JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF THE
CAMP TRAPPING EXPERIENCE

by

Alan Huggett
B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1986

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April 2012

© Alan Huggett, 2012

1+1

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JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

ji

Abstract
Using an autoethnographic method the author explores key issues in his experience working
at Camp Trapping, a wilderness based group care programme for male young offenders
situated in central British Columbia. Personal experiences, as well as interview quotes from
staff members and adult graduates of the programme, are used to highlight social, political
and practice aspects of working in such a setting. Key concepts reflected upon are the
presence or absence of continual compassionate care, factors associated with youth crime,
masculinity, wilderness programming, group care settings, and the punitive turn in social
welfare and corrections approaches in Canada. These concepts are looked at in a broad social
context as well as how programme delivery is affected on a personal level. The author asserts
that Camp Trapping provides marginalized youth a unique experience that encourages prosocial personal development. The Camp Trapping experience also contributes to the author's
personal and professional development.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

iii

Table of Contents
Abstract

ii

Table of Contents

iii

List of Figures

vi

Acknowledgements

viii

Dedication

ix

Chapter 1: Journey Through the Wilds: An Autoethnography of the Camp
Trapping Experience
Rationale
Research Question and Aims

1
7
7

Chapter 2: A Brief Description of Camp Trapping
History of Camp Trapping
Philosophical Approach
Contract Description
Physical Facility
Therapeutic Model
Staff Team
Routines and Structure
Programmed Activities

9
9
10
12
13
15
18
19
22

Chapter 3: Researcher's Stance
My Biases
Social Location
Reflexivity
Personal History

27
28
30
32
33

Chapter 4: Methodology
Myth of objectivity
"
The Autoethnographic Method
Procedures
Data Sources
Image-based Data
Documentary Data
Reflexivity
Triangulation
Knowledgeable Participant Interviews
Sample
Interviews
Transcriptions

42
42
43
47
48
48
49
50
51
52
53
53
54

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Narratives
Analysis and Interpretation
Receiving Research Approval: Kafka Revisited
Thesis Limitations

iv

55
55
56
61

Chapter 5: Factors Associated with Youth Crime
Risk and Protective Factors
Working with At-Risk Youth
Oppression's Role in Youth Violence
Social Determinants of Health

63
63
69
73
78

Chapter 6: The Punitive Turn
History of Social Welfare in Canada
Rise of Neo-Liberal Approaches to Social Issues
Youth Justice History in C anada
Two Philosophical Approaches to Crime
Increasingly Punitive

83
85
89
90
95
96

Chapter 7: Masculinity
Pain and Pain-Based Behaviour
Protest Masculinity

104
105
108

Chapter 8: The Group Care Context
Group-Care Settings
Therapeutic Milieu
Congruence
Dealing with Pain and Pain-Based Behaviours
Effects of staff Unresolved Personal Issues
A Sense of Order and Structure
Staff Personal Development

115
115
116
119
120
121
123
124

Chapter 9: Wilderness Programming
Camp Trapping as a Wilderness Programme
Defining Wilderness
Wilderness as Healer
Wilderness Recreation in the Canadian Experience
The Effect Wilderness Programmes have on Youth
Trust and Risk

126
127
129
132
137
139
145

Chapter 10: Conclusion

150

References

155

Appendix A: Cariboo Action Training Society Photograph Permission Letter

163

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

V

Appendix B: Data Sources/ Participant Sampling/Validity, Credibility, Rigor,
Trustworthiness Matrix

164

Appendix C: Participant Information and Consent to Participate Form

165

Appendix D: Interview Protocol

168

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

vj

List of Figures
Figure 1 Lone Merganser

ix

Figure 2 Data Sources/ Participant Sampling/Validity, Credibility, Rigor,
Trustworthiness Matrix

5

Figure 3 Bruce Hawkenson Outside the Fort St. James Probation Office, 1971

10

Figure 4 Camp Trapping Bunkhouse

13

Figure 5 The Sauna as Seen From the Dock

14

Figure 6 John's Kindling Pile. Twenty-Two Years Prior to the Interview

17

Figure 7 Summer Sunset Viewed Behind the Bunkhouse at Camp Trapping

21

Figure 8 Nation Lakes Canoe Trip

24

Figure 9 Sauna Dunk Hole in Winter

26

Figure 10 "Just Ignore that One. It's Unscientific." Nick Anderson (n.d.)

30

Figure 11 Edith LeVack Wedding Photo. August 23,1916

34

Figure 12 Arthur and Maijorie Huggett Wedding Day. July 10,1944

36

Figure 13 St. Luke's Anglican Church, Victoria, B.C.

37

Figure 14 My Flower of Power

40

Figure 15 Arctic Lake at Sunset. Looking North from the Campsite

85

Figure 16 Marsh Report (1943) Diagram of the Proposed Social Welfare System 86
Figure 17 The Overall Rate (per 100,000 youth age 12 to 17) of Youth Court
Judges Imposing Custody in Canada and the US (1997)

91

Figure 18 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). (September 22, 2008)

97

Figure 19 Prince George Responses to a News Article

98

Figure 20 "Lineup". Clay Bennett Cartoon (n.d.)

100

Figure 21 Advertisement for the movie Semi-Pro Starring Will Ferrell

104

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

vii

Figure 22 Morning at Nazko Lakes Provincial Park Looking North on
TanilkulLake

131

Figure 23 The Thrill of Catching a Fish

133

Figure 24 Approaching Charity Peak in the Ozalinka Valley,
West of McBride, BC

135

Figure 25 A Dark-Eyed Junco Takes Flight in the Morning at the Arctic Lake
Campsite. Looking North Towards Arctic Creek and the Parsnip River

136

Figure 26 A Group of Students at Sunset on Arctic Lake West of Bear Lake

143

Figure 27 Watching a Yummy Backcountry Dessert being Made

144

Figure 28 Canoe tripping

149

Figure 29 Anything is Possible!

154

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

viii

Acknowledgements
There are many people who have contributed to the writing of this thesis. Dr. Si Transken
served as my thesis supervisor. I am grateful for her encouragement, assistance and
suggestions. Drs. Dave Sangha, Robert Budde and Scott Green comprised my defence
committee and, with Dr. Tina Fraser as committee chair, made my defence a relatively
painless and memorable occasion.
My wife, Sandra Huggett and our wonderful daughters, Lia and Kimberly, put up with
many hours of my taking time to write as well as my angst in trying to meet yet another
soon-to-be-missed deadline. Through it all we still found time to go tobogganing, jumping on
the trampoline, bike-riding, reading stories and the other activities of being a family. Thank
you for your support and for making sure there was play time. Love Ya!
My sisters Edith and Margaret have shared much of the journey through time as I have
described about my family background in Chapter 3. Thank you for being with me on the
journey.
Block periods of time to just lock myself in the computer room and write were very
precious. My in-laws, Ralph and Elsie Gardner, gave a gift of time, which allowed me an
opportunity to get large pieces of the thesis written. This was much appreciated.
There are many people I have worked with over the years at Camp Trapping who have
left an indelible impression on me, both personally and professionally. Daryl Goll has been
both a mentor and a friend. He provided me with a solid foundation for working with youth
as well as trusted me implicitly to lead hundreds of youth on wilderness adventures. The
many experiences we have shared over the years are a big part of this thesis.
Others who encouraged me in the writing of this thesis were Steve Laing, Glen Laliberte,
Josh Van der Meer, Jason Fanshaw, Daryl Tom, Susie Unger, Bob Lasure, and Bryce
Gladdish. Geraldine Penhale and Eleanor Ecklin as always fielded many phone calls and
helped me to track people down. To you all, thank-you.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

ix

Dedication
Dedicated to my father, Arthur Huggett, who taught me to learn and imparted to me a love
of language; To my mother, Maijorie, for her strength, wisdom, caring and compassion; To
my brother David, who planted seeds in me at an early age about social justice and who
introduced me to nature and adventure.
To Bruce Hawkenson, who founded Camp Trapping in 1971. Forty years ago who would
have imagined that Camp Trapping would have given hundreds of marginalized yet resilient
youth so many experiences for so many years?
And, of course, to the hundreds of youth that have attended Camp Trapping while I
worked there. I hope that you learnt as much from me as I have from you.

