September 14, 2010 - Saskatoon (Day Two)

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This is a special edition of The Current coming to you from Saskatoon.

It's Tuesday, September 14th.

Calgary mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi has announced that if elected, he'll create a Red Tape Commission to reduce the number of regulations weighing down City Hall.

Currently, Nenshi is applying for a license to set up the sub-committee required by the city to study the idea before hearings can begin on whether or not red tape is enough of an issue to warrant an actual commission.

This is The Current.

Aboriginal Youth in Saskatoon

Well, the statistical profile of aboriginal youth in Saskatoon isn't pretty. Aboriginals make up the highest number of high school dropouts, prison inmates, victims of domestic abuse, drug addicts and gang members. We'll hear a lot more about that in our next half hour. But first ... people such as Keith Martell look at the sheer numbers of young aboriginals in this province and he sees a world of opportunity. 

Keith Martell is the Chairman and CEO of the First Nations Bank. And Eric Howe is a professor of economics at the University of Saskatchewan. There were both with Anna Maria in the Saskatoon studio.

PART TWO

Aboriginal Youth & Prison

There's a certain protocol to visiting a provincial jail, and the Saskatchewan Correctional Centre is no different. As part of SHIFT, our project tracking demographic change, we are trying to understand a troubling trend for which there is no actual, hard statistic: the one that suggests that 85-percent of those incarcerated here are of Aboriginal descent. And that half of them are gang members.

Everybody talks about the explosion of young Aboriginal gang members but few talk to them and that's why we've followed Andre Poilievre here. He used to be the chaplain at this place, a retired Catholic priest who now runs Str8Up, an organization that mixes tough love with infinite patience to support those who want to get out and stay out of gangs.

He meets them one day a month, where they sit in a circle, to talk, or to listen. Seven of them have shown up today, willing to be recorded. They're in prison garb, dull greys and greens, and they are heavily tattooed. They begin this session as they always do, with a Native prayer ritual.

*** Warning there is language in this interview that some may find offensive.

There is of course, another perspective and another reality in confronting those gang members who live for a time behind the fences and gates of this institution.
Glen Munro is the Director of this institution.


PART THREE

Out of Prison - Former Gang Members

In our last half hour, we heard from several young, Aboriginal men -- gang members -- all doing time in the Saskatchewan Correctional Centre - a provincial jail. When we left them, we headed to an office in downtown Saskatoon to meet another group of young men - all of them working with Andre Poilievre's Str8up group -- an organization now working with the John Howard Society to support First Nations youth who want to leave the gangs, and the jail time behind them. On the day we arrived, about ten guys were there around noon, eating pizza.

We walked in on a conversation with Dwayne Sa-sackamoose describing a gang beating of a fellow inmate. He is just days out of the Sask Penn - the maximum security federal penitentiary in Prince Albert. Dwayne is out now. Out of prison. And out of his gang. He's 27 years old and he's known Andre for several years. It has taken a long time to get this far.

Dwayne was a member of the Indian Posse - I.P. - considered the largest Aboriginal gang in the country, with a powerful and formidable leadership both in and outside federal and provincial prisons and jails. They lured him in when he was 17, but this is no teen gang - I.P. is multi-layered and heavily organized.
By pulling away from the gang Dwayne was pulling away from what had become family.

We heard from Dwayne's brother Brendon in our last half hour ... 23 years old, the father of a 19 month boy, struggling with addiction and saying he wants to live a life free of gangs, and crime and prison. Brendon joined the gangs at 13. Dwayne knows that only too well. We heard from him.

As Dwayne told his story, Father Andre Poilievre sat apart from us, listening. For every stumble Dwayne has had, Andre has been there to try to help steady him again. For every other young man at Str8up, he does the same. He's retired from the Priesthood. He knows there are easier ways for a man to spend his seventies.

He is has watched far too many young men follow what they think is easy money and respect into the depth of the gangs. And he has slowly, patiently, helped between 40 and 50 of them get out for good.

Andre Poilievre was made a member of the Order of Canada for his work helping First Nations youth get out and stay out of gangs. When Anna Maria asked about it, he was embarrassed. He doesn't think anyone should make a fuss over him. And he thinks the young men who work to improve their lives are the ones who really deserve the credit.

Last Word - AIDS in Saskatchewan

Well, for the past two days, we've been bringing you stories about the rapid demographic shifts underway in Saskatchewan, especially in the fast-growing city of Saskatoon.

Tomorrow morning, we'll hear the story of Krista Shore ... one of the young aboriginal women who have become the new face of HIV/AIDS in Saskatchewan. We wanted to leave you today with Krista Shore telling part of her story.