Duane Hicks
With some fanfare and many words of support, the Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre—Canada’s first secure custody facility for aboriginal youths—held its grand opening here Monday.
The new facility was opened for the public to tour that afternoon, but earlier in the day delegates from area First Nations, government agencies, media, and those specially invited attended an opening ceremony where many agreed a facility dedicated to rehabilitating aboriginal youths in conflict with the law has been a long time coming.
“I had a chance to tour the facility this morning, and I have to tell you, after 36 years in the youth justice business, what we have here is state-of-the-art, and will make a big difference in the lives of youths,” Wes Bell, northern regional director of Youth Justice Services, said Monday.
“It’s very fair that this facility was built by a community, and it will be that community that will make it successful,” he added.
“I am honoured to be here today [Monday] to be at the opening of the facility,” Bell continued. “This is the first of its kind in Canada—a facility dedicated to providing service to aboriginal youth.
“Aboriginal youth staying here will reconnect with their community traditions and teachings through this facility’s unique programming.
“With that information and with that education, and with the help of the staff here, they can make better choices when they return to their home communities,” Bell remarked.
“This ministry is keenly aware of the challenges that face youth and, in particular, the unique challenges that face aboriginal youth. It is so crucial that we, as a community and as a province, work together to heal the problems of these youth.”
Bell noted aboriginal youths are the fasting-growing segment of the population in Ontario and Canada, are the future, and “we need to make sure they have every chance to reach their full potential.”
“The young people who will stay at this facility have made mistakes, but these mistakes should not determine their future as adults,” Bell stressed. “Helping them to see the power and influence of their heritage will empower them to take the right path when they return to their communities.”
Bell said facility staff have been working hard for the past six-eight weeks to be ready for the first detainees to arrive in early April.
“The training they’ve taken will help them provide services to meet the unique needs of aboriginal youth of the Northwestern Ontario,” he noted. “However, the youth’s local community plays a huge part in the youth staying on the right path once they leave here.
“For the first time in Ontario, this facility will have an aboriginal integration worker who, along with the youth’s probation officer, will assist the youth to reintegrate back into the community, to meet the right people, to have mentors, and to make connections which are so important in communities,” he explained.
Bell also said youth at the facility will have their spiritual needs met, thanks in no small part to the input of First Nations’ chiefs and elders, adding the facility features a ceremonial centre.
“I know this will have a powerful and long effect on the youth who use it to move toward right choices and right pathways,” he remarked.
“The ministry recognizes that supporting aboriginal youth requires a holistic approach, and this building and the programs that will be offered in this building are focused on that approach.
“It involves giving youth the opportunity to do the right thing, but at the same time hold them accountable for their actions, help them to live a better life when they leave to return to their communities.
“Most importantly, it involves listening and working with the aboriginal communities to assist youth with reintegration when they return to their homes.
“Together, we are going to help aboriginal youth make better choices and become proud of their heritage and legacy,” stressed Bell. “The opening of this facility marks the beginning of a remarkable experience for both youth justice, this community, and the youth who will benefit from these services and this programming.”
Rainy River First Nations Chief Jim Leonard had been involved in bringing an aboriginal youth facility to this area since 2002, and Monday’s opening ceremony was a historic moment.
“When our relatives signed Treaty Three more than 150 years ago, they could never have imagined the challenges our young people face,” he noted. “But in the 21st century, we’ve witness the challenges and seen some of the results.
“Our own families have been affected.”
Chief Leonard recounted his own daughter was charged with minor consumption when she was 13 years old. After a couple of breaches of conditions, she was sent to Ivik Youth Services Ontario, which she, in turn, ran away from. She then was sent to Kenora, where she got into fights, and was moved to Thunder Bay.
After difficulties there, she was shifted to Sudbury, then Guelph, and elsewhere.
“She was in the system for five years over a minor consuming charge,” he remarked. “When she turned 18, she was released and we didn’t know about it. Several months later, we found her in Lakeland, Fla.
“That’s how the system treated my daughter.
“It was, and is, disheartening, and it is time for a change,” Chief Leonard stressed. “The change that we will witness today can be credited the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and countless individuals across the province who have had a voice and challenged a system that wasn’t working.”
Since 2002, former and current chiefs, staff from the Fort Frances Chiefs Secretariat and Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services, and numerous individuals from other agencies have lobbied to get a youth justice facility built here.
“Getting to this point has been a journey and now it is time for a new beginning, for us and for the youth, youth like my daughter,” said Chief Leonard, adding the Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre will strive to change lives through the words and actions that have been passed down from generation to generation.
Richard Bruyere, executive director of Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services, said the opening definitely is a cause for celebration, but admitted there will be challenges ahead.
“Our intent is not to hope for more of our youth to be incarcerated, but for them to be integrated into their communities so they can become model citizens,” he stressed. “With the help of everyone here today, I feel we can work toward this goal and make positive change.
