LANGARA’S FORUM ON GANG VIOLENCE A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

The thought provoking and eye-opening “Tackling the Complexities of the Gang Violence Issue Forum” hosted by Indira Prahst of the Department of Sociology of Langara College and Asian Pulse TV producer and host Kamilla Singh on Wednesday night at Langara College was a resounding success with a packed lecture hall and another hall with a live feed video that had an overflow audience.

The main speakers were Attorney General Wally Oppal, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, West Vancouver Police Chief Kash Heed, CBC TV host and producer Natalie Clancy (who showed rare footage from her interviews with high profile gang members and expressed her views on dispelling the myths), Vancouver Police Detective Constables Adam Dhaliwal and Doug Spencer (who debunked the glorified representations of gang life with short clips from a popular presentation on the truth behind gangs and discussed the baits used for gang recruitment), Eileen Mohan (the mother of the innocent victim Chris Mohan, 22, of Surrey, who along with Edward J. Schellenberg, 55, of Abbotsford, was killed in gangland execution style on October 19 in Surrey just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) and Steve Brown (Schellenberg’s brother-in-law). NDP MLA Mike Farnsworth delivered the closing remarks.

The forum also carved out space for Fijian voices to be heard under the leadership of Kamilla Singh, while Fijian-born Langara College Instructor and Chef de Mission of Team BC, Ajay Patel, spoke about empowering youth through sports, role modeling and bringing the community together. The audience included several senior Vancouver Police officers, academics and students from UBC, SFU and other colleges, community leaders and most key representatives from the Fijian community, parents, community workers, NDP MLAs Bruce Ralston and Mike Farnsworth, Liberal MLA and Parliamentary Secretary Dave Hayer, and Vancouver City Council Peter Ladner.

STUDENTS’ REACTIONS

So what did some of the Langara College student’s think of the whole experience?

Sylvia said: “I thought the forum was very emotional hearing Eileen (Mohan) and Steve (Schellenberg) speak about what it’s like to go through the death of an innocent child or friend. The Vancouver Police gave very informative speeches and I think a lot of topics and ideas to think about came out of the forum and I feel we will be moving forward.”

Rishi Patel said: “What is impressive about the forum is that it formed an impression of what is really going on in society and one way to really make changes is to realize that there is a problem.

“I definitely feel the forum made a big difference move towards changes and some are happening immediately with the President of Langara College announcing immediately about the creation of a website on gangs for students and the community as a whole. Also, I met some interesting people that I will stay in touch with and gave me an opportunity to meet community leaders and politicians.” Well, what made them react in this way?

Indira Prahst, forum organizer, outlined the purpose of the forum, noting: “The recent deadly gang style shootings have once again raised red flags due to the callousness nature of gang violence on our streets which, indeed, is eroding public safety. These shootings have sparked debate and questions on how to tackle this serious social ill in our society.”

Referring to the murders of Chris Mohan and Edward J. Schellenberg, she said: “When you see the devastation this has had on families and the consequences both on micro and macro levels of society that is the spark to do something to combat this social ill.”

She added: “Having lost students with brilliant minds to the underworld of gangs and drugs, and by talking to college and university students I see that some of them are walking a slippery slope and are tempted by the glamour to make a quick buck through drugs.”

She pointed out the three goals they hoped to achieve through this forum: listen, inform and provide solutions to the social issue of gangs through community voices and responses from experts who are all stakeholders.

POWERFUL MESSAGES

Natalie Clancy, showing a powerful clip from her interviews with gang leaders called “Getting Away with Murder,” exposed the myth that parents are not involved in their children’s gang activity.

She noted: “One of the things I found is the parents are often victims when their kids are dead. Their lives are devastated and I think in this day and age in our city the denial and ignorance is as deadly as the weapon. As a journalist I have learned that parents are deeply involved or are in deep denial.

“As a journalist I sat in too many living rooms with parents that are completely devastated. I don’t know about you, but I feel sick to my stomach when I start the evening news with a deadly man shooting and that is why I am here tonight at speaking at this forum as a journalist.”

Eileen Mohan, speaking on parenting, said: “You have no right to shed a tear because you have driven your child to that lifestyle. You have no right to say your son was killed by a gangster because he was a gangster. Parents should know what their children are doing and ask the hard questions, “Where did you get this from?”

“As a community we have to be vigilant, that is the code of silence we have to break. If we don’t break it, then our children will be dying and we need to be the judge and jury of our kids.”