Figure 1.

Lone Merganser

NOTE. All photographs copyright of Cariboo Action Training Society (CATS) unless
otherwise indicated. Reprinted with permission. See Appendix A.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

1

Chapter 1: Journey Through the Wilds: An Autoethnography of the Camp Trapping
Experience
For over twenty years I have worked with young men in trouble with the law. For a
majority of that time I was involved in an administrative role for Camp Trapping a group
care programme with a wilderness excursion component. Over this time I have learnt much
about working with young offenders. My own experiences, as well as much of the research
literature, with working with criminal behaviour emphasizes the need for treating offenders
with respect and dignity in order to build strong relationships, mutual understanding and a
sense of belonging in order to affect positive changes in individuals. If society expects
offenders to treat people with respect those working with offenders, as well as the
community and society of which those offenders are a part, must, ethically, show the
offender that which is expected. To be punitive and harsh in judgment and treatment is not
congruent to what is being asked of the offender, which is to desist from criminal behaviour.
Young offenders, in particular, are strongly affected by the environment in which they are
surrounded. In a majority of situations for the youth I have worked with there are significant
deficits in the provision of continuous compassionate care that children need and desire.
These deficits in such care greatly increase risk of criminal offending and risks to one's
mental and physical health, education, employment, social situation and even to life itself.
The dominant current social and political means of addressing crime and dealing with
young offenders is a "get tough", punitive approach. This desire for punishment rather than
rehabilitation is driven, to a large part, by political ideology and expedience. Public
perceptions of crime and criminals are mediated through popular culture and mainstream
news media. Many of these sources tend to focus on extreme, more sensational singular
events and more often than not provide little to no substantive, unbiased analysis of events.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

2

Even in times, such as the present, when crime rates are dropping, including the murder rate,
public perceptions have continued to be that crime is "out of control". Such moral panics
create a demand that politicians do something. Unfortunately, in our current Canadian
political climate that "doing something" is becoming increasingly counter-productive. It is
counter-productive to the offenders, their families, their communities and our society. Such a
negative approach goes against what I have learnt from working with young offenders for
over 20 years. It is also opposite to what much research over the past several decades has
shown to be effective in preventing and reducing crime and successfully rehabilitating
offenders.
Young offenders, like all youth in our society, need continuous compassionate care.
Treating them any other way serves only to alienate and further marginalize such male young
offenders. To be punitive prevents the youth from trusting in positive adult role models and
increases the defences that they have already built around themselves to provide protection
from further pain.
Perry and Szalavitz (2006) write,
Ultimately, what determines how children survive trauma, physically, emotionally, or
psychologically, is whether the people around them, particularly the adults they should
be able to trust and rely upon, stand by them with love, support and encouragement.
Fire can warm or consume, water can quench or drown, wind can caress or cut. And
so it is with human relationships: we can both create and destroy, nurture and
terrorize, traumatize and heal each other (p. 5).
Almost without exception once you learn the history of the youth that I have worked with
you can see the logic in their behaviours. The absence of caring compassionate adults in the

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

3

lives of the youth comes in many forms. It can be through alcohol and drug addiction, sexual,
physical, emotional abuse, neglect, parental mental health concerns, poverty, racism and a
myriad of other familial and social afflictions that teach children that adults are not a source
of safety, protection and comfort.
Anglin (2002) writes about the pain-based behaviours that youth who come from an
environment of an absence of continuous compassionate care exhibit:
The term "pain-based behaviour" has been coined to remind us that so-called "actingout" behaviour and internalizing processes such as "depression are very frequently the
result of a triggering of this internalized pain. Perhaps more than any other dimension
of the carework task, the ongoing challenge of dealing with such primary pain without
unnecessarily inflicting secondary pain experiences on the residents through punitive
or controlling reactions can be seen to be the central problematic for the carework
staff (Anglin, 2002, p. 55).
The more I have worked with young offenders, the more I believe that the responses that
we as a society have around issues of poverty, education, abuse, addictions, equality and
caring for others, among other things, reflects back in the behaviours of our children and
youth. Issues of crime and criminal justice extend beyond the simplistic and punitive and
individualistic approaches often espoused to deal with crime and criminals. The punitive
approach has been shown to not be effective at preventing crime nor does it provide a
meaningful consequence from which the offender, their victims, and society, will benefit.
(Audit Commission [UK], 1996; Milewski, 2011, October 17; United States Surgeon
General, 2001; Waller, 2008).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

4

This thesis is an examination of my work with youth in a wilderness-based full-time
attendance programme called Camp Trapping. Using an autoethnographic method I will
employ stories from my own time while working at Camp Trapping to explore wider issues
concerning youth crime and justice. Throughout the thesis examples of my experiences of
working with youth will be used to illustrate that Camp Trapping is a model for holding
youth accountable for their actions yet at the same time providing continuous compassionate
care. Personal stories and excerpts from interviews with people I have worked with will be
used conjunctively with material from research literature and a variety of other sources.
These stories will take the reader from macro to micro levels to provide personal insights into
youth justice as seen in the work done at the unique group-care setting that is Camp
Trapping. Such stories and quotes are shaded and written in italics to set them off from the
main text.
The following chart graphically demonstrates the method by which I applied
autoethnography and the sources of information used in the research and writing of this
thesis.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Interview Data

Participant Selection
o Purposive sample
o Knowledgeable participants
o Wide cross section/variety of
participants
o Must have been at Camp
during my tenure

/^Interview Process
o Semi-structured individually
conducted format
o Member checking of
transcription aocuracy and
interpretation
o Analysis; finding themes and
narrative details

Participants
Probation Officers
Staff
o PG (xl)
Presently employed (x2)
Past employees (6)
Counsellors (x7)
Aboriginal & adult
Students
graduate (x2)
Aboriginal (x2)
Male (x8)
Local
(PG) (North)
Female (xl)
<x2)
Cook (xl)
Teacher (xl)
Programme Coordinator (xl)
Executive Director (xl)

Multiple Data Sources/Social Artifacts
o
o
o
o

Documentary data
Image-based data
Literature
Social/Cultural artifacts

Memory Data
literature
Immersion
Insider
Researcher/participant
observation
Field notes
Self-reflexivity

Social Validity & Interrelation
Checks

Figure 2

Data Sources/ Participant Sampling/
Validity, Credibility, Rigor, Trustworthiness Matrix

The following story of Tom (Pseudonym) is a tragic example of much of what the youth
that are in trouble with the law, and who attend Camp Trapping, experience. This story
demonstrates the absence as well as the presence of supportive and caring adults. Though an

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WELDS

6

extreme example the issues presented by Tom's story are not uncommon. The trauma and
pain endured by Tom and his attempts to deal with his experiences are similar in many ways
to a majority of the youth with whom I have worked.

Tom1
Just prior to Tom arriving at Camp Trapping he had disclosed about being sexually
abused by a male relative. This disclosure was the result ofa supportive and caring foster
parent who felt strongly for Tom. Arriving at Camp, Tom was initially reticent to trust staff.
After shared experiences and demonstrated caring Tom came to trust the staff and many staff
had a strong level of rapport with him. The staffprovided continual encouragement to Tom
about his difficult decision to disclose and to testify in court against his abuser. In the third
month of his stay at Camp Tom was accompanied by the Executive Director to Tom's home
community a few hours drive from Camp. Tom proceeded to give testimony in the closed
courtroom. After testifying he emergedfeeling proud of what he had done and looking like a
great weight had been liftedfrom his shoulders. The judge heard all of the arguments and
after some deliberation issued a verdict. The judge declared that the testimony came down to
one person's word against another's and that he was unable to determine who was telling
the truth or not. The accused was pronounced not guilty. Outside the courthouse Tom's pain
was very much on display. He said, "I do the right thing and tell the truth and no one
believes me." He proceeded to swear, punch and kick buildings and he broke down and
cried. After calming down, Tom crawled into the vehicle and remained in a foetal position as
he returned to Prince George. During the remainder of his stay at Camp, Tom was obviously
deeply affected by his court experience. After he graduated from Camp, Tom lived for a while
with his foster placement until he became an adult. Tom's alcoholism became much more
pronounced. He lived around the streets ofPrince George for a few years, frequently
dropping by the office to say hello and to have a cup of coffee. When he was 25 years old
Tom was picked up one night for being drunk in a public place. While in the police 'drunk
tank'Tom hung and killed himself

