Sex abuse problems to be addressed

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A federal committee has been established to investigate sexual abuse problems in this Native community after repeated pleas for help from the band's chief and council.

A spokesman for Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon said the minister wants to meet Chief Angus Starr to discuss the problem, which Starr blames partially on a severe housing shortage on the reserve.

One of the most pressing issues in the battle to break the circle of abuse is making on-reserve counselling available, say social workers. Sandy Bay Reserve claimed national headlines last summer when charges of wide-spread sexual abuse were disclosed.

"In terms of any of our (eight) communities in the Dakota-Ojibway Treaty Council, none have on-reserve counselling," said Bev Flett.

The assistant director of the council's child and family services deplores the lack of services for reserve Natives and blames low funding and bureaucratic bickering for the problem. While the Department of Indian Affairs and the Manitoba Medical Services department fight over referral and billing procedures, the needs of too many Natives are not being met, Flett said.

"The referral process becomes more complicated and that creates a waiting period for clients. As it is, we simply do not have the funding for everyone. We try to defer the clients who need the services the most," explained Flett.

And that means abusers, often primary care-givers, are left without programs to help them overcome their abusive behavior.

The 3,000 residents of Sandy Bay are still reeling from the results of a seven-month RCMP investigation. To date, 205 incidents of sexual abuse have been disclosed by more than 50 victims and the RCMP are still counting.

Approximately 20 people, who range in age from seniors to as young as 12, are currently under investigation for sexual assault.

While a few of the victims spoke of being assaulted once or twice, most were in on-going abusive relationships within two or three extended families.

Both RCMP and social services believe much of the abuse is generational, with the abusers having experienced abuse themselves.

And they agree on-reserve counselling would be the most effective in breaking the cycle of abuse.

Today, Sandy Bay clients must travel a total of 165 km southeast of the reserve to Brandon to obtain counselling, a four-hour return trip.

To save time and money, as many as six clients may be scheduled to travel at a time, with appointments starting at 9 a.m., which means they must stay overnight in the city.

Poor housing conditions in which two and three families share the same small home have also been blamed for the reserves' current crisis.

Chief Angus Starr compared the living conditions on Sandy Bay Reserve to those in Third World countries. Approximately 275 people are on waiting lists for new housing on the reserve yet continued pleas for building grants from the Department of Indian Affairs have until now fallen on deaf ears.

"We have begged them to help us. And there's been no response as of yet from

the Department of Indian Affairs. We need professional counsellors on the reserve, and we need more housing. We're trying to deal with the problems with the resources we have, but it's not enough," said an angry chief Starr.