B.C. woman suing province, saying she was forced into the sex trade while a teen in foster care

This photo shows the courthouse in Prince George, B.C. (Credit: provincialcourt.bc.ca)

A woman who says she was forced into the sex trade as a teen while in the care of the B.C. government is suing the province, alleging that no action was taken to ensure her safety after she reported the exploitation.

The Notice of Civil Claim was filed in Prince George on April 18. No response has been filed and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

Court documents say the woman, whom CTV News is not naming because she is a victim of sexual violence, was taken into foster care in 1999 when she was 15. Soon after, she was moved from a group home for teenagers to a shelter for adult women. While there, she was allegedly introduced to people who "operated a prostitution enterprise" out of a home in the city where the teen went to live, according to the claim.

"The criminals, through a combination of using drugs, alcohol and various means of coercion, violence and threats, forced the plaintiff into a life of prostitution and drug use," the claim continues.

None of the individuals are identified in the court documents, but the claim says they were criminally charged and convicted for, among other things, living off the avails of prostitution.

Court documents say the teen told employees with the province's Ministry of Children and Family Development about what she was being subjected to on "multiple occasions" and asked to be removed from the home.

This did not happen.

"The plaintiff fell into a devastating life of addiction, violence and prostitution, until she was in her early 20s, at which time, after a period of incarceration, she was able to recover from that lifestyle, and is now no longer consuming drugs or alcohol," according to the claim.

The allegations of negligence include a failure to ensure the teen was in a safe environment where she was "free from sexual assault" and a failure to investigate or intervene when workers learned the 15-year-old "had been sexually used and assaulted."

According to the court documents, the harm and injury caused by the ministry's negligence have included post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide attempts, panic attacks, insomnia, and an eating disorder.

"The plaintiff has suffered and will continue to suffer pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life," the claim says.

The amount of damages sought is not specified.

HEIGHTENED VULNERABILITY

While the court filing tells the story of one case in one city decades ago, B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth says youth in the foster care system remain at a heightened risk of sexual exploitation.

"There's no question about that," Jennifer Charlesworth told CTV News before elaborating on some of the reasons why this is the case, stressing that young people should never be blamed or stigmatized for their own vulnerability, which is often borne of trauma and compounded by the experience of being taken into or placed in government care, where neglect and abuse can and do occur.

"Young people are, in essence, seeking what every young person needs: a sense of belonging and being valued. And unfortunately, there are people who prey upon that. So the risk of exploitation definitely goes up in that regard," she says.

The representative's office released a study on reported incidents of sexualized violence committed against children and youth in care in 2016.

"Overall, the findings of this review can only be described as disturbing. Children and youth in government care are more vulnerable to incidents of sexualized violence than their peers who are not in care," the report's summary said, while also noting that some children and youth were more vulnerable than others and that the true number of cases is likely much higher than the reported number of cases.

A case review found that the vast majority of victims were female and 61 per cent were Indigenous girls and teens. Further, it found that 50 per cent of all victims reported problematic substance use and 70 per cent had a diagnosed or suspected mental health issue. Forty per cent had been shuffled between multiple placements, some as many as 30 times.

This information aligned with what Charlesworth said, which is that broader, often overlapping personal and systemic factors contribute to and exacerbate the vulnerability of children and youth in care.

"It's never just sexual violence or exploitation. It's always a constellation of things and that's where the system struggles, the system struggles to deal with complexity," she said.

"It's increasing in terms of what we're seeing, it is significant in terms of what we're seeing, but we can't look at that in isolation of what else has happened, and what that child's story has been."