“What we’ve heard is ‘yes I’m tired of finding someone frozen in a snowbank or on the brink of death in an awkward washroom stall,’ but the other part of it is, what we’ve heard loud and clear, is there is no sense that the damage is going to stop any time soon,” Parkinson said.

There are currently hundreds of versions of the highly toxic fentanyl drug circulating in the unregulated street drug market in Waterloo Region. The drug made its way into the region around 2015, along with heroin, after Purdue Pharma pulled the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin off the market. That left a massive market of people living with addiction or dependency who no longer had access to the drug.

Parkinson said he sounded the warning bell when he saw that OxyContin was being pulled because removing one drug only means another will take its place. What comes next is typically more toxic and in a higher dosage. That’s one of the key reasons the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council endorsed a policy paper earlier this month that recommends all drugs be legalized and regulated. All drugs would be treated similarly to marijuana, prescription drugs and alcohol, with strict regulation of production, distribution, sales, possession and consumption.

As long as there is an unregulated supply, there will be death.

“There is zero chance that the unregulated market will become safer or healthier. There is zero chance we will, despite billions of dollars in funding, be able to incarcerate our way out of it or naloxone our way out of it,” Parkinson said.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Record: Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council endorses legalizing drugs

The Record – Feb 11, 2022: WATERLOO REGION — The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council has endorsed legalization of all drugs with strict regulation as the best way to reduce harm to individuals and communities.

All drugs would be treated similarly to marijuana, drugs and alcohol with strict regulation of production, distribution, sales, possession and consumption.

The hope would be to improve lives and reduce harm, including overdose deaths. Last year 155 people in Waterloo Region died of drug poisonings.

“When you decriminalize people’s lives the conversation changes,” said Michael Parkinson, an outreach worker for the prevention council.

“And those pathways that we talk about, you know, addiction treatment or housing or income or relationships with families or friends, they all become so much more possible and they are completely impossible in a more criminalized environment.”

To change the law would require significant political will.

Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry lauded the idea and asked how politicians can best pitch the idea to upper level governments.

“This is still groundbreaking work,” she said. “This is still work that needs to be in front of the leaders that make those decisions.”

Parkinson pointed out that there was success with the legalization of marijuana.

“We know that change is possible … the sky didn’t fall and things didn’t go to hell in a handbasket,” he said.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Record: ‘Chelsea’s Story’ of sexual exploitation going online for free, weeklong run

The Record: February 8, 2022 – MT Space, Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council (WRCPC) and Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASCWR) are collaborating once again to present a weeklong run of Chelsea’s Story to commemorate and promote Human Trafficking Awareness Day, which falls on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

The theatrical production has been adapted to an online format and will be performed live by MT Space actors, from Feb. 22 to 26, with each performance accompanied by a talkback facilitated by SASCWR. All tickets to ‘Chelsea’s Story’ will be free and open to the public (click here to register).

‘Chelsea’s Story’, based on a true story, centres on a group of three students who discover the diary of a 15-year-old girl named Chelsea, who is targeted and groomed by a man posing as her boyfriend to be trafficked for sex. The screenplay was written by Sean McGrath from Alter Ego Creative Solutions in the U.K. for people as young as 12 to understand what trafficking is and the ways in which those who are vulnerable, particularly girls and young women, tend to be targeted and groomed.

Click here to read the full article.