Knowing Tom's history of abuse does not negate the illegal activities that he did which
brought him to Camp Trapping. I believe that not holding a youth accountable for their
actions does not help that youth. The knowledge of a painful past, marginalization or mental
health concerns should serve to tailor the correctional approach to acknowledge

'Pseudonyms have been substituted for the names of all the people interviewed for this thesis
and for the names of all youth mentioned in the narrative stories.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

7

that the youth is also a victim, and more often than not, their behaviours are their own means
of finding justice in an unjust world.
Rationale
The goal of this thesis is not to provide a detailed examination of the Camp Trapping
process itself. Using the autoethnographic method I will take my personal experiences of
working at Camp Trapping and, given a broader social context, provide interpretation and
analysis of that experience. The youth that attend the Camp Trapping programme are an
embodiment of many of the social issues that confront our society. It is hoped that this thesis
will provide the reader with insights into many aspects of youth crime and what it means to
work with such youth.
Research Question and Aims
To guide the thesis quest the research question is:
What does my own personal experiences of working at Camp Trapping have to say about the
broader social, legal and political context of working with male young offenders? The
following research aims are the purposes that I hope will be served by this thesis:
•

To reflect upon my Camp Trapping experience to find essential themes and
narratives that allow for analysis and interpretation in a broad social context.

•

To draw upon my experience of Camp Trapping to inform my future social work
practice.

•

To give voice to my experience so others can share in that experience and to
inspire, and collectively grow from that shared experience (McNiff, 1998).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

•

To provide a self-narrative that will help others to understand the origins and
nature of the pain and pain-based behaviours of young offenders and describe
how Camp Trapping addresses those behaviours.

•

To provide a rationale for the value of having alternatives to custody services,
such as Camp Trapping, that can adequately address the needs of male, young
offenders.

•

To build compassion for others and commitment to the transformation of
suffering (McNiff, 1998, p. 35).

8

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

9

Chapter 2: A Brief Description of Camp Trapping
"Helping one another to help oneself'
Camp Trapping motto (CATS, 2007)
This chapter will introduce how Cariboo Action Training Society's (CATS) Camp
Trapping came to be, what it aims to do and the means by which it seeks to achieve its goal
of providing a "safe, caring, structured environment promoting personal growth and positive
social interaction" (CATS, 2007). Hopefully the reader will gain an understanding of the
"mechanics" of everyday life at Camp Trapping from this description.
History of Camp Trapping
In 1971 Bruce Hawkenson quit his job as a youth probation officer and moved his young
family to a tract of land at the south end of Trapping Lake, 50 kilometres south of Prince
George, British Columbia. As a probation officer Hawkenson
"soon became frustrated and despondent over the probation department's inability
to pull its adolescent clients out of an increasing involvement in criminal life. The
boys he worked with would confidentially express confusion, fear and frustration with
their lives, often in direct contradiction to the bravado and enthusiasm for their
lifestyle that they would exhibit with their peers. They were not satisfied with their
lives but the corrections system could not offer them viable alternatives. Something,
Hawkenson thought, had to be done" (Northey, 1983, p. 10).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Figure 3

1Q

Bruce Hawkenson Outside the Fort St. James Probation Office, 1971

Such a programme would be between the two options of sending a youth to jail or to have the
youth remain in the community on probation.

Ted
Forty years after Hawkenson started Camp to address his concern of no resources to fit
between in-community andjail Ted described a similar lack of resources available to him as
a probation officer today. Ted: And so, it's a programme that it's hard to compare it against
anything else. You know, it's kind of like, if you have got a youth on your caseload that's a
male and you can somehow manufacture that you can make it through the Camp Trapping
part of that experience that you would be trying to do that. Like, I mean without Camp
Trapping, the alternative is jail, really, that's the bottom line. Is that young men that get in
trouble, they get a probation order and then they get some conditions on that order. If they
don't live up to those and stuff, without that potential Camp Trapping stop, it would be the
youth custody centre all the way. There's nothing in between.
Philosophical Approach
Hawkenson developed a philosophy and set of guiding principles that remains the core of
the theoretical approach of the programme to this day. This philosophy that has remained
constant over the years states, "I possess a lot of worth as an individual.

-1 have the ability

to discover potential qualities within myself - I can develop these by mental, physical and

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

spiritual exercise.

1\

- I can only maintain my growth and success as I share it with others"

(CATS, 2007).
The guiding principles were laid out as "general programme aims and objectives. These
include:
1. To develop the maturity level of the participants by exposing them to a wide range
of life responsibilities.
2. To increase the interest level of the participants in the world around them by
exposing them to a wide variety of experiences.
3. Improvement in the student's work and school habits through various programmes
designed to promote practical learning and social skill development.
4. To develop a healthy respect for the rights, privileges and feelings of others in the
students.
5. An opportunity for students to improve social skills and effective interaction
through cooperative group living.
6. Help the student to develop and clarify his own values and goals.
7. To increase the level of self-motivation by enhancing the student's self-image in
terms of achieving and recognizing success (CATS, 2007).
The experience of participating in the day-to-day routines of life at Camp Trapping is the
means through which these above objectives are met. The quiet wilderness setting removes
the concerns of a more hectic urban life and forces the participants, youth and staff alike, to
interact with each other and the environment in which they inhabit. Positive adult role
models are involved in all aspects of the youths' lives while at Camp and serve to
demonstrate expectations and guide behaviours.

The context of the Camp Trapping

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

12

experience is what makes it work for the youth. Over time Camp Trapping evolved and grew
but this basic philosophy and approach, as laid out by Hawkenson, has remained constant.

Duke
Well, I mean, to be an effective counselor at Camp Trapping, I think you have to have a
very special skill set, that includes embracing the lifestyle, number one, because of the live-in
nature of the program. So, understanding the philosophical backdrop, I think is really really
important and understanding why it is structured the way it is. I think bringing an
unconditional love for the work is important as well. It is difficult workfor skilled
practitioners in the first place, but I think you really need to have, as I have often referred to
it as, the affliction to help mechanism in your head. And11 think the lifestylei embracing the
lifestyle, the passion, the ability to be a good team member, which is again vital. As well as, I
think right up there with all of the other precepts is good communication. The ability to
communicate not only with the team, bit relate with the students that come to programme. I
think those are the nuggets that counselors require to be effective in the environment.
Contract Description
Cariboo Action Training Society (CATS) is the non-profit agency that oversees the
operation of Camp Trapping. Contracted with the British Columbia Ministry of Children and
Family Development (MCFD) the facility is a wilderness-based, full-time attendance
programme for male young offenders sentenced by the courts to attend as a condition of their
probation. It is considered a provincial resource with preference given to "northern" youth.
All of the youth, called "students" at the Camp, are "...selected on a variety of criteria, but
generally are individuals with multiple delinquencies, and are perceived to need a highly
structured programme, building self-esteem and individual responsibility" (CATS, 2007).

Ted
If it ain't broke, don'tfix it. It works. It doesn't need to change. It's got 40 years of history
that suggests that we are doing good things. It does good things for kids. From the ground
up, from the kids that go there, through the staff that work the frontline, through the staff that
work in the office, through the people that take time to refer kids there that are making fairly
- educated might not be the right word, but making fairly conscientious decisions about
referring a kid. Kids aren't referred to camp on a whim. They are referred there knowing that
camp has something to offer them, and it's something that you can give them. I guess the
bottom-line would be is that it works. Camp Trapping works.
The ages range between 12 and 19 with the average age being 15 years old. Every student

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

13

attends for 16 weeks. There is a staggered intake that means that half the group graduates
every eighth week. The capacity is 14 students at any given time. Given this arrangement
Camp Trapping sees, on average, 55 students per year attend the programme. This would
also mean that I have worked with, somewhat accounting for changes in the capacity
numbers in the 1990s, an estimated slightly more than 1000 youth.
The Physical Facility
The physical facility is situated about 50 kilometres south of Prince George. At the end of
a dirt road 6 kilometres off the highway, the camp is at the south end of Trapping Lake and is
surrounded by forest. The site consists of a 2500 square foot log bunkhouse, a 1500 square
foot schoolhouse, a woodshop, a kitchen building and assorted outbuildings.

