GANG VIOLENCE KNOWS NO BORDERS

Two-day conference, 18 months in the making, aims to find
answers

If you think that the gang, drugs and organized crime-related violence
we now see daily in news reports is only an urban or a suburban
problem, you should have been where I was yesterday.

As I found out, gangs, drugs and organized crime are just as much a
problem within First Nations communities throughout B.C.

But the aboriginal community's new approach in combatting the problem
may hold lessons for the larger community, too.

That approach involves gathering all stakeholders -- band members,
police, school boards, social workers, corrections officers,
border-enforcement personnel and local government representatives --
in one room and then spending two days talking, learning and building
a consensus for solutions.

Officially, it's called the Drugs, Gang and Organized Crime in First
Nations Communities Conference and it began yesterday at the Ramada
Conference Centre in Abbotsford.

"There are no borders to this problem but, like everywhere else, it's
also increasing in First Nations communities," says Dianne Garner,
chairwoman of the Fraser Valley Drug Action Task Force that organized
the event.

She explains that this is the first conference of its kind and was a
year-and-a-half in the planning.

"When it's over, we want to be able to walk out of here with a clearer
understanding of the problem, along with recommendations on how we
move forward together in addressing it."

For example, it quickly became obvious yesterday that the roots for
growth in aboriginal gangs are much the same as gang growth everywhere
- -- they're solidly fixed in an unhealthy home environment.

A soft-spoken, 15-year-old Sto:lo Youth Council member, Summer Paul, summed
this point
up succinctly.

"I've grown up seeing a lot of adults use drugs and alcohol," she told
the capacity audience.

"Instead of facing their problems, they're running away from them, but
they're also teaching their children to run from their problems, too.
This is a cycle and I want to break it."

Clearly, from this young lady's astute perspective, the gangs and
drugs problem grows because the roots are continuously transplanted
from one aboriginal generation to the next.

This is like the case in the larger community, as well.

As for solutions, few have a better grasp on what it will take to halt
the upward trend in gang and drug activities in aboriginal communities
than RCMP Cpl. Mike Moyer, who is the force's E Division Aboriginal
Gang Co-ordinator. His hour-long presentation -- he calls it "Gangs
101" -- is a spellbinder.

In it, he lays out the many aspects of why gangs rise and thrive, and
then offers a host of resolution starting-points that will work anywhere.

Within the aboriginal community specifically, he says, there has to be
more trust of the police -- although he acknowledges a difficulty with
this, because it was the police who took away many of today's parents
from their own families and placed them in residential schools.

Most importantly, he says, there has to be family stability, in which
parents are healthy role-models.

"If you're not going to do your jobs as individuals, as a family or as
a community, then the gangs are going to come in and do it for you,"
he warns.

The conference continues today.