PORTRAIT OF YOUTH LOOKS BLEAKER

More West Island teenagers are having unprotected sex than ever
before, getting into drugs and alcohol at younger ages and are living
in conditions that are comparable to some of Montreal's worst
neighbourhoods, Table de Concertation de Jeunesse de l'Ouest de l'Ile
representatives said at a news conference Monday in
Beaconsfield.

"On average, kids are 13 or 14 years old when they first try drugs and
alcohol," said Pointe Claire social-development section manager
Shelley Haynes. "There's easy access, even for minors, and unprotected
sex is on the rise among teenagers," she said.

The news conference launched the 'portrait of West Island youth'
report, put together by the Table de Concertation and numerous
partners, including Pointe Claire and Beaconsfield, the West Island
YMCA, the West Island Community Resource Centre, the West Island
Health and Social Services Centre and the Montreal Police Service and
funded by the federal public-security ministry. The report's findings
show the popular myth of the West Island as a bastion of white,
anglophone rich people took a serious beating.

"The West Island is a very diverse territory, with both francophones
and anglophones existing together, as well as all the different
ethnicities that exist here," said Beaconsfield community-life
director Jean-Pierre Beauchamp.

Some sections of the West Island have populations where more than
one-fifth of residents are living life without a high-school diploma
- -- including parts of Ste. Genevieve (27 per cent have no diploma),
Dorval (24 per cent) and Ste. Anne de Bellevue (23 per cent) and in
two sections of Pierrefonds.

Drug use appears to go hand in hand and runs opposite to the level of
parental involvement in a teen's life. The more the parent was
involved with their child's life, the less likely the teen was to use
drugs, the report said.

Some things presented in the report were no-brainers -- conclusions
such as teens in Pointe Claire consume alcohol in the Terra Cotta
woods, the idea that bars along the waterfront in Ste. Anne de
Bellevue contribute to teens' delinquency and the notion that the
Montreal Transit Society's Fairview Pointe Claire bus terminal is a
trouble spot because so many teens converge there at a given time --
but other, more disturbing trends came to light -- such as that West
Islanders are noted for their high number of suicide attempts for
teens aged between 15 and 19.

Street gangs are also making inroads in the area. Even though many
teens surveyed said they didn't perceive street gangs as a problem,
many said they knew a member of a gang or a sub-class of the street
gangs. Police also indicated a high level of gang activity at the
Fairview terminal.

"Despite the high number of suicide attempts, it's unfortunate there
is no specialized psychiatry resource for youth on the territory,"
Haynes said.

The report also indicated West Island teens felt isolated in their
communities because of the lack of public-transit resources available
in some parts of the West Island -- as well as many problems with
loitering and inappropriate behaviour, which can be -- at least in
part blamed on infrequency of buses.