“The change must be realized sooner than later. There are far too many of our people in today’s institution.
“As we journey down this path, we invite all of you, regardless of who you are or what you do, to assist us,” Bruyere later added. “For in the end, all of us will reap the benefits of a better society.”
Stan LaPierre, co-ordinator of Aboriginal Spiritual Care (Manitoba Justice), had been in communication with local agencies throughout the process to get the new facility built. He said Monday that the Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre is a step towards helping aboriginal youths get back on the right track.
“I personally don’t believe building more jails is the answer,” said LaPierre, adding that many youths come into the youth justice system with a variety of issues, like physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse.
Maybe they come from the child welfare system, or homes with absent parents, or families where parents and grandparents are still hurting from their experiences at residential schools, he noted.
“Our children are struggling to know who they are as Anishnawbe people,” LaPierre stressed. “We are indigenous, First Nations people of this land. Our children need to know who they are.
“We had a beautiful way of life, a good life, prior to our relatives coming across the ocean,” he remarked, adding they need to undo the damage which residential schools and the like have done, separating and isolating aboriginal people from their families and traditions.
“Parents and grandparents must take up their role again and be teachers and role models for our children,” LaPierre urged. “We need to teach our children our way of life, our language, our values, our culture, our spirituality, our songs, and our ceremonies. Our own people have to feel good about who they are and where they come from.
“In closing, I would like to suggest that when a child leaves this facility, they leave with a smudge bowl, medicines, and an eagle feather,” he added. “Whenever they feel alone and isolated, they can smudge and remember who they are as Anishnawbe people.”
“We are proud to be operating the first aboriginal youth facility in Canada,” said Couchiching Chief Chuck McPherson, who also is president of Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services.
“One of the primary objectives in rehabilitating youth is to be inclusive of culture and not inconsiderate of it,” he noted. “As First Nations people, we understand the social and economic conditions that our clients are coming from.
“Our approach can help our youths turn their lives around and be positive contributors to society,” Chief McPherson added.
The new facility also ties into the broader goal of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services to move youths out of units in adult correctional facilities and into separate youth custody facilities to provide them with more effective programs and more opportunity for rehabilitation.
This is to be done everywhere by April 1.
“Aboriginal young people face unique challenges,” Children and Youth Services minister Deb Matthews said in a press release (she and Jeff Leal, parliamentary assistant to the minister of aboriginal affairs, where unable to attend because they couldn’t fly into town due to Monday’s inclement weather).
“Aboriginal youth in conflict with the law will no longer share a facility with adult offenders,” she noted. “They’ll take responsibility for their actions while having access to culturally-appropriate youth programming that will significantly reduce their risk of re-offending.”
In a phone interview Monday, Matthews said the Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre may end up being a model adopted elsewhere in Ontario or even across Canada.
“A lot of people will be watching very closely to see how kids do,” she remarked. “If they’re meeting greater success in this environment, I am sure it will be replicated.”
“The Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre demonstrates this government’s commitment to finding and implementing innovative solutions to improve the lives of aboriginal youth in Ontario,” Aboriginal Affairs minister Brad Duguid said in the same press release.
“The centre will enable aboriginal youth to acquire and develop the life skills that will increase their opportunities as adults in a unique setting respectful of their culture,” he added.
The Ge-Da-Gi-Binez Youth Centre is owned by the Ontario government and will be operated in partnership with a consortium of aboriginal and social service agencies.
Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services is the lead agency and will manage the facility.
Other community agencies in the consortium include the Seven Generations Educational Institute, Weech-it-te-win Family Services, Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services, Gizhewaadiziwin Health Access Centre, and William W. Creighton Youth Services.
The ceremony started with the “Pipe Song” by the Spirit Rock Drummers, after which elder Louis Councillor gave the opening prayer. The Spirit Rock Drummers also performed songs after the ribbon-cutting to close out the ceremony.
Tammy Ryll, executive director of the Fort Frances Chiefs Secretariat, emceed the ceremony.
The new facility, which has a footprint of 18,711 sq. ft., cost $13.2 million. It was designed by Paul Mitchel Architects of North Bay.
It is a secure custody facility that will accommodate up to eight males and four females, aged 12-17, from Northwestern Ontario who are being detained or serving sentences. Male and female residents live in separate areas of the facility and do all activities separately.
It has security measures consistent with provincial standards.
The architectural design reflects aboriginal themes, and has a ceremonial space for the youth to practise aboriginal traditions.
In addition to individual quarters for each youth, there also is a dining area, classrooms, male and female common areas where youths can watch TV, read a book, and socialize, a gymnasium, a secure outdoor recreation area, a nurse’s station, and an infirmary.
There also are areas specifically for staff, such as the offices, meeting rooms, storage rooms, etc.
About 40 full-time and part-time employees work there, many of whom are aboriginal.
Check out video clips of the opening at www.fortfrances.tv
