PARENTS VOW TO RESCUE KIDS FROM DEALERS

A group of scared and frustrated native parents marched along Commercial
Drive in a bid to halt the abduction of their children by drug dealers and
pimps.

Diane Hackett, mother and aunt, said she has helped rescue aboriginal girls
as young as 11 from a group of men who are actively recruiting children in
eastside Vancouver elementary schools.

``The girls -- and young boys, too -- are asked to carry the drugs because
they're juveniles and the male police officers can't frisk an underage
girl,'' said Hackett, a mother and activist.

Hackett said a dealer will typically befriend a young girl, tell her he's
her boyfriend, and shower her with gifts of clothes and eventually drugs.
``One day, he tells her she has to pay him back either by carrying drugs
for him or by selling her body,'' she said.

Police have been ``fantastic'' in escorting young girls home, watching the
elementary schools and questioning alleged drug-dealers, she said, ``but
there's just not enough of them.''

The group of parents met at Grandview Park Friday and marched, beating
drums, to the home of a drug dealer, a recent Honduran immigrant who has
had several girls ``working'' for him.

Hackett said she was building a network of parents to confront dealers and
rescue children or youths who are under their control. She admitted that
may be ``very risky.''