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03-13-2003, 07:42 PM
Thursday » March 13 » 2003
'Daddy, can you blow up this balloon?'
Colette Derworiz
Calgary Herald
Friday, March 07, 2003
Amber Lavoie was playing in the backyard last fall when she picked up what she thought was a balloon.
Her dad, Kevin Lavoie, was in the house doing dishes when his four-year-old daughter walked in.
"She said, 'Daddy, can you blow up this balloon?' " he recalled Thursday.
"She had a condom at her mouth that was filled with sperm. The rest was history from there."
It is believed the used condom was flung over the 11/2-metre-high fence behind the Lavoie home in Forest Lawn, a neighbourhood in southeast Calgary working to rid the area of prostitution.
Six months later, Amber, now 5, is still getting needles to test for HIV, hepatitis B and other diseases.
"She has another set of needles coming up in the next couple of days," Lavoie said, noting it will be the fifth time his daughter will go through the tests.
So far, the tests have all been negative.
But Lavoie said doctors have warned him that it could be six to nine months before anything shows up.
As the next round of tests approaches, the father of four told his story Wednesday evening to aldermen on the city's community and protective services committee.
He said he wants the city to take notice of what communities deal with on a day-to-day basis.
"It's hard to deal with," Lavoie said of the prostitutes working in his neighbourhood. "You try not to deal with it, but you have to."
He said all three levels of government -- municipal, provincial and federal -- need to put more resources in place to fight prostitution and discourage johns from soliciting prostitutes.
"I like the aspect of this Bill 206," Lavoie said.
Bill 206 is a private member's bill by Calgary-Buffalo Conservative MLA Harvey Cenaiko, a former police inspector. It would give police the power to seize vehicles of men caught soliciting prostitutes for sex.
Art Sheeler, president of Forest Lawn's block watch, said communities are adamant about getting the bill implemented.
"The prostitution is the small part, but they drag in the other garbage when they come in here," he said.
Sheeler, who is part of a group organizing a "Take Back the Streets" march in June, said there was a drop in street prostitution when a law similar to Bill 206 was introduced in Winnipeg.
Cenaiko's bill, which received first reading in the legislature this week, has won the support of community leaders and politicians from all provincial parties.
Calgary aldermen added their voice Wednesday by pledging support to the bill.
Ald. Joe Ceci said the city is also looking into bylaws to help the city have a positive influence on the way communities look, "particularly homes that get rundown or get to be sources of problems in communities."
Those types of homes, he said, tend to get picked up by slum landlords and become drug or bawdy houses.
"It's that kind of thing, making sure there is a high level of community standards with regards to those kinds of things," Ceci said.
Communities for Awareness and Action of Prostitution Issues, a local group, asked for the city's support for the so-called broken window policy. Past-president Carol Potter said the policy focuses on improving neighbourhoods.
"If you start looking and facing the little issues, the big things will follow, along with community pride and ownership," she said. "That means if you've got a place . . . that is starting to go downhill, you cannot allow them to be boarded up for 20 years and say that is your problem, not the city's. We've got to start working with this right from Day 1."
She said while city police have done everything they legally can to curb prostitution, it it time for the rest of Calgary to take notice.
"The safety of our communities are at risk," she said. "When you have a four-year-old girl thinking that she has got yucky blood and it's her fault and she's getting needles in her stomach and her feet and all the rest, that's sad."
cderworiz@theherald.canwest.com
Source: The Calgary Herald (http://www.canada.com/calgary/news/story.asp?id={7C9C4A4C-157B-432F-AD61-5C524C93259B})
'Daddy, can you blow up this balloon?'
Colette Derworiz
Calgary Herald
Friday, March 07, 2003
Amber Lavoie was playing in the backyard last fall when she picked up what she thought was a balloon.
Her dad, Kevin Lavoie, was in the house doing dishes when his four-year-old daughter walked in.
"She said, 'Daddy, can you blow up this balloon?' " he recalled Thursday.
"She had a condom at her mouth that was filled with sperm. The rest was history from there."
It is believed the used condom was flung over the 11/2-metre-high fence behind the Lavoie home in Forest Lawn, a neighbourhood in southeast Calgary working to rid the area of prostitution.
Six months later, Amber, now 5, is still getting needles to test for HIV, hepatitis B and other diseases.
"She has another set of needles coming up in the next couple of days," Lavoie said, noting it will be the fifth time his daughter will go through the tests.
So far, the tests have all been negative.
But Lavoie said doctors have warned him that it could be six to nine months before anything shows up.
As the next round of tests approaches, the father of four told his story Wednesday evening to aldermen on the city's community and protective services committee.
He said he wants the city to take notice of what communities deal with on a day-to-day basis.
"It's hard to deal with," Lavoie said of the prostitutes working in his neighbourhood. "You try not to deal with it, but you have to."
He said all three levels of government -- municipal, provincial and federal -- need to put more resources in place to fight prostitution and discourage johns from soliciting prostitutes.
"I like the aspect of this Bill 206," Lavoie said.
Bill 206 is a private member's bill by Calgary-Buffalo Conservative MLA Harvey Cenaiko, a former police inspector. It would give police the power to seize vehicles of men caught soliciting prostitutes for sex.
Art Sheeler, president of Forest Lawn's block watch, said communities are adamant about getting the bill implemented.
"The prostitution is the small part, but they drag in the other garbage when they come in here," he said.
Sheeler, who is part of a group organizing a "Take Back the Streets" march in June, said there was a drop in street prostitution when a law similar to Bill 206 was introduced in Winnipeg.
Cenaiko's bill, which received first reading in the legislature this week, has won the support of community leaders and politicians from all provincial parties.
Calgary aldermen added their voice Wednesday by pledging support to the bill.
Ald. Joe Ceci said the city is also looking into bylaws to help the city have a positive influence on the way communities look, "particularly homes that get rundown or get to be sources of problems in communities."
Those types of homes, he said, tend to get picked up by slum landlords and become drug or bawdy houses.
"It's that kind of thing, making sure there is a high level of community standards with regards to those kinds of things," Ceci said.
Communities for Awareness and Action of Prostitution Issues, a local group, asked for the city's support for the so-called broken window policy. Past-president Carol Potter said the policy focuses on improving neighbourhoods.
"If you start looking and facing the little issues, the big things will follow, along with community pride and ownership," she said. "That means if you've got a place . . . that is starting to go downhill, you cannot allow them to be boarded up for 20 years and say that is your problem, not the city's. We've got to start working with this right from Day 1."
She said while city police have done everything they legally can to curb prostitution, it it time for the rest of Calgary to take notice.
"The safety of our communities are at risk," she said. "When you have a four-year-old girl thinking that she has got yucky blood and it's her fault and she's getting needles in her stomach and her feet and all the rest, that's sad."
cderworiz@theherald.canwest.com
Source: The Calgary Herald (http://www.canada.com/calgary/news/story.asp?id={7C9C4A4C-157B-432F-AD61-5C524C93259B})