Somebody's Daughter
Page 29
Kirk also continues to take part in the school visits that were such an important factor in Stacey’s return to square life. The outreach programs run by the Sullivan House counselors have been sighted as a model for other Canadian cities to follow. In 1992, when juvenile prostitution was a major problem in Halifax, the federal government commissioned a national consultation on prostitution. By the time the federal study was nearing completion, Nova Scotia’s image had changed. In 1992, police in Vancouver and Toronto pointed to Halifax as the source of many of the under aged prostitutes working in those cities. The interim report released by the authors of the federal study pointed to Nova Scotia as an example of how to best handle the problem of juvenile prostitution. While Nova Scotia had modeled its safe house after the one used in Toronto, Sullivan House had a success rate that surpassed even the most optimistic projections in 1992.
The task force officers delivered close to one hundred young girls to the doors of Sullivan House, and while most of them decided they did not want to sign a statement against their pimps, those who did almost always remained off the street for good. By the late summer of 1996, thirty-seven girls had signed statements on one or more pimps; they followed through on the commitment and testified in court. Today twenty-seven girls remain free of The Game. Of the ten remaining girls, four may be free of prostitution; they have simply stopped communicating with Sullivan House counselors. Three girls have returned to The Game full-time; two work on an occasional basis and one has been jailed. Kirk and the other counselors working in Halifax maintain contact with the girls that have passed through the doors of Sullivan House, just as the task force officers continue to respond when a girl they were assigned to reaches out to them. That long term relationship demonstrates what Shane Kirk sees as the real problem faced by the girls: the serious lack of self-worth.
In August 1996, Stacey once again reached out to John Elliott and to Shane Kirk when, in her new home, she was again in contact with pimps. Stacey had continued to maintain her relationship with girls involved in The Game and one of those friends inadvertently led a pimp to her door. At first Stacey felt she was confident enough to resist his attempts to get her back on the street, but within weeks she began, once again, to remember the fun she had had with Annie Mae and to recognize that she still lacked education and could not expect to get a high paying job. A series of late night phone calls brought Stacey back into the fold. Once again she packed her belongings and headed to a new city, and another new start. Stacey’s experience is not unique; even Taunya, who had been so strong on the witness stand and who had helped Teri and Gizelle when the aborted attempt to escape led them back to an angry Manning Greer, continues to suffer from self-doubt. Asked if she had any sense of accomplishment or pride at having turned her life around Taunya stated flatly, “No.” Asked if she now had a higher self-esteem she responded, “No, not really,” and lowered her eyes and walked away.
Criminologist John Lowman of Simon Fraser University believes that kind of response is evidence of what really is at the heart of a young girl’s decision to follow a pimp. “The girl or woman can never recover any feeling of self-worth because she lost it long before she met the pimp. Signing on the pimp will not really help, because he is not the source of the problem in the first place.” Shane Kirk agrees, comparing self-worth to an expensive Tiffany lamp. “It is very easy to shatter and very difficult to put back together, you have to do it one piece at a time.” While self-worth may be easily destroyed, Kirk believes one positive adult role-model can make all the difference in a young girl’s life. If a child does not receive the proper support at home he feels a teacher, who knows what to look for, or some other relative can help the child develop the self confidence needed to avoid the mental games played by the pimps. The serious players openly admit they seek out girls with low self-esteem because they are the easiest to manipulate and control.
As a criminologist, John Lowman has spent years studying prostitution in Canada and has published numerous papers on the topic. “The pimp’s game is to take a girl with low self-worth and make her feel she’s worth something. She’s caught because she likes the feeling he gives her. Chances are, she has never felt this way before.” Once a pimp has his target feeling good about herself, he then uses those feelings to his advantage. “The pimp convinces her that he is the only person who can make her feel like this. He then treats her like shit, so to speak, and withdraws his affection so she feels unworthy again. This way, he manipulates her into the position of continutally trying to please him so he will treat her the right way again.”
By late August of 1996, the Canadian Government was acknowledging the serious social problem presented by juvenile prostitution. Canada was one of 130 countries to adopt the recommendations of the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The Congress, in Stockholm, called for tougher laws to govern the exploitation of children; laws that would make the commercial sexual exploitation of children a crime while recognizing the children as victims not criminals. The congress also called for a worldwide mobilization of resources aimed at eliminating the child sex trade. Canada has already taken steps in that direction by introducing a new tougher sentencing policy for pimps who lure young girls into the streets.
Tougher laws will not stop pimps from playing their favorite game. Pimps are survivors, and they will adapt to any rule changes that come with new laws in the same way they adapted to the reality of the task force in Halifax. Pimps intent on staying in The Game did not stop running girls; instead they stopped running juveniles on Hollis Street, preferring to move them to other provinces. Some also began to limit, but not eliminate, the use of violence. As long as grown men are willing to pay to have sex with these children of the night, the pimps will find a way to meet the demand. Pimps in Calgary long ago found a way to make money while keeping the young girls off the streets. They use what police call a “floating trick pad.” Customers are contacted by the pimp and told to come to an apartment or a home at a specific time. During a single night a young girl will be forced to have sex with twenty or more men who have all paid in advance for the privilege. Police suspect these one-night encounters are the first exposure to prostitution for many of these girls. The location of the trick pad changes every time a new fresh girl is lured into The Game.
The law of supply and demand will continue to prevail in the sex trade. Perhaps the only way to prevent young girls from being used to supply the voracious appetite of The Game is to follow the advice of the experts and accept that self-esteem is the key. It is up to parents, teachers, and family friends to do everything possible to develop a sense of self-worth in young girls. If they do not, there are pimps who are more than willing to invest the time it takes to build and then destroy that self-worth. To them it is, after all, just an investment; one for which they expect a healthy return. To a pimp a juvenile prostitute is a profitable object and nothing more; she is certainly not somebody’s daughter.
About the Author
Phonse Jessome is a veteran Canadian reporter and television correspondent. Raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia, he has covered crime and politics in Canada since the early 1990s. His books include Murder at McDonald’s (1994), the definitive account of a grisly triple-homicide at a Sydney fast food restaurant, and Somebody’s Daughter (1996), an investigation of human trafficking in Canada.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 1996 by Phonse Jessome
Cover design by Greg Mortimer
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3801-0
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