JMJ
March 05,2011
Now class, turn to page 170 in your Gormley text. Read to yourself to p.174 . Sorry , not acceptable for public reading. Let’s freeze frame this sentence for a moment.: “ Called the Boom Boom, this bedroom was a busy place for Bomek and young aboriginal men he’d befriended from remote Northern Saskatchewan towns.” This is where we ask the questions. These four pages explain how a judge regularly used young men for sexual purposes.
How old were these young men? The age of consent for homosexual acts is 18 years. How did this criminal Bomak recruit these boys for the judge? With gifts of drugs? With promises of acquitalls? Has this or is this going on in our courts in northern Saskatchewan? Is this going on among high paying civil servants in La Ronge who are using boys for sexual purposes? These questions are rhetorical and easily answerable to many Northerners. It would be good if people from other places would demand answers.
I first became aware of this practice the first time that we went to court on behalf of a young man. A friend had braided his hair with beads knowing that this would impress the judge. I thought that it was a very strange way to appear in court. We were very naive then. The boy was not sent to jail and there appeared to be no reason except an acceptable process. This judge has not been in the circuit for some time.
We have been told emphatically that boys are used for sexual purposes in La Ronge by high ranking government people including those involved in the court process. We are NOT saying or implying that every judge or government official is doing this.
We have watched boys being used as payment to get adult relatives off the hook for serious crimes. Gormley’s book is a history or current events book. Some, including me, may disagree on some alleged facts or opinions. But this book is not a make- up sensational story. What is surprising to Northerners is that someone is actually describing the kind of corruption that we have experienced for years. For some it is generations. Could it actually be that eventually people will take seriously the scandalous behaviour in the North?
Our young men are being used like this because they have no advocate. Who are they going to tell? A legal aid lawyer? A policeman? Not likely. If we want our young people protected we have got to make it abundantly clear that this is not acceptable. We have to make it clear that it is not acceptable in home communities. We also have to make it clear that this is morally wrong for anyone including themselves.
We got Gormley’s book in Coles in Prince Albert. Maybe a store in La Ronge should be selling them.
Read on. Gay