Figure 4

Camp Trapping Bunkhouse

At the time of the writing of this thesis a new post and beam kitchen building is under
construction. The camp is a contrast of "new and modern", with electricity and high-speed

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

14

Internet connection to the school computers, and the "old and primitive" of wilderness living
such as wood heat in most buildings and an outhouse instead of flush toilets.

Chris and the Virtues of the Outhouse
[Camp] ...it's a simpler place, and it's away from a lot of the technologies that are
currently in our life that have positive and negative impacts on us. An example [of the
simpler life] is the outhouse. I think the outhouses out there are amazing. I don't think they
should go away. At first youth are disgusted by them and they can't believe that they arethey don't even know what this thing is and "where's the flasher?" They have to think about
where their waste goes. And they end up having to clean it [the stalls that is]. And they end
up having to smell the air when the pump truck comes, and things like that.
The sauna building mentioned earlier is the primary source for washing and involves hauling
buckets of water from, as well is jumping in, the lake at all times of the year in order to
"shower".

Figure 5

The Sauna as seen from the Dock

In addition to the Camp there is an administrative office located in downtown Prince George.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

15

Therapeutic Model
As the Camp Trapping programme matured the therapeutic model was more formally
articulated. Prince George psychiatrist Dr. Gordon England was consulted to more fully
integrate the existing behaviour management performance charts with the Camp Trapping
aims, goals, philosophy, and process, as outlined by Hawkenson. This tailor-made behaviour
management model continues in use today. This system is a combination of behaviour
modification methods. The core theory is that of William Glasser's (William Glasser
Institute, 2010a) Reality Therapy approach. This approach works from the premise that all
behaviour is purposeful and is intended to meet the five basic human needs of ".. .survival,
love and belonging, power, freedom and fun" (William Glasser Institute, 2010b). The basic
tenets of Reality Therapy can be summarized as,
To create a connection between people, the reality therapy counselor, teacher or
manager will:
•

Focus on the present...

•

Avoid discussing symptoms and complaints as much as possible....

•

.. .Focus on what the counselees can do directly - act and think. Spend less time on
what they cannot do directly; that is change their feelings and physiology. Feelings
and physiology can be changed, but only if there is a change in the acting and
thinking.

•

Avoid criticizing, blaming and/or complaining and help counselees to do the same.
By doing this, they learn to avoid some extremely harmful external control
behaviours that destroy relationships.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

•

16

Remain non-judgmental and non-coercive, but encourage people to judge all they are
doing by the ...axiom: Is what I am doing getting me closer to the people I need? If
the choice of behaviours is not working, then the counselor helps the clients find new
behaviours that lead to a better connection.

•

Teach counselees that legitimate or not, excuses stand directly in the way of their
making needed connections.

•

Focus on specifics....

•

Help them make specific, workable plans to reconnect with the people they need, and
then follow through on what was planned....

•

Be patient and supportive but keep focusing on the source of the problem - the
disconnectedness (William Glasser Institute, 2010b).

John
John offered the following comments when he reflected on what Camp was like for him.
There were no guns and no bars on the window and everything like that. There were still
people there that controlled you. Like, not realty, not making you do this and do that. They
ask you. They sit there until you do. I remember sitting there and not doing nothing for three
hours, and then I sat there - stood there for six hours cutting kindlings.
Alan: I remember that. We had the stack about two or three feet high.
John: I remember sitting there for a couple of hours not doing nothing. They've got that
picture of me.
Alan: We will have to find that, huh? I'll have to do something to yourface, keep that out.
We'11 have to show that picture for the story.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

17

Figure 6 John's Kindling Pile. Twenty-Two Years Prior to the Interview,

John: Yeah. That's another turning point there, like nothing was going to happen until I did
something* Then I realized like, instead of [GARB] nobody is going to do nothing for you like my mom is not there to help me and my dad isnSo, and you guys made me do it. You
guys didn't force me to do anything like that. They sat there; they talked to me about it. That's
one thing that I liked about that part. They didn't tell you to do it. They didn't make you do it.
They stood there and talked to you until you did it. Like, sort of annoy you long enough to —
That's one thing that stuck out to me. That most of the — you guys, the workers there, how
you talked to us. You didn't treat us like a frigging delinquents like the way everybody else
did. The prosecutor and the court too. I was just a juvenile delinquent kid. He's going to
grow up to be a convict or whatever, and all of that. But, I didn't. That made an impact on
me, the way you guys treated me, not like a delinquent. That made a difference in my life.
Some of the things we did that was why we did it because we saw you guys doing it too,
eh? Like, you weren't just a jail guard, like stand there and make us do it. But, you guys got
in there and you did it with us. You sawed the wood. You used a chainsaw and we would
pack it (the wood) out.
The programme has a high level of structure with clear expectations given for all
activities. There are natural and logical consequences for all behaviours. The successful
meeting of expectations is recorded by staff on a 12-point daily performance chart. This chart
is shown to each student every evening. The students earn "points" towards rewards. This is
known as a "token economy system". The "consequences " of meeting expectations are an

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

1g

increasing level of rewards.

Chris
On discussing the differences between punishment and consequences Chris states,
A positive punishment. So, I mean, at camp we use the word "consequence" and the
difference always in my mind was a consequence is a reaction to a behavior that's intended
to change a behavior, but it's not intended to change a behavior with the involvement of pain
and with the person who is giving the consequence isn't getting any sort ofpleasure from that
either. That to me is the difference between inflicting pain, or inflicting a consequence and
inflicting a punishment, a pain~based kind of punishment.
These positive consequences of meeting programme expectations hopefully outnumber
negative consequences by a ratio of at least 4:1. There are many formal and informal rewards
for doing well. Town-trips, music-night, free time, sleep-in, allowance, and higher graduation
status are the main formal, tangible rewards. Informal, intangible rewards include less stress
and conflicts with staff and peers, greater levels of trust, and a greater say in the daily
operations of the group. As the students progress through the Camp Trapping process they
gain greater autonomy over their own performance as they prove that they can meet the
expectations. The goal is not to keep external controls, the rewards and consequences, as the
motivator, but to have the students achieve self-control, or internalization, of their own
behaviours.

Toby
Consistent, consistent. The rewards and consequences. Predictable. And the
security of the structure and the routine of Camp, I think settles a lot of kids.
Staff Team
The staff team consists of 6 front-line "counsellors" that work in alternating shift teams of 3.
These teams work 7 days on, 7 off. They live at Camp for the full time they are on shift. This
shift pattern can be difficult for some staff but is critical in developing a high level of
involvement and close relationships with the students. There are also a cook/counselor, a
maintenance worker/counsellor a wood shop instructor and a teacher. These positions

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

19

generally work 4 days on 3 off and are expected to be fully integrated into all aspects of the
Camp life. A primary expectation of the staff is to "never ask a student to do something you
are not prepared to do yourself' (CATS, 2008, pp. 5-6) and to be involved in all aspects of
the programmme with the students.

Stuart
Ijust think I have become a better human being because of how I connected with those
kids out at Camp Trapping. And, when I was out at Camp Trapping, I usually worked on
myself as well. I was learning how to—I was going to Toast Masters. I was learning to
improve my public speaking skills. Accomplishing goals that I was setting for myself
Physical goals and academic goals. I think I finished my degree out there as well My
university degree, 1 think I did a few courses out there in the evenings. And, so I was always
trying to make myself better, and I felt like because I wanted to be a role model, I had extra
motivation because of those kids. I knew they were kind of watching, ami I wanted to show
them the way. Yeah. So, I would never ask the kids to do something that I wasn't willing to
do. If I sent the kids out into the woodpile for (misbehaving in) the school, as soon as school
was finished, I wouldjump out and run out there and get on the end of the saw and saw with
that kid. Cut fire- wood with him until he was finished his consequence.
In addition to these personnel there is a programme coordinator who provides staff
training, supervision, planning, support and is a conduit of information between the
programme and the circle of care of the youth in their home community. The programme
coordinator spends approximately 1 /3 of the work time at the camp. The administrative staff
includes the executive director who is intimately involved in the operations of the
programme as this is the sole programme operated by Cariboo action Training Society, a
part-time bookkeeper, and a part-time administrative assistant.

