'SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF YOUTH IS CHILD ABUSE'

After years of misguided treatment and instability, 14-year-old Tracia
Owen was finally receiving the care she needed when she hanged herself in
a squalid West End garage, a judge said in an inquest report recommending
sweeping changes to the child welfare system.

"The attention and effort was given years too late and if given earlier,
might have prevented Tracia being in the situation she found herself,"
wrote Judge John Guy in a 57-page inquest report released yesterday.

Owen, a native of Little Grand Rapids, was working as a prostitute and
addicted to drugs when she hanged herself in a Victor Street garage in
August 2005.

The inquest heard Owen was among the more than 400 children a year who are
exploited in Winnipeg's visible sex trade.

"It is difficult to understand why there is not public outrage about
14-year-old children standing on the street at all times of the day and
night selling their bodies to support a drug addiction," Guy wrote.

"In some way, public awareness must be raised so the public accepts the
fact that sexual exploitation of addicted youth is child abuse, is
unacceptable and must be combatted strenuously."

A ward of Southeast Child and Family Services, Owen spent her short life
moving from one foster home or child care facility to another before
spending her final months at the Neecheewam group home in Winnipeg.

Owen was seized from her alcoholic parents when she was two months of age
and returned to them 17 times before becoming a permanent ward of Child
and Family Services.

Among the inquest report's 28 recommendations, Guy called for a "summit"
of child welfare workers, police, justice officials, aboriginal groups,
and other stakeholders to tackle the problem of sexual exploitation and
drug abuse of children on the streets.

Guy also called for a comprehensive review of Southeast Child and Family
Services and recommended improved standards for maintaining case files to
prevent children like Owen from falling through the cracks.

Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said the report "screams at the
federal government to enhance its support for child welfare on reserves."

Mackintosh said the province is moving immediately on Guy's recommendation
to convene a summit on sexual exploitation, which will occur before the
winter is over.