Pubdate: Mon, 20 Nov 2000
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2000
Contact:  http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/
Author: Cheryl Stepan

NO TREATMENT FOR 'GAS' KIDS

Sheshatshiu Chief Paul Rich says his desperate attempt to save dozens of 
gas-sniffing teens is in jeopardy because there are no treatment centres in 
the country that can help. "It's so shocking there's no place they can be 
accommodated for treatment," said the increasingly frustrated chief of this 
remote Innu community of 1,200 in central Labrador.

"It's shocking and it's embarrassing."

He said yesterday he was told by provincial government social workers there 
are no facilities in Canada that could handle detoxification specific to 
gas sniffing.

However, other reports indicate there are several places equipped to deal 
with solvent addictions, including a native residential treatment facility 
in London that helps gas sniffers.

Rich said the community doesn't know what it will do now.

He said they are looking into setting up a treatment centre for both 
parents and children at a nature retreat near Churchill Falls, Labrador.

Last week, a team of social workers was dispatched to Sheshatshiu following 
an urgent appeal by Rich to pull 39 gas-sniffing kids from the village and 
take them to detox centres for treatment. They have all been assessed by 
social workers as needing help.

Rich said 14 of them might be taken to a building in nearby Goose Bay as 
soon as possible just to get them away from the gas and keep them from 
killing themselves.

But none of this will be decided until today or possibly tomorrow when more 
emergency meetings are held between the government and Sheshatshiu leaders.

Rich said he knew something drastic had to be done when the sight of 
gas-sniffing children became a regular part of the landscape -- even in 
broad daylight.

He was not exaggerating. Groups of kids even stand outside a temporary safe 
house in the community, unabashedly inhaling fumes from drooping bags of 
gas in plain view of the support staff who've been hired to help them.

He said leaders would be comfortable with a local approach, even though 
they had called on the government to take the kids away.

"These are solutions we've wanted for a long time but we were ignored," he 
said. "It's so sad we have to beg for help."

Many people here feel the gas sniffers are part of a generation of children 
forsaken by their parents, who themselves have been ravaged by the effects 
of alcohol, poverty and unemployment.

Just two generations ago, these Innu were nomadic hunters who thrived on 
the land. Their adjustment to community living and the modern world has 
been sudden and harsh.

Though most still speak Innu -- the children who remain in school are 
partly educated in their native tongue -- some feel their identity has been 
wiped out over the past 40 years.

"We need to teach young people about Innu culture, strengthen Innu 
culture," said John Ashini, whose son committed suicide last year after 
battling a solvent addiction.

"(Now) there's no future. There's no hope at all."

Rich said the proposed family treatment centre would allow parents and kids 
to return to their roots by hunting and fishing together.

"The cultural awareness is very important, plus they won't feel the (gas 
sniffing) pressure of the community."

Linda Penunsi has been sniffing gas since she was nine. The 17-year-old 
blames drunk and inattentive parents for the problem of children turning to 
the hallucinogenic world of gas sniffing.

She said her dad was never around and her mom never listened to her.

"My friends sniff gas because they get mad at their parents because their 
parents are drinking and playing bingo and they come home at two in the 
morning," the shy teen whispered.

Compounding that problem, Chief Rich said, is that many of the parents 
don't realize they might need help themselves.

Lionel Rich, a 44-year-old father of 14 children, has two gas-sniffing kids 
who could be taken away for treatment. He has caught one of them, a 
13-year-old boy, trying to hang himself three times.

Earlier this year, his 11-year-old son died after being consumed by flames 
while sniffing gas and playing with a lighter.

Emerging from an afternoon drinking party, he said he doesn't see the gas 
sniffing as "a big issue" and thinks the chief is wrong to ask for outside 
help.

"It's not right to take the kids away," he said, his breath heavy with the 
smell of alcohol.

He thinks they should be treated in the community, but the local treatment 
centre only has 12 beds and can't keep unwilling children if they want to bolt.

The Innu are not status Indians and, therefore, the band doesn't have the 
authority under the Indian Act to take the children into protective custody.

Without being questioned, Lionel Rich was quick to defend his parenting 
skills. "I'm a good parent. I see them every day. The kids are not 
neglected by parents."

But others, like Germaine Rich, who also has a gas-sniffing son, are 
anxious for the assistance.

"We're worried about our young kids," said the grandmother of 16.

The community has hired 16 support workers to watch over the kids to make 
sure they don't harm themselves. Taking away the gas would be futile 
because they would just go and get more.

An adult counselling centre has been turned into a safe house for the kids 
to get warm, have a bite to eat and sleep so they don't have to spend the 
night in the woods if they choose not to go home.

Chief Rich said at least now, there is hope.

"To keep the hope alive is very important to these kids."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D