Some Manitobans lost in justice system were 'within our grasp,' premier tells safety summit
Wab Kinew recalls happy girl later involved in justice system as illustrative example of how society can help
A happy-go-lucky girl that Manitoba's premier remembers fondly for her big, recognizable grin eventually became a youth in custody, he recalled Tuesday — a harrowing reminder that good, well-meaning people can slip through the cracks of the province's social safety net, even if they were initially supported, he said.
"The part that breaks my heart is not just that I knew this young, sweet kid who had potential …it's not just that she, that person ended up on a negative path, it's that we had a chance to reach her," Premier Wab Kinew told a public safety summit.
Kinew said the girl, no older than five or six years old, showed up daily for a free lunch organized by the Boys and Girls Club, with which he was volunteering, because, as she said, "they don't feed us at home," he recalled.
"She was within our grasp of being able to usher her onto the more positive path," Kinew said.
"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."
Saving the next generation
Kinew told the story at a summit, hosted by the provincial NDP government at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg and attended by upwards of 200 community and Indigenous leaders, as well as representatives from law enforcement, restorative justice, victims service organizations and advocates serving vulnerable populations.
Feedback from the day of speeches and smaller discussions will be incorporated into a provincewide public safety strategy, which is scheduled to be released in late September.
The government promised the summit as part of its efforts to combat Manitoba's stubbornly high crime rate.
Kinew said he recounted the girl's story at the summit to illustrate that while law enforcement plays a key role in ensuring safety, so too does our broader society.
"While some folks may debate the merits of stepping in where some parents may not be living up to the responsibilities that we view them as having inherited, the reality is if we get stuck in that debate, we are going to condemn another generation of Manitobans to repeating the same trajectory."
Kinew said he first met the girl some 20 years ago before he met her again, 10 or 12 years ago, at the Manitoba Youth Centre, where she gave him a beaded lynx medallion.
The girl, whom Kinew didn't name to protect her privacy, had two children while in custody, who were apprehended and entered the child welfare system.
"Unfortunately, we can say, based on the statistics in our province, that young people growing up in the child welfare system are disproportionately more likely to come into contact with the law and disproportionately more likely to end up on the streets," Kinew said.
The government hopes its public safety summit will lead to new strategies to combat crime and prevent people from going down the wrong path, such as the family Kinew spoke about.
Manitoba's approach must consider prevention, he said, including for people who grew up in a life of hardship.
The goal is "public safety and justice in the broadest possible senses of the term, keeping every Manitoban safe — Manitobans who are worried about their garage getting broken into, but [also] Manitobans who don't even know that they're being born into the trap," Kinew told the crowd.
In his keynote address, retired judge Murray Sinclair, who served as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said he believes some crimes are the result of young people lacking ties to their community.
"What I've concluded is that we need now to think about how do we create a community for our young people, as they grow up, to gain a sense of responsibility to a community in which they can take pride," he said.
Young people need a community "which they feel a sense of belonging to, which they feel a sense of responsibility [to], and which they respect and which respects them," said Sinclair.
Prevention needed
Michael Redhead Champagne, a board member with Fearless R2W — a non-profit based in Winnipeg's North End that works to reunite families involved with the child welfare system — attended the summit to encourage more initiatives around crime prevention and de-escalating violent situations.
Manitoba is already moving in that direction, but Redhead Champagne wants to see more progress.
"The biggest thing we can do in Manitoba if we want to prevent crime is support parents and families so that we have strong enough family units that folks have the love, support and knowledge that they need to be able to be healthy adults that are contributing members of our community and society," he said.
Winnipeg Police Service Supt. Dave Dalal spoke at the summit about the need for police to collaborate with other agencies.
The demand for policing services has never been greater, he said. The service's communications centre fielded 780,000 calls for service last year, and is on track for a record-breaking 850,000 calls in 2024.
"Police can't solve every safety problem in the community," Dalal said in an interview before the summit began.
"It's absolutely critical that we partner with folks in the community who can take a piece of the safety challenges, within their own staffing, within their own mandate, within their own training and within their own budgets, such that emergency services aren't relied on for every safety concern."
Dalal said the Downtown Community Safety Partnership is an example of a program that's helped.
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