The Staff
I never had a favorite staff. Overall they were pretty neat people. One lady, she was a
leading horse trainer in Canada, and [another staff] climbed Canada's highest mountain
and stuff. They were pretty interesting people to me.
One youth from Camp Trapping quoted inAnglin, (2002, p. 102).
Routines and Structure
The routines and structure, that provide consistency and predictability, are firmly

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

20

anchored to the daily schedule. The schedule is a mix of physical and mental challenges.
Physical challenges come from a daily morning run, physical labour such as cutting and
splitting firewood and hauling wood in from the bush, as well as wilderness activities. Mental
challenges come from the school and woodshop programmes, the routine chores and the act
of living in a communal environment that demands cooperation with everyone present.
The weekday schedule is as follows:
6:45 AM

Rise and shine

7:00 AM

Calisthenics

7:10 AM

6 kilometre run

8:10 AM

Breakfast

8:40 AM

Chores

9:20 AM

Work/School

12:00 PM

Lunch

12:30 PM

Chores

1:10 PM

Work/School

4:00 PM

Sauna or group sessions (alternate days)

5:00 PM

Dinner

5:45 PM

Chores

6:30 PM

Scheduled programming; self improvement time and charts (individual counselling)

9:00 PM

Quiet time in bunkhouse (students work on individual logs or diaries)

10:00 PM

Lights out (CATS, 2007).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Figure 7

21

Summer Sunset Viewed Behind the Bunkhouse at Camp Trapping

Weekends are different as that is when the major rewards of town-trip and sleep-in occur as
well as visitations.

Michelle
Alan: What parts of the Camp Trapping programme seem to have the most impact on the
youth?
Michelle: You know what? There was so much that makes it a complete program. The run is
huge. The work program is huge, the routine. I don't think the routine gets enough credit in
terms of - you know, if you put any youth with ADHD into a program as structured as Camp,
or even to take away the diagnosis and to look at a kid that struggles with school. Hasn't
been successful. To put them in a routine like that, where they know exactly, pretty much
every minute of the day, where they need to be, what they are doing? You start to see success.
And then all of a sudden, the self-esteem goes up, and it could very well be that routine and
that structure. But, they have been struggling with the run, they now feeling successful in one
area; they can now put more effort and belief in themselves in the run area. So, it's — I think,
if you were to take out any aspect of camp, whether it's the wilderness component, the
structure and the routine, or the work program, or the run, it wouldn't be as effective,
because there are some kids, where that run is something that they never, ever, even
fathomed running a kilometer unless they were being chased. And, for all of a sudden for
them to complete a six-kilometer run, and then to complete a 15 kilometer run, that
confidence seeps into the rest of the camp program. And sometimes a kid doesn't have the
motivation to be successful in the work program, but they may start showing success in the
run, well that success seeps into the work program. It succeeds — you blow, they are feeling
good about themselves, the run, they go into the schoolhouse where they feel inadequate

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

22

every day, that seeps into it. I don't have any research basis to show it on, but if they start
being successful in one area of camp, the rest of it follows. There was very rarely a kid that
was successful, just say in the run, and then didn't start feeling more confident and more
comfortable, and when a kid feels more confident and more comfortable, they are less
aggressive and they are less prone to say explode or get upset over a minor thing. Whereas,
if they are feeling out ofplace in all areas, they are going to be more explosive.
Programmed Activities
Programme activities consist of a combination of physical and mental challenges. These
include manual tasks such as shoveling snow, hauling, cutting, splitting firewood, helping
with building maintenance as well as working on new building projects as needed. Weekdays
start with a morning run which is progressively developed to be a six-kilometre run.
Mondays everyone participates in a long run that again, progressively, builds up to sixteen
kilometres. Every two months there is a twenty-five-kilometre graduation run.
The school programme is done on a half-day rotation with half of the group attending
school in the morning and the other half of the group doing work programme or attending the
woodshop programme. The school curriculum is tied to the current grade level and abilities
of the student and aims to engage the students in wanting to learn. The woodshop provides
technical training that the students can apply to their school credits as well as encourages
creativity and artistic abilities.

Stuart
I would say a great deal of the students at camp had learning difficulties. Had major
problems in school and (at in the home community) there weren't any sort of support or
intervention for them, and if there was it was not helpful, or not beneficial for the kid. Most
of them came from an alternate ed situation. So, they already had learning difficulties,
probably been suspended a few times. Disruptive...Quite a few that had missed a year or two
and were quite a ways behind. Literacy, I would surmise / guess there would be about 50%
were holding their own, reading lots, and okay writers, would be functional in society, or
marginally functional. And then it would seem like about 50% or more, so around there, that
really were not functional in society with their reading and writing abilities. One of the
students came to me and he could barely read at a grade one level, but he had a really
positive attitude. But, 1 think he was 15 years old,..We sat down every evening and read
together and went over these fairly simple books. Some, it was low vocabulary, high interest

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

23

type books. He really took off. He really seemed to enjoy it after awhile. He enjoyed his
success and the success built on more success, and I would sit him down. He was quite
willing to sit down with me almost every evening, and by the time he had finished Camp
Trapping, he had gone from a grade one level to a grade three level in reading ability. In
four months. He was really proud of himself, and after he had graduated, I hadn't seen him
for a year, and then I saw him down around the courthouse there. He came running up to me
and said, "Hey, I've learned. I'm reading at a grade eight level." You know, he was so proud
and he wanted to tell me how much more he has continued to read and progress. That was a
real proud moment there to hear him say that There were...also quite a few students that
couldn't read a book and never ever read a book in their lives. So, I challenged this one
really tough, tough kid, that had been in trouble for armed robbery and he was into stealing
cars and he had a gun with him when he got arrested. He didn't read. He thought it was
uncool to read. So, what I did was I made him a bet. I told him that I would do a 100 dunks in
the dunk hole (through the ice at the sauna) in the wintertime. I would come into the kitchen
with a chicken hairdo, with my hair sticking straight up, and I would strut around the kitchen
like a chicken, and go, "buck, buck, buck", if he agreed to read a book And, he said, okay.
He thought it would be pretty funny watching me do all these dunks, he didn't think I could
do it. So, I shook hands with him and said, "Okay, it's a deal". So, that night, down by the
sauna there, 1 did a 100 dunks and froze my butt off, but I did it And then the next morning I
went into the kitchen with a rooster haircut, with my hair sticking straight up, like a punk
rocker, and strutted around the kitchen like a bantam rooster. Everybody had a good laugh
and then it was his turn to deliver. And so, I held him to the agreement, and he was quite
willing to live up to his end of the bargain after what I went through. And so, within a couple
of days of reading with him, he finished his first book He was actually pretty proud of that to
actually finish a book
Wilderness activities include basic skills training around the Camp setting, followed by
progressively more involved and remote hiking, canoeing, skiing or snowshoeing trips.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Figure 8

24

Nation Lakes Canoe Trip

Noah
The out trips and the wilderness aspect of Camp I think are really important for the kids.
Once, I had mentioned previously that a lot of kids, when they think of what is fun or
adventurous, they think of various drugs. They think of the rush of a lot of crime that they
have committed before. We take them out to the bush, and we take them up a mountain,
whatever it may be, or we take them canoeing and we show them how beautiful it is out there
and how much fun they can actually have while being sober and doing something positive.
And, I think it is very important because a lot of kids claim that to be a big eye opener for
them. In those peak experiences they often have these giant realizations that what they were
doing before was a waste of their life. The behaviors that they were doing in community were
— while they could have been having these good, positive experiences, that it was just a waste
of time and a lot of them take that and try to bring it forward into their lives, and decide,
"you know what? It can feel good to be good and do good things."And so that I would say is
the big aspect of the wilderness aspect of camp and taking them out is making them realize
that.
Community service work is also an important part of life at Camp Trapping. This may
include such things as sorting food for Christmas food hampers for the needy, clearing brush
for the local community association, cutting, splitting and delivering firewood for a First
Nations elder who conducts sweat lodge ceremonies.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

