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Your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! >> www.burnabynow.com A CLOSER LOOK: HELPING SEXUALLY EXPLOITED YOUTH IN BURNABY
‘There is a lot that goes on that is hidden’
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local social services agency wants the public to know that children and youth are being sexually exploited in Burnaby. “There is a lot that goes on that is hidden,” said Alison Grauer of St. Leonard’s Youth and Family Services, the main group working with Burnaby’s sexually exploited teens in Burnaby. There are an estimated 39 youth (13 to 18 years old) in Burnaby and New Westminster who are sexually exploited, and it’s not always through prostitution. Sexual exploitation of children and youth is defined as any sexual activity done in exchange for things, like money, drugs, ON MY BEAT food, clothing or shelJennifer Moreau ter. It can range from a youth who is giving up sex for alcohol or drugs or to the truly entrenched who are trafficked or pimped. “A lot of young people may not see themselves as being exploited, even if they are given alcohol at a party for sex,” Grauer said, adding the organization has worked with sexually exploited kids as young as 11 and 12. With the advent of the Internet, street prostitution is becoming less visible, Grauer pointed out. “Years ago, there was a stroll of youth working on Kingsway. That’s not really there anymore. I think it’s really underground with Craigslist,” she said. “You’ve got youth definitely underage, posting sex for money and claiming to be older than they are, leaving phone numbers, sometimes shadowy photos – never a face. And it’s really hard to track what’s happening there.” Sometimes the pimps move the girls around a lot, Grauer added. “We had one young person who explained to us that there were these different houses the pimp was keeping her at all over the Lower Mainland,” she said. Online sexual exploitation often happens through Craigslist, MSN, live video chats, Facebook and F**kbook (which is like a sexually explicit version of
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Jennifer Moreau/burnaby now
Awareness week: From left, Kelly Teague, who works with sexually exploited youth in Burnaby, and Alison Grauer, director of St. Leonard’s Youth and Family Services Society.
Facebook). Public pressure forced Craigslist to remove its erotic services sections in Canada recently, but the listings just appear elsewhere online. “You can’t sell dogs on Craigslist, but you can sell people,” said Kelly Teague, an outreach worker with St. Leonard’s. She’s the only one solely dedicated to working with sexually exploited youth in Burnaby. “It’s not prostitution. It’s not just standing on the street,” Teague said. “It’s kids having sex for food, for shelter, for clothes, for their basic needs.” Teague said the majority of sexually exploited youth she works with do not have pimps.
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“It’s usually the older guy inviting her to the party, in their early 20s, hanging out with the 14-year-olds,” she said. As for whether the problem in Burnaby is getting better or worse, Teague said it’s hard to quantify. “It’s an issue that’s never going to go away,” she said. Teague wants the public to stop seeing sexually exploited youth as promiscuous. “It’s child abuse,” she said. “They are not just slutting around. These are very vulnerable children. They have a story, they’re kids, and they need their community to watch out and take care of them.” Staff Sgt.-Maj. John Buis has been working with the Burnaby RCMP for nearly 20
years. He first noticed an open sex trade on Kingsway between Royal Oak and Willingdon in 1986, but young girls were a small percentage then. Buis still sees workers on Kingsway, but the numbers are dwindling, either because of police work or the Internet. “I’ve never seen a stroll for underage girls,” he said. “It’s difficult and almost impossible to arrest people for that. Walking along the street is not a crime.” The sexual exploitation of youth and children is not something police often deal with, Buis said, but when they do, officers Youth Page 9
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