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Combating Youth Violence

December 17th, 2005 by admin

Combating youth violence - an appeal to the community
Source: The Indo Canadian Voice Online (voiceonline.com)
December 16, 2005
By HARBANS SINGH KANDOLA, President of VIRSA, Sikh Alliance Against Youth Violence

I am writing this article to share my feelings with the community on the issue of youth violence. I want to talk about a few issues that frequently come up on radio talk shows and other conversations. First is the misconception that organizations working against youth violence receive funding from various sources, but don’t produce visible results. Second is the misconception that some of the community leaders are working in volunteer organizations for personal gains.

First, there are no quick fixes for this cancer in our society. It is going to take some time to resolve these issues. The focus of most volunteer organizations is on prevention programs since volunteers can’t all be qualified to provide intervention services such as counseling. Accordingly, the benefits of helping pre-teens and teens to make positive life choices and to stay away from drugs and gangs will become apparent as those youth become productive members of society over the coming years rather than additions to the list of dead gangsters.

Second, I think I can safely speak for VIRSA volunteers and myself, who are giving hundreds of hours of their own time, to say that we have no desire for any personal gains. I am taking early retirement, leaving a well paying job, to serve my community. I am doing this because I feel pain when parents lose their only son to youth violence, when parents come to Canada for better lives for their children only to lose them once here, or when a mother cries because her daughter ran away due to parent-child conflicts. I feel hurt when I read in the mainstream media that almost all the boys killed were Sikh boys. I feel ashamed to learn that some Sikh girls are being recruited for prostitution in Surrey. I feel disheartened when this hard working community, which has made huge contributions to the economic progress of this province as well as many other areas, a community with a rich heritage and a modern spiritual philosophy, is labeled as gangsters and drug dealers. I am raising these issues so that we can focus on solutions rather than finger pointing.

British Columbia has now become an international drug trading centre. The value of the drug traded annually is between $6-15 billion. From 2003 to 2005, crime groups in BC have increased from 52 to 103. These crime groups come from all communities. What is unique with Punjabi boys is the way in which they are violently killing each other. There have been 60 gang related murders since 1999. Almost all of these involve Sikh boys. Interestingly, most of these boys live with their parents and families. Drugs are readily available in school grounds where our girls and boys are exposed to them.

In my view, some main reasons for this increased drug trade in BC are soft laws, lenient sentences and perhaps, lack of police resources. Should the laws become stricter? I think they should. Will these laws be changed soon? I do not know. Will the police resources be increased? I think, yes. It is up to us to raise these issues with our political candidates. Can our community afford to wait, hoping the above changes will eradicate this violent cancer? No. Here are some of the things the community as a whole should think about doing immediately:

1. Every member of our community should take the responsibility to talk about and do something about this problem. Every parent must sit down with their children over family dinner and discuss the issues of drugs and gangs, and warn their children that getting into a gang lifestyle is not “cool”. The end is surely death, jail and shame for the community. Parents must tell their children that once anyone is involved in a gang knowingly or innocently there is no easy way out. I am aware of a few instances when parents have tried to talk to their son about the dangers of this lifestyle. The son’s answer back to the parents is that nothing will ever happen to them. However the parents shortly thereafter learn that their son has been murdered. Parents should make their priority to attend seminars, parenting classes, plays, and learn skills to properly guide and discipline their kids.

2. Gurdwara societies must take their responsibility to support organizations that are doing community work, and to spread the message to their congregations. They should involve youth in Gurdwara operations.

3. Parents whose kids are involved in drug or gang activities should seek help from counselors and police to find a safe way out.

4. The Indo-Canadian media is powerful and can play a big role in creating awareness and educating the community as to what needs to be done to combat this problem. The media can help organizations to spread these messages in the community.

5. The community should cooperate with the police and gang task forces to help them succeed in arresting those who commit violent acts and to help those who want to get out.

6. The community collectively should reach out affectionately to our youth to let them know that they are loved, and that the path they are walking on leads to nowhere. It is time that they stop killing each other and give this community an image that it rightfully deserves.

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