Victims and Survivors of Crime Week will be marked in Williams Lake with a two-day symposium May 15 and 16.
Regional support workers will gather to share stories and successes to raise awareness about sexual assault, human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Cariboo Chilcotin.
“It will be an opportunity to talk about these issues, identify, come together and collaborate,” said organizer Penny Stavast of Canadian Mental Health Association Cariboo Chilcotin Branch. “We will be able to share in a safe environment, recognize these issues and ask how do we step up?”
Cathy Peters, who raises awareness in Canada about the issue of human sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking for the purpose of prostitution will be attending the symposium.
On her website, Be Amazing, Peters notes the average age of entry into prostitution is 12–14 years of age in Canada, although traffickers are targeting children as young as eight.
“There has been a dramatic increase in child exploitation along with the production and consumption of child pornography. Unregulated technology has increased the demand for commercially paid sex.”
Other guest speakers from Interior Heath, Cariboo Memorial Hospital, Outreach Worker, Elder, School District Youth Support Workers, RCMP Victim Service Worker, Provincial advocates for person exploited/trafficked and the list is growing.
Stavast runs the sexual assault centre at the CMHA, which went live in 2021. She is also part of a sexual assault response team within Interior Health to support survivors.
The team has representatives from the RCMP, Ministry of Children and Family Development, counsellors and hospital staff.
In applying for funding to host the symposium, she said when it comes to sexual abuse issues it is children, youth and women who are most at risk.
Through her 17 years of experience working with victim services she has seen it is a systematic issue, broader than most people are aware of.
Williams Lake is a small rural city with a population of 11,150, however it serves a larger population of 25,100.
People work in the city, go to medical appointments, shop and access services, or arrive to work on a contract basis.
“We have a large geographical area,” she said.
Human trafficking is happening in the Cariboo Chilcotin, but not everyone is willing to talk about it, Stavast said. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CMHA did presentations about human trafficking to students in the schools.
Surveying students, the team learned many of them have seen flyers that have the potential to be for trafficking, advertising high paying jobs, providing transportation to bigger cities, with little or no other information about what the jobs entail.
From the survey, done in 2016 and 2017 school year, one in three students identified personally in the city had seen and advertisement for recruitment or the possibility for the purpose of trafficking.
They identified seeing flyers at the airport, library, recreation complex and on bulletin boards.
“It was a bit of an eye-opener for me and my staff to find out this information,” Stavast said.
Since opening the sexual assault centre, trafficked individuals have access services. Part of that has been because CMHA has actively placed posters with contact information in different locations in the community.
“They are trafficked individuals who have been brought into our community,” she said. “We have vulnerable people here and I have worked with individuals who have been trafficked over the course of my career as well.”
Referencing Canada statistics, she noted 51 per cent of women being trafficked are Indigenous, despite the total population of Indigenous people in Canada being less than five per cent.
Gang violence and trafficking are often intertwined, Stavast said, noting trafficking is the highest commodity.
The symposium is open to community professionals working with the issues of sexual exploitation, sexual assault and human trafficking.
Registration is available online and Stavast can be reached at 250-302-1320 or by email at penny.stavast@cmhacariboo.org for anyone wanting more information.
People registering before May 7 will be signed up for lunches both days in time for the caterers to plan.
Funding from the federal Ministry of Justice is making the event possible through a grant recognizing Victims and Survivors of Crime Week.
During the regular council meeting Tuesday, April 28, city council voted in favour of proclaiming Victims and Survivors of Crime Week in the city of Williams Lake from May 12 to 18, 2024.
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