ASK QUESTIONS

Leduc Representative - Over the weekend, a stabbing took place at the Coyote
Club in the City of Leduc. Local RCMP said it's drug-related and the
Edmonton gang unit has been called into help assist with the investigation.

But the facts and history show some of the problems faced by our community
are drug and gang related. They are problems that need to be acknowledged
and addressed.

Geography places Leduc 20 minutes south of Edmonton if you take Strathcona
as the point of departure closer if you take Ellerslie Road.

Whether we like it or not Leduc is now widely viewed as a bedroom community
for the City of Edmonton. A gang related spill over of violence into
affluent suburban Leduc is not too surprising given the geographic facts and
the magnet of easy money Leduc provides the unscrupulous and heartless
individuals who inhabit the world of drug trafficking.

To Leduc's credit, a committee working in conjunction with Family and
Community Support services is tackling the growing methamphetamine problem.
In addition, a new funding from the city was provided for a new community
relations police officer to act as a school resource officer - Const. Josee
Smith.

A community forum was also held in Edmonton on June 18th to discuss
strategies in tackling gang crime and gang violence. Make no mistake, drug
trafficking is a major business and source of revenue for gangs; this
includes all drugs especially the low-cost, high-profit methamphetamines. It
can provide local dealers with hundreds of thousands if not millions of
dollars in revenue, annually. All earned on the crippled bodies and minds of
their victims who forever chase a cheap high.

Only the type of proactive approach to awareness and education demonstrated
by the Leduc FCSS and the city of Edmonton can provide long-term solutions
to stem the tide of drugs and the gangs they support. The other essential
ingredient is community support and awareness.

Leduc needs to remain vigilant at the public and personal level. These
problems cannot be passed over to someone else or some other institution the
solutions require the personal commitment and involvement of each and every
one of us. Our police, social services, mental health and educational
services need your support. Ask questions, keep informed and stay in contact
with your children. Help them with their choices. May you never receive the
phone call that tells you your child is left in a pool of blood dying from
vicious knife wounds to their body? Wounds inflicted apparently over a drug
debt incurred from a few cheap chemicals snorted up a nose or smoked in a
pipe.