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April 14 2008
JFG writes to national newspaper about experiences of girls who testify against violent men
Read the Letter to the Editor...
March 6 2008
JFG on CBC Sounds Like Canada about age of consent/sex abuse law
Listen to interview...
December 2007
JFG speaks on Co-op Radio about abuse of girls in BC jails
Listen to the interview...
November 2007
JFG presents to BC Teachers Federation about prostitution
Watch forum...
November 2007
United Nations Special Rapporteur blasts Canada for homelessness
Read UN press release...
Read JFG submission to the Rapporteur...
September 2007
Former Judge David Ramsay denied Parole
Read letter to editor...
Read more...
July & August2007
Youth Prison subjects teen girls to breast & gynecological exams during court ordered psych assessments
Read press release...
Write the Minister...
Read more...
See Prisoner Justice Day speech...
April 2007
Senate Committee on Human Rights recommends that youth prisons stop jailing girls with boys
Read our statement to the Committee...
Read Committee's Report...
 Justice for Girls Report
finds abuse of girls in BC Prisons
Read the press release...
Read the report...
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Justice for Girls is a non-profit
organization that promotes freedom from violence, social justice and equality for
teenage girls who live in poverty.
Canadian girls face disturbingly high rates of violence. Male violence is a daily reality for homeless young women. On the
street young women are subjected to constant verbal, physical and sexual violence. Girls who 'panhandle' and 'squeegy' for money face every kind of physical and verbal assault. Day to day they are
touched, poked, prodded, fondled, forcibly kissed, spat on, pelted with objects (such as
cigarette butts), grabbed, pushed, punched, and kicked. Girls who are sexually abused through prostitution are most vulnerable to all forms of violence including murder. Men who abuse girls on the street-"johns", passers-by, boyfriends, police, bar patrons-
rarely, if ever face consequences for their attacks on homeless teenage girls.
As a result of racist child welfare practices and colonial destruction of
Indigenous communities, Indigenous girls make up a large percentage of teenage girls in
poverty including homeless girls. Indigenous girls are subjected to extreme rates of violence and
constitute a shocking number of murder and suicide victims in British Columbia. Justice for Girls has observed that men who commit the most serious sexual violence against multiple teenage girls very often choose Indigenous girls as their targets. We understand these to be hate motivated acts of sexual violence.
Whether it is past sexual abuse at home or in government care, rape by a current
boyfriend, or repeated sexual exploitation and abuse by "johns", the
effects of sexual violence against girls are severe and cummulative. In addition to
physical injuries, girls experience chronic anxiety, panic attacks, depression, emotional numbness,
flash-backs, sleep and eating disturbances, gastro-intestinal disorders, and more. In
order to cope, young women sometimes use drugs, live "on the run," harm
and mutilate their own bodies, act out anger on other girls, or attempt or
commit suicide.
Low-income and homeless teenage girls need the safety of housing and services that
are for girls only. Given the level of male violence that
young women face and their marginalization through poverty, systemic racism, and other forms
of oppression, programs and services for girls must respond to the compounding effects of multiple forms of
oppression and repeated male violence.
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