Tool fights gang involvement

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The launch of two new documentary videos called Behind the Badge and Gang Aftermath premiered at the Royal Alberta Museum Theatre on Sept. 9. Behind the Badge examines the evolving relationship between the RCMP and Aboriginal communities. Gang Aftermath follows the lives of former gang members Rob Papin and Derek Powder and gang associates who have put their destructive pasts behind them. They tell their stories with the hope of preventing others from choosing criminal paths.

Behind the Badge marks the collaboration of Papin, Powder, Native Counselling Services of Alberta and Bearpaw Media Productions.

Papin, 32, a Cree from Enoch First Nation, now spends his time presenting gang intervention workshops to Aboriginal youth throughout Alberta and Ontario. He became a gang member when he was a teenager but turned his life around at age 24. He went back to school and completed a three-year criminal justice program. He said he has cut all ties with his past and the members of the gang have respected his choices. He said he has new values and beliefs and most importantly he has a daughter to raise and nurture.

" I'm reborn and I have my daughter Caylin to thank for that," said Papin.

He and Powder were once gang rivals but since leaving gang life behind them, have appeared together at dozens of workshops and in-school seminars, telling their life stories to deter Native youth from gang life.

" My past has let me do the work I'm doing now," said Powder.

In 2000, Papin founded the Edmonton Native Alliance, a grassroots organization designed to promote a healthy, constructive, drug-free, family-oriented lifestyle for Native youth. The program has developed into a new privately-funded initiative that Papin and Powder operate together called the Gang Awareness Intervention Network (GAIN). It includes everything from drug counselling to court advocacy.

Francis Campbell, media co-ordinator of Native Counselling Services, said he was excited and anxious to get a gang project together and to collaborate with Papin.

More than a year ago, Campbell ran into Powder on another project. Powder mentioned that he was doing gang intervention work with this guy named Rob Papin and " I had heard of Rob before, so I thought this was a gift made in heaven or had the potential of being one to maybe work with someone so influential," Campbell said.

Campbell met Papin and Powder and they agreed to do the gang video but with some conditions in place, one of which was that the video could not exploitive.

" They wanted to look at the violence, sex and drugs," said Campbell. "They had all of the contacts of current and former gang members, so they did pretty much all of the work for this film. Rob had a lot of experience with this already. He had former gang experience. He is an educated gentleman, and he's streetwise and knows about the local politics of Edmonton. Rob wanted to make it clear that this film wasn't just another gang video but a tool that could be used at workshops."

Papin said many things motivate gang membership, including the sense of belonging a member gets. But Papin said" Some people just don't have the option to say no to gang involvement because they are either threatened or beaten into recruitment.."