25

Noah
Camp Trapping is tough and we pride ourselves on the fact that it is tough and it needs to
be to break through the behaviors that the kids have. But, what I would do to separate it from
a boot camp is the people that are working with them. At camp the staff are held to the same
expectations as the students. In a boot camp, you have drill sergeants who spout at the
mouth, demand the youth to do whatever they want. Whereas, we work with them. We offer
counseling. We offer solid role modeling and go step by step with them along the way. We try
to build them up. We try to build their self-esteem, whereas in a boot camp, they typically are
trying to break a kid. And, then from there force them in to fit a mold that they want Rather,
we want to build them to live to their potential, to live to their potential that their mold can
allow them to do. A lot of these youth look at the staff as not only as a role model, but
sometimes as family, as a strong bond that they could maybe have had with a brother or a
really good friend, or a teacher, or somebody like that. But, at camp they get it and we earn
respect by living to the same expectations as the youth, by dunking in the ice hole with them,
by running up the hill with them, by (staff) not swearing when we ask them not to. By just
living up to the expectations and showing them that we are there to stay, and that we actually
do truly care. We are not just there for a paycheque, and after awhile they seem to really pick
up on that and realize that. And a lot of these youth have not'had someone that cared to that
extent before. And, it helps to break down that wall. The brick wall that they won't let people
in, and they finally do because we actually earn their trust.
In Anglin's (2002) study of group homes in BC he stated
The most active involvement of workers in daily activities was observed at (Camp
Trapping), where the staff were highly consistent in articulating and applying the
principles of experiential education throughout the programme. As one worker stated
succinctly, "We have to work with youth, not at them, .. .do with the kids, not
to them..." While the workers felt they did their best work on wilderness trips where
the co-involvement and mutual interdependence was virtually total, they also
demonstrated consistent "doing with" at the camp in such activities as cooking, wood
cutting, sauna, and dunk in the lake (even through a hole in the ice in winter),

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Figure 9

Sauna Dunk Hole in Winter

and the infamous "morning run" and twenty-kilometre finale at the end of the four
month stay. This congruence was the product of many years of concerted supervision
by the camp manager/supervisor, including weekly staff meetings and two, weeklong
intensive staff training periods for the entire camp team every year. The struggle for
congruence can only be won at a price, and across the well-functioning programmes,
that price was seen to be intensive and ongoing team debriefing and effective
supervision (p. 120).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

27

Chapter 3: The Researcher's Stance
"Our individual bias is our opening to the world"
(Gadamer cited by McNiff, 1998, p.95)
Just as the youth I have worked with come to Camp with a set of behaviours and beliefs
that have formed from the uniqueness of their environment I too approach my work and this
thesis research with opinions, behaviours and beliefs resulting from the sum total of all of my
personal experiences. The experiences of my own family members and my relationship with
the past two generations have heavily influenced how I view the world. My experiences prior
to working at Camp Trapping converged to make my tenure at the programme an excellent
fit for such work. Likewise, all of these experiences heavily informed my approach to this
thesis. This chapter will expose some of the influences in my life that have guided my
approach to working with young offenders and the subsequent writing of this thesis.
When I first started to hunt around for a method that would suit me for this thesis project I
struggled with the existence of my own biases. I looked at doing some sort of programme
evaluation or other quantitative type of project. I was not comfortable with the need to reduce
the approach and investigation down to a minute part of what Camp Trapping is about and
researching that one aspect. A previous thesis, (Williams, 1996) had looked at recidivism, the
re-offending rate, and the predictors of not re-offending. To me this kind of study is useful
but it ignores many other indicators of what makes Camp successful. I know of many
examples of graduates from Camp who re-offended but look back at their time at Camp as
one of the best times of their lives. For many the challenges and struggles of the programme
are fond memories of a time when they were allowed to be kids, had some sense of safety
and security, had a purpose in life and could dream, and work towards, a better life. Time at
Camp can be a time of excitement and freedom from pain - if brief.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

28

Kurt's Story
Kurt had come to Camp as a fifteen year old with plenty ofpainful memories. He had
been sexually, physically and emotionally abused. He was full ofanger and resistance. But
Kurt came to respond well to what Camp was about and he saw that the staff members were
not like other adults that he had known throughout his life. Over the time he was at Camp
Kurt enjoyed the activities and structure and predictability of a safe place to be with people
that could share positive experiences with him. After Camp Kurt had some more traumatic
experiences that compounded his pain. He ended up on the streets of Prince George. Kurt
drank heavily, often using cheap substitutes for alcohol His health suffered. Twenty years
later I still see Kurtfrom time to time. I worry about him when I don't see him for long
periods of time. Lately I ran into him and had a fairly lengthy chat with him. He reminisced
about how he hated Camp, and how he was so young bade then. He then added, "I sure miss
you guys ". I bought him a sandwich and left him. Throughout my day I thought of how I
might have done to help him more. Kurt certainly taught me plenty about working with
marginalized youth. It is people like Kurt that I think were a success for at Camp Trapping.
We could look at his experience at Camp as doing nothing for him. Every time I speak with
him I see his time at Camp as being a positive thing for him. It was one of veryfew positive
times that he has had in his life. It continues to be a connection to something, someplace that
he seems to hang on to as a constant positive place where he belonged. How does his
"success" measure in a quantitative study?
My Biases
I have spent over twenty years of my life working with the youth that attended Camp
Trapping. To use a methodology that restricted me to researching one miniscule aspect of
that experience did not seem fulfilling or fit my own view of that experience. I also wanted to
find a way to give others some sense of what it was like to work with youth such as those that
go to Camp Trapping. I did not want my thesis to be boiled down in the end to a couple of
useful statistics about a piece of the whole.
I also did not want to commit myself to a methodology that could end up with outcomes
that would say something negative about a single point of reference investigated that could
possibly be a negative result. The whole of Camp is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet it
would be disconcerting to me to apply a method that could, in essence, imply that Camp may
not work, at least in one particular area, and that I had perhaps, in conjunction, wasted over
twenty years of my life. I have many constructive criticisms of Camp, some of which I will

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

29

share in these pages, but I would not have wanted to base a whole thesis upon a negative
outcome of my research.
My biases are that I care very much about the Camp Trapping programme and believe that
it does work to empower and heal youth in many different ways. I am invested heavily of
time, identity, commitment, relationships, and friendships into the programme. I care deeply
about the youth and staff with whom I have worked. I see and feel the pain and distresses
experienced by the youth and strongly believe that we, as a society, and community, have
largely forsaken these youth and their families. We, as a society, could be doing better to
help all members of our society. The increasingly enlarging gap between rich and poor and
the tendency to create policies that further marginalizes and punishes those less fortunate in
society is to me abhorrent.
My discovery of the text Autoethnography as Method, by Chang (2008) was pivotal in my
approach to writing this thesis. The methodology described by Chang (2008) provided a
means to explore the entirety of my experience and to examine multiple meanings of success
as well as to acknowledge my biases instead of attempting to submerge and hide them. In a
subsequent chapter I will explore the methodology of Autoethnography.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

30

"just ignore that one. It's unscientific."

Figure 10 "Just Ignore that One. It's Unscientific." Nick Anderson (n.d.)

