Hi. Thank you for having me here today.
I want to start by saying I never thought I'd see a victims bill of rights conversation. I'm very honoured to be here today.
We do a lot of work. I think I've been at this work for 18 years now and the drum I beat is that of trying to paint the picture of the invisible damage this crime has on our kids. I think that's difficult to understand and accept across this country. I think for a long time we had the mindset across this country that victims of crime, whether youth or adults, had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and were told to get going. What's the problem? I think we're not there today. We're at a place today where through great research we can understand the damage of early childhood trauma.
I look at my own case. I was the victim of sexual assault. I had the whole NHL and the NHL players system looking after Sheldon Kennedy. It was almost like a competition. Who could fix Sheldon? I know where I ended up: being arrested, in prisons, in mental health institutions, and in a secure lockdown facility.
So you can imagine where young kids end up when they don't have those supports. They end up on our streets, they end up addicted, or they end up dead. I think that's where we need to be working and that's where I believe this bill fits. It gives a voice to victims. It recognizes the importance of understanding the damage that has been done. That's the most important part of this bill: the recognition of victims of crime. I think it's all about turning kids' lives around early, as we were talking about.
If we look at the cases we have come through the child advocacy centre in Calgary, we've brought together the Calgary Police Service, with the whole child abuse unit working there with 30-plus officers, together with the RCMP, 35 social service workers from Calgary Child and Family Services, a member of the crown prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Education, four pediatric specialists, 15 psychologists and psychiatrists. They all work together. We've had a change in legislation called the Children First Act to allow these people to talk to one another. We can all work off one interview.
Why is that? It's to be able to be the best we can be for that child, to tell their story and not re-victimize them. When they went to court before, the defence attorneys had a field day working off five or six interviews. The child didn't have a voice when they were in court.
If we look at the stats coming out of here, last year alone at the child advocacy centre we did 1,956 investigations. That's 15% of the cases that came into the systems in Calgary. They are all sexual assault cases and the torture cases on kids, some 1,956.
In 93% of these cases the child knows their abuser. It's somebody close to them. That's a myth that I think we need to get beyond in this country, that the people who hurt kids jump out from behind bushes.
In 45% of these cases a parent is abusing their kids. Look at how difficult that is. No kid wants to see their parent go to jail. None of them. That's the reason I think we need to make sure we're doing everything we can to protect these kids in the court system. To validate that it wasn't their fault.
When they show up at the door through Calgary police or through the systems, in the initial assessments one-third of all the children assessed at the CAC struggle with suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, self-harm, mental health issues, aggressive behaviour, sexualized behaviour, and issues of child exploitation. By the time they are between 12 and 17 years old, half of them present these issues. So I think I'd listen to what Sue was talking about regarding the evaluation.
Also, I think the victims bill of rights, the way I understand it, gives us a great platform and foundation for a consistent approach and framework to work from across provinces and territories. I think if we look at what we're trying to do with child advocacy centres, and if we see what we're doing here in Calgary, it's about being consistent in the approach we take in handling these cases.
I think it's about progress and not perfection in the way we move these issues forward. Eighteen years ago we were not even close to where we're at today. I think if we look at this bill, it's another great step forward. It's great progress forward, and to me that is critical. It's about keeping these issues moving forward.
We can stall all day about being perfect. Everybody has told us forever, “Well, we can't get six government systems working together. There's no way we can do that.” Well, we're doing it. Once we got the systems out of the way and let the people do their work, it went from there to here. It's been huge.
The piece I understand and like about this is creating the standards and being consistent, whether we're talking about the language or the damage, and being consistent about understanding where these crimes take our kids.
We see it all the time. Our prisons are filled with kids who have been abused. If you look at the Calgary campaign to end homelessness, one of their radio ads says that 70% of the people on the street have been sexually abused. Can we not reach them early? In that city, 122 identified patients who have been sexually abused come through our doors every month. I think we'd have a pretty good chance of turning these kids' lives around.
If we can deal with just the abuse early and focus on that, instead of waiting until they live a life of abuse and have all the wreckage they go through as they go along their path and we have to try to reach them down there.... We're best reaching them here, before they get there.
Also, we all have to be pulling on the rope together. It's not just the job of the police. It's not just the job of the courts. It's not just a job for the children's hospital and other hospitals. It's not just a job for child and family, but a job for all of us who have the legislative mandate to protect kids.
I think the victims bill of rights gives us a foundation to start that conversation and keep building on it.
Thank you.