Manitoba must try to save vulnerable youth from crime: premier

Wabko New remembers a little girl with a big grin showing up for free lunch every day. Canoe was a young man volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. How come you come here every single day like that? And then she looked at me without pausing, and she said because they don’t feed us at home. About 10 years later, Canoe was speaking at a youth correction center. The same girl was there. It’s not just that she that person ended up on a negative path. It’s that we had a chance to reach her. The premier was at a safety summit hosted by his government, he says. There were many opportunities to save her. The Boys and Girls Club was there. The elementary school was there. The high school was there. There could have been a job just down the street. And yet she slipped through our fingers. Unless there’s changes, the premier says, some vulnerable youth will keep getting in trouble. And while some folks may debate the merits of stepping in where some parents may not be, the reality is if we get stuck in that debate, we are going to condemn another generation of Manitobans to repeating the same trajectory. The summit audience was filled with people who get it leaders and community policing and crime prevention. Police can’t solve every safety problem in the community. Dave Delaware says police need help from others. It’s absolutely critical that we partner with folks in the community who can take a piece of the safety challenges. One advocate wants more focus on prevention. The biggest thing we can do in Manitoba if we want to prevent crime is support parents and families. The government hopes what’s said at the summit will lead to new ideas. A provincial public safety strategy will be released in September. Ian Phrase, CBC News, Winnipeg.