LIFE A DAILY BATTLE FOR YOUTH

Riversdale Neighbours Call For Awareness In Wake Of 12-Year-Old's Stabbing

Twelve-year-old Cassie was "a very scared little girl who sobbed
herself to sleep" early Monday, hours after a pre-teen girl shoved a
knife into her and narrowly missed a lung.

"She's going to be OK but she needs to take it easy," said Chris
Randall, who runs a youth centre in Riversdale and has known Cassie
(not her real name) for six years. He also knows some of the suspects
sought by the police.

Pointing to an alley fence marked by graffiti, Randall said Cassie was
riding her bicycle home from a playground when a girl called her over
to the yard in the 300 block of Avenue H South.

Several youths between 12 and 13 years old surrounded Cassie. They had
been drinking and demanded something to steal, Randall said.

One girl lunged at Cassie, who thought she was about to be pushed.
Instead, a knife blade sunk in just under her ribcage.

The assailant and the other youths fled and Cassie ran home. Her mom,
a single woman raising a number of other children, could not drive her
to the hospital. She called an ambulance and Cassie, alone and
frightened, cried until she fell asleep in her hospital bed, Randall
said.

He spent several hours at the girl's bedside and drove her home the
following day when she was released.

The incident appalled members of the Saskatoon Police Service, who
questioned how such young children could do this to one another.
Const. Carolyn Wensley hoped people in the community would "feel
enraged enough to come forward and put a stop to it."

Randall and his neighbour, David Fineday, are trying to do just that.
Sunday night's stabbing happened in the gravel alley a few steps from
their yards. The men have the same desire to make the community safer
and stronger but take different approaches.

Randall subscribes to the need for understanding, love and being
positive role models. He hears the public call for more policing but
believes giving people a hand up goes a lot further.

"Those of us lucky enough to be born into middle-class families in
suburban homes need to realize that's not real life for those in the
inner city," he said, noting he grew up in Lawson Heights with that
mindset.

"I wish now that people could see what I see in these people. Most of
us have no concept for how hard life is for them, no clue about the
battles they face on a daily basis," he said.

"These kids have parents who are involved in gangs or who've been on
welfare for three generations. By age 11 or 12 these kids are taking
care of their brothers and sisters because their parents can't,"
Randall added.

Fineday, who has lived in Riversdale since 1986, said he has relied on
his baseball bat to knock gang recruiters out of his house. A couple
of years ago they came for his son, a wrestler who just graduated from
high school. Fineday saw gang members pass his son a weapon and order
him to perform an armed robbery.

"I hit about four of them and they've never come back," he said. "It
was really bad for a long time. I used to sit here and watch the drug
deals and prostitutes. It was like a movie, all the stuff that was
going on.

"It's quieter now but I think a lot of it is just more
hidden."

Many residents are afraid to speak out because of gang retaliation,
Fineday said.

"I'm not afraid. This is my neighbourhood and I won't leave it. I'll
do what I have to do."

That includes pulling needles from fence posts where they are stuck in
like darts. His grandson, playing on the grass, once ended up inches
from being poked in the cheek.

Fineday has seen people convulsing from drug overdoses and has been
confronted by neighbours who didn't like his efforts to clean up the
area.

As part of the community association, he attended conferences on
improving inner-city neighbourhoods and polled residents to find out
what services they want in the neighbourhood.

That has resulted in a local health clinic and the closure of several
houses deemed safety hazards.

"People told me I was going to get stabbed and they've threatened my
family. But that's what I have to go through to change things,"
Fineday said.

Once a junkie himself, Fineday teared up recalling the day it all
changed.

He was helping coach a youth hockey team when he was jailed for
trafficking.

When he came back to the team of nine to 11-year-olds, they asked
where he'd been.

"I let them down. That's the worst feeling in the world," he
said.

To make it up, he turned his house into a safe place for kids who
needed a place to go when their parents were drunk, high or just not
around.

Seven years ago, Randall started working in Riversdale when the Street
Force drop-in centre was opened by his church, City Centre. He and his
wife have since moved into the area.

"I don't want to be one of those people who say, 'We care,' but do it
from a distance," he said. "I want to help the neighbourhood grow and
change. I want to help girls like (Cassie) who, from the day they were
born, didn't have the chances like you and me.

"I also know these kids (suspected of attacking Cassie) and they're
not bad.

They're in a bad situation and they're getting pulled into crime
because that's all they know.

"It's through us caring about our neighbours -- and not just those on
the same block, but everyone -- that we can make a difference,"
Randall added.

"It's a challenge but there's also a lot of hope."