Students and residents heard from fellow Rupertites about the importance of making the right choices in life and what can happen when you head down the wrong path during the Whispers in the Wind conference on April 23.
The conference addressed issues such as addictions, abuse, gang activity and street life, aiming to inspire youth to make positive choices in their lives. Throughout the day speakers from the North Coast talked about their own experience with addiction and gang life, hoping to illustrate the impact it has had and how they overcame it.
The first to speak was Prince Rupert's Vern Barker who, after living a life filled with substance abuse and violence, turned his life around for the better four years ago. As a child in Greenville, Barker and his brother would be left alone while his mother was out drinking. Barker and his brother were moved to a place where they were victims of sexual and physical abuse.
"It was an ugly feeling," Barker said of the sexual abuse he endured, adding the physical abuse was harder to handle.
As Barker grew older, he began to drink and do drugs to escape the pain and ended up in jail at 18. In his early 20s, Barker had his first two children, who he admits to abandoning like his mother did to him.
"I couldn't see myself amount to anything, or even living for that matter," Barker said.
The self-destructive path Barker was on led him down to Vancouver, where he wound up living on Hastings Street addicted to heroin and cocaine. Barker recalls doing anything he needed to for drugs, including beating people up with bats and breaking legs for money.
The violence was turned around on him when a group of people he considered friends attacked him for something he didn't do. Barker said he thought he was going to die, but instead they let him go. He then returned to Greenville, where he said he finally felt accepted. Around that time he decided to go to a treatment centre and met his wife.
Barker has been sober for four years now and has had two more children, this time supporting them in every way he can.
“Everything I do is for other people now... This is just the beginning for me... I’m going to help people help themselves,” Barker, who went back to Northwest Community College to complete his education, said at the conference.
The second speaker was Prince Rupert’s Samantha Jackson, who grew up witnessing her mother be abused by her father and ended up following that path until a few years ago.
Jackson’s mother and siblings moved to Prince Rupert to escape the abuse and to keep her children under a roof and fed. She had to get multiple jobs, which meant the children had to raise themselves.
When Jackson began high school she began becoming interested in boys, and started dating an older boy who brought her to a lot of parties. Jackson eventually became pregnant with his baby, and even though she stopped partying he did not. The two were preparing to go to Jackson’s seven month check up when they began to argue. Jackson tried to walk out the door, but her boyfriend blocked it and punched her in the arm.
Although the two split up shortly after their baby was born, that wasn’t the last time Jackson would be the victim of domestic violence. Jackson started dating a 34-year-old, who was jealous of her relationship with her daughter. After an argument, Jackson approached his parents and talked to them about their issues. This angered her then-boyfriend, who ended up attacking Jackson.
“I thought my daughter was going to wake up and find my lifeless body on the stairs, and then she was going to be alone,” Jackson said.
Jackson forgave her boyfriend, and the two ended up conceiving a child. But the abuse didn’t end. Jackson said she almost lost their baby on a number of occasions during the pregnancy because of the beatings.
But today Jackson is single, and has full custody of both her children. She is planning to enroll in post-secondary school and keep her life on the right path.
“It’s difficult to break the cycle of abuse, but you can do it,” she said.
The third speaker was Const. Matt Ericson of the Prince Rupert RCMP. Despite his past involvement with gangs as a youngster, today Ericson is the community liaison at the local detachment, a position that allows him to work with youth in the community.
“I get to work on the positive side of policing... I can’t wait to go to work in the morning,” he said.