My bias for Camp Trapping is obvious for all to see. Where did my strong attachment for
Camp Trapping and the work with young offenders in wilderness settings originate? What is
it about my life that sees worth in the work we do at Camp even if, at times, the work is very
challenging and hard on the people doing the work? It is worth taking a few pages to explore
my biases and commitments further.
Social Location
A key concept of feminist research is the locating of women's experiences and
standpoints as the key frame of reference. As such it aims to assist women to address issues
of oppression and domination and to empower women to overcome personal and structural
barriers to a more equitable and just world. It is important for feminist researchers to
"...clearly articulate these commitments and political priorities in their work" (Garrett, n.d.,
p.l).
Understanding the social location of the researcher in relation to the research project
is essential to providing sufficient information on which to base a full understanding

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

3\

of the context of the study, thus enabling the reader to make decisions about how
transferable the information may be to another context (or, in practical terms, how
relevant the results are to her or his own specific context). Identifying the researcher's
social positioning in relation to the participants in the study provides the reader with
an understanding of the relative privilege and power held by the investigator and
participants, as well as shedding light on the worldview of the researcher or the lens
through which she or he views the participants and the phenomenon of interest.
(Morrow, 2007, pp. 215-216)
An aspect of this is to recognize the researcher's stance and that the researcher her or
himself is a part of a larger social environment and as such brings to the research many
preconceived, often unacknowledged preconceptions, knowledge, values and beliefs that
determine how research is conducted, the types of questions that are asked, the choices of
subjects, the methods used, the interpretations brought forward and a myriad of other
possible effects. This approach attempts to

. .dismantle the smokescreen surrounding the

canons of neopositivist research - impartiality and objectivist neutrality - which supposedly
prevent the researcher from contaminating the data (and presumably, vice versa)" (England,
1994, p. 243). Feminist researchers do not believe that research can be conducted in a value
free manner (Garrett, n.d.). Instead of ignoring the role of subjectivity in research feminist
researchers explore their own biases and the impact that these may have on the research, the
participants and oneself. This

. .reflexivity is self-critical introspection and the self-

conscious analytical scrutiny of the self as researcher" (England, 1994, p. 244).
An important point of the feminist approach "is that those who are researched should be
treated like people and not as mere mines of information to be exploited by the researcher as

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32

the neutral collector of 'facts'" (England, 1994, p. 243). The researcher must strive to ensure
the research is done in a non-exploitive, reciprocal manner that encourages the further
empowerment (and conscientiousization) of the research participants and not the continued
oppression of those subjects.
Reflexivity
One method to help guide the researcher towards a non-exploitive approach is to reflect
upon one's own beliefs, actions and approach. This reflexivity
...is self-critical sympathetic introspection and the self-conscious analytical scrutiny
of the self as researcher. Indeed reflexivity is critical to the conduct of fieldwork; it
induces self-discovery and can lead to insights and new hypotheses about the research
questions. A more reflexive and flexible approach to fieldwork allows the researcher
to be more open to any challenges to their theoretical position that fieldwork almost
inevitably raises.. .[A reflexive approach provides for a more].. .careful consideration
of the consequences of the interactions with those being investigated (England, 1994,
p. 244).
England (1994) writes,
I believe it is important to be more open and honest about research and the limitations
and partial nature of that research. We need to locate ourselves in our work and to
reflect on how our location influences the questions we ask, how we conduct our
research, and how we write our research (p. 251).
Another view of this "locating oneself' in regards to one's research comes from
Aboriginal approach to research and writing. Hart (2002) writes about a friend who warned
that "...we have to be careful when we read books to try to learn about our ways because we

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

33

never get to know the authors; we don't know what they are like or where their hearts lie" (p.
14). Likewise, Reilly (2010) wrote, "Reggie Crowshoe, the cultural guru of the Piikani
Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy, says that when you tell a story you should tell
something of yourself. People should know something of the storyteller " (p. 26).
With the above thoughts in mind, I truly want people to know something about me. I also
want the reader to understand how it is I have come to write what I have. I want to lay my
biases out for all to see. I wish for all to see what it means to work with the many youth that I
have over the past twenty plus years. I sincerely hope that I am able to show, in my words,
something of the work of Camp Trapping, including the emotion, hope, and despair, that is
part of the lives of those who go through the programme, staff and students alike.
Personal History
Exploring the origins of my own values and worldviews I draw on the collective
experiences of my parents and grandparents. Unlike many of the youth with whom I have
worked my family has provided me with an oral history that connects me with over 100 years
of experiences. I feel personally connected to the experiences over these years as told to me
by those who had lived them.
My grandparents from both sides of the family were born in England in the late 1800s. My
paternal grandfather, Alfred Huggett, came to Canada to escape his alcoholic father and to
seek opportunities that were not available to him in the highly stratified society he was born
into. Living in Canada Alfred had many experiences that were unimaginable to him if he had
stayed in England. Ending up in Saskatchewan he homesteaded, worked at a variety of jobs,
other than his trade as a baker, bought property and mixed with people "above his station" in

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

34

life. One of the greatest accomplishments for him was the raising of the ftmds to help build
St. Luke's Anglican Church in Regina, Saskatchewan.
My mother's parents arrived in Canada at about the same time as Alfred. Sydney LeVack
worked in general stores in Cobblehill and then with the Sidney Trading Company on
Vancouver Island. During World War One Sydney enlisted in the 5th Field Battery, Royal
Canadian Artillery and served on the battlefields of Europe. Edith LeVack returned to
England to live with relatives during the war. Maijorie, my mother, was born in 1919 shortly
after her parents returned to Canada.

Figure 11 Edith LeVack Wedding Photo. August 23,1916. Huggett Family Photos.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

35

Both of my parents grew up during the 1920's and 30's. My father's family, living in
Saskatchewan, was much more influenced by the Great Depression than my mother's, who
was living on Vancouver Island. Alfred Huggett lost money on his various property dealings,
and had to work at assorted jobs to make ends meet. The inequality and despair of the times
became personally evident for my father on July 1,1935. Arthur climbed a fire escape to get
on the roof of the Bank of Montreal building in downtown Regina and watched the police
charge the unemployed men who were part of the "On to Ottawa" trek to demand better
government assistance. The trek was a call by men in "relief camps" for better living and
working conditions. The federal government ordered the protest to be stopped in Regina and
this led to the police use of force to disperse the marchers. This heavy-handed use of force
contributed to the defeat of the federal government of R.B. Bennett and the gradual adoption
of kinder social welfare approaches.
Arthur struggled financially through university. He had little monetary support from his
parents and worked at assorted labour jobs to pay his own way. The Great Depression was
still underway and few working class children could expect to achieve a university education.
Arthur put his university studies on hold to serve in the 3rd Battalion, Regina Rifles
Regiment during the 2nd World War. That battalion was posted to guard the Victoria, B.C.
area from Japanese invasion. Arthur was given an assignment to do some mapping of the
Long Beach area of Vancouver Island and while off doing that task his unit was shipped to
the European theatre in advance of D-day. Arthur returned to Work Point Barracks in
Victoria to find he had been left behind. He was reposted to updating battle maps and
briefing senior officers about the of the war situation in Europe. It was during this time my
parents met and were married.

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Figure 12

36

Arthur and Maijorie Huggett Wedding Day. July 10,1944. Huggett Family Photos.

The life events of my grandparents and parents were part of a very significant shift in
political, economic and social ideas. After the Second World War people remembered the
plight of returning soldiers from the First World War, the economic inequality of the 1920s,
the impacts of the Great Depression, and the ravages of war and the disregard for human
rights the world had witnessed. Ed Broadbent (2009) states,
Looking back to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years
ago, we can now see that, at least in the North Atlantic world, the four decades that
followed World War II were the golden age for ordinary people, or, in the phrase of
the period, for "the common man." Of course, we all know that poverty and
deprivation didn't simply disappear, but for the vast majority this was an

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

37

unprecedented moment in history (p. 1).
My Grandparents on both sides of the family, as well as my parents, were very connected
to the Anglican Church of Canada. This connection was a strong source of community
connectedness. Friendships, social events and the rhythms of the years, and of lives, were
very much tied to the church. The two generations that preceded me had a strong sense of the
need to help those less fortunate than themselves and did such actions through the auspices of
the church. This work ranged from the helping others within the church in times of hardship,
sickness, as well as times of joy, and financial and other donations to help local, national and
international initiatives of the Anglican Church and other social services. The residential
school and other scandals did negatively impact upon the fellowship of the church

Figure 13 St. Luke's Anglican Church, Victoria, B.C. (St. Luke's Anglican Church, 2008-2011).

The inequities of the time aside, an underlying theme were a moral belief injustice and a
sense of fairness for all people. It was my grandparent's and parent's generations that,
(by) vigorously exercising their rights, both in civil society and in politics, ordinary
people produced governments that ensured for the first time in history, that their

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

3g

personal agendas, not just those of elites, influenced public policy. State-sponsored
health programs, pensions, unemployment insurance, recognition of trade unions, and
access to university education came to be associated with democratic citizenship.
These, plus fiscal policies that were seriously progressive in personal income taxes,
ensured that social and economic inequality was significantly reduced (Broadbent,
2009, p. 1).
By the time I was becoming politically aware my sister, fifteen years older than I, was
getting married and starting a family. My brother, ten years older, was immersed, often at the
consternation of our father, in the "counter culture" activities of the day. The events of these
times helped to further shape my views on environmental issues and society.
After graduating from high school I did a variety of jobs, as a maintenance worker in a
large hotel, working on an egg packing assembly line, a reserve army officer at Vernon Army
Cadet Camp, and looked for work in the early eighties as a heavy equipment operator. The
training as a heavy equipment operator was a result of my signing up with an Unemployment
Insurance training programme when I was between jobs. I had almost forgotten about the
application when I was notified of my acceptance into the course almost one year after
applying. After the training I tried to find a job as a heavy equipment operator. Looking for
such work during the recession of the early eighties sent me back to school. Most people with
such jobs at that time had been born before me in the post war baby boom and had way more
experience than I.
I graduated from Simon Fraser University with a bachelor's degree in Criminology.
Needing to broaden my experience base to compete in the tight job market at the time I
happened across an advertisement for positions as "Wilderness Counsellor." I sent off a

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

39

resume and was invited to put in a one-week trial shift. After being hired I intended to stay in
Prince George for only one year. A convergence of skills, abilities, relationships and beliefs
occurred at Camp Trapping that had me sticking around for a lot longer than planned. The
work at Camp was highly congruent with my life experiences up to that point. My desire to
engage in wilderness pursuits, already formed from watching my brother's "hippy"
homesteading exploits, my experiences as an army cadet and instructor in my university
days, my education and much of the employment that I had previously done, all fit the
positions I was to assume in working with youth at Camp.
The other aspects of my life that influence upon my biases, at Camp and as a researcher,
are my social location within society. This social location can be graphically shown using
the "Flower of Power" (Dick, S., Duncan, S., Gillie, J., Mahara, S., Morris, J., Smye, V., &
Voyageur, E., 2006).

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

40

Flower of Power
Click on flower petals that reflect your social location.

Not Employed
for Wages

Figure 14 My Flower of Power

Dick, S., Duncan, S., Gillie, J., Mahara, S., Morris, J., Smye, V., & Voyageur, E. (2006).
There are two categories on the flower of power that were not so clear-cut for me to
decide on. The reader will note that I have not filled in the "young/old" petals. I suppose
most people, especially the youth I work with, would now place me in the old category. Only
recently have the students at Camp come to call me "Old Man". I am middle-aged but with
two young daughters need to remain youthfully active. The other category that I waiver on
was the petals labeled as "employed for wages/not employed for wages". As I write this
thesis I am 'intermittently' employed for wages. I have been a 'househusband' charged with
the daily care of my daughters. I am not the primary wage earner within my marriage. Even

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

41

so, financial struggles aside; I live in a nice house in a 'good' neighbourhood, and have few
dire struggles to meet the daily basic necessities of life for my family or myself.
It is with the outlook arising from my own life circumstances that I approached the work
of a counsellor at camp trapping and as a researcher. I brought my middle class views and
values to Camp with me and that included compassion and a sense of responsibility towards
those in need in one's community. Early in my time at Camp I found that I could mentally
separate the behaviours being exhibited by a youth from the individual. It seemed obvious to
me that it was not the "deviance" of the individual that was the problem but the systemic
inequities and societal lack of desire to help those individuals that was the real issue.

Ed
In my interview with Ed, who had been a student and then came back a few years after
graduating as a staff, he provided the following summary of myself:
Because when I come back and worked, and I have seen you running, I was hiding in the
bush, but I was watching you run, and I was thinking, gee, "Al's been doing this for a heck of
a long time. And, he's not the fastest. But, he sure is steady." And, for me, when I was
working there, I was thinking, that sure is admirable. Like, he can — no one was around you
whatsoever, and I was thinking, "he could stop. He can walk But, he doesn't". And, for me, I
was like, no, that's pretty cool how he keeps on trudging along and it's been all these years
and he still runs. For me, / thought that was pretty cool. And when I was a student, just the
way you built kids up.... I think we had, sometimes we had a little bit of a tug and pull...a lot
of us used to kind of make fiin of your appearance. Like, "oh, he's such a nerd. He's such a
nerd. And, we shouldn't even have to listen to him. He's a nerd. Yeah, if he was on the
outside, we would kick his ass". But, I realized once all camp was done, that you wereh't a
nerd. That you are pretty actually a down to earth guy, but just wanted to help us out.
Alan: Thanks. I remember my first hour at camp getting taken down to the sauna, and
walking in there and the first reaction that I got from the students is "Are you a cop? Looks
like a cop man. I'm pretty sure he's a cop".
Ed: Yeah. I could see that. "He's a narc". But, I remember just people trying — like when we
went in as rookies, "We don't have to listenI think that was just the overall consensus
though. I think it was watching too many movies.
Alan: Who are these people, right?
Ed: Yeah. Who are they to tell us what to do?

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42

Chapter 4: Methodology
Myth of objectivity
Academic research and writing has for a long time been seen to be of a high standard if
presented in an objective manner with little or no sign of involvement from the researcher
and author. Charmaz and Mitchell (1977) are cited by Sparkes (2002) in stating
.. .scholarly writers are expected to stay on the sidelines and to keep their voices out of
the articles they produce. In many ways, they are expected to emulate Victorian
children: that is to be seen [in the credits] but not heard [in the text]. Thus, "silent
authorship comes to mark mature scholarship. The proper voice is no voice at all"
[Charmaz and Mitchell 1997: 194] (p.213-214).
Wall (2006) states,
The assumption that objectivity is at all possible has been solidly contested, and
classic norms of objectivity in the social sciences have been eroded [Denzin &
Lincoln, 1994]. Postmodernists believe that the methods and procedures that are
employed in research are ultimately and inextricably tied to the values and
subjectivities of the researcher [Bochner, 2000]. Any efforts to achieve objectivity are
foiled from the outset because ethnographers always come with ideas that guide what
they choose to describe and how they choose to describe it [Wolcott, 1999] and that
are grounded in a "set of intellectual assumptions and constitutive interests [Stivers,
1993, p. 410] (p.42).
The autoethnographic method of social science research recognizes and embraces the
researcher's subjectivity and values. Given my intimate involvement of more than 20 years
of experience at Camp Trapping I believe autoethnography is an appropriate

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43

method for this research. It would be disingenuous of me to claim objectivity I do not possess
and I can draw on my personal history and

. .personal experiences as primary data" (Chang,

2008, p. 49). This chapter will explain how I applied the autoethnographic method in writing
this thesis.
The Autoethnographic Method
Ellis and Bochner (2000), (as cited in Chang, 2008) define Autoethnography "...as
'autobiographies that self-consciously explore the interplay of the introspective, personally
engaged self with the cultural descriptions mediated through language, history, and
ethnographic explanation"' (p. 46). Muncey (2005), states, "autoethnography celebrates
rather than demonizes the individual story" (p. 7). Chang (2008) adds

. .individual stories

are framed in the context of the bigger story, a story of the society, to make autoethnography
ethnographic" (p. 49). "...Autoethnographers must be willing to dig deeper into their
memories, excavate rich details, bring them onto the examination tables to sort, label,
interconnect, and contextualize them in the sociocultual environment.
Commitment to cultural analysis and interpretation is the key in proceeding with any topic"
(Chang, 2008, p. 51).
There are various approaches to doing autoethnographic research. The main premise is
described by Ellis & Bochner (2003) as the following:
I start with my personal life. I pay attention to my physical feelings, thoughts, and
emotions. I use what I call systematic sociological introspection and emotional recall
to try to understand an experience I've lived through. Then I write my experience as a
story. By exploring a particular life, I hope to understand a way of life... (p. 206).

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44

As demonstrated in the quote above, these stories are often written in the first-person voice
and
.. .appear in a variety of forms-short stories, poetry, fiction, novels, photographic
essays, journals, fragmented