Steve Brown, devastated by the death of his friend, business partner and brother-in-law, gave a heart-wrenching testimony how devastated Edward J. Schellenberg’s family is. He left behind his wife and two children. He graphically showed how gangs have left such “a mess” in their lives. Fighting back tears, he said that people were not even free from gangs when they were simply doing their jobs. “Ed was simply doing his job cleaning the furnace (in the apartment where he was murdered).”

FIJIAN VOICES

Kamilla Singh said: “Some Fijian community members felt that they don’t have support from the South Asian community as a whole when issues such as gangs emerge. There is a sense that there are not enough role models showcased within the Fijian community which is important for youth to look up to or to aspire towards diverse career paths to avoid joining gangs.” Ajay Patel, speaking about sports and role modeling, said: “Sport fulfills similar function as gangs and why they are involved in gangs: affiliation, sense of achievement, sense of self-direction and sense of self-sensation. I try to transcend that information through sports. It helps you with self-esteem and self-direction. From that we have to have role models … which is what we are lacking. We need to have role models to step forward and share the experiences to provide guidance for our young kids that are out there”

THE BIG GUNS

Wally Oppal said: “We need community responses. This crime issue is not new, it has been with us for 60 years and the reason we have a spate of violence is because Vancouver is a port city that lately has gotten worse because our marijuana is going south and guns are coming north.”

He noted: “What is hurtful to all of us are the innocent people who are victims. … irreparable losses, particularly when a son has nothing to do with the crime committed.”

He said that what we as a society need to do is to focus on prevention and enforcement.

He added: “The real solution is to stop our young kids from being involved in gangs. We have to go to schools and tell them they have two choices … the right one or you end up dead with bullet holes or you will be in jail for a long time.”

He said: “It is not cool to get involved in criminal activity and this is what we have to tell our youth, there is not silver bullet or magic wand to wave.” Jim Chu said: “The best way to reduce gang violence is to keep at risk youth away from gang violence and have community intervention. Gang recruitment does not start on the streets, it begins anywhere from youth who suffer a lack of role models, mentors, or outreach. That is why we dedicated 17 officers as school liaison officers. The Vancouver Police athletic league initiative is to show police in a positive manner, that they are your friends and not there to harass you.” Kash Heed bluntly noted: “Gang violence is destroying our communities and instilling fear, impacting honest businesses and threatening innocent bystanders and here lies that problem of compartmentalized law enforcement operations. Gangs are operating without defined bases and our law agencies are fractured across the regions.”

He added: “There are absolutely some signs that there are integrations occurring at local levels. … What is lacking is a metro Vancouver police regional police response (and) collaborative strategies that are focused on prevention: move from being reactive, random and rapid to proactive, directive and sustained.”

In response to a question from the audience, Heed said: “Certainly when I got involved in policing many Indo-Canadians were getting killed, but it crosses all ethnicities. Indo=-Canadians have been tarnished by a select few in the community. I can tell you it did not happen to me or Minister Wally Oppal.”

CAPTIVATING PRESENTATION

Mani Amar, young writer and director of the documentary, “A Warrior’s Religion,” captivated the audience with his clips from recent interviews with Indo-Canadian gangster Bal Buttar.

He said: “When Bal Buttar opened up to me, he entrusted me with things I thought I would never hear – very, very scary sad things – things like wanting acceptance from his parents in his interests as art. Or how he just wanted to have friends in high school. How such simple principles elude our community, communities before us, and communities yet to come.

“As for Bal Buttar, he remains un-embraced by friendship, unaccepted by society, lingering somewhere between death and jail. … Where there is the lack of love, there lies the fertile grounds of hate to breed.”

Mani Amar, ended the forum with a poem he wrote especially for the event and showing the need to be creative in “knowledge translation”:

“So I beg of you now, young brothers of every and any race or galore, put down your new century swords, open your eyes. Embrace the crying mothers of your former enemies, and violence, be no more.”

Mike Farnsworth said that the evening had been moving with much focus on concerns of community safety to ensure that their kids don’t fall into the trap of gangs and violence. He said: “We need to show leadership is what I heard here tonight. As politicians and government we all have a job to do and it requires leadership from all. It is important that when we leave here, that we remember … most importantly that foundation we are all concerned about – family and kids – is front and foremost in our efforts to combat gangs and gang violence.”

GRATIFYING

For Vancouver Police Detective Constable Doug Spencer and Detective Constable Adam Dhaliwal, who gave their popular anti-gang presentation, it was most gratifying when an Indo-Canadian father walked to the front of the stage with his two young kids and said to them, pointing at Dhaliwal: “This is the kind of person I want you to become.” Spencer was really moved by that experience and said: “Those two kids won’t have gang trouble with a father like that.”

February 2nd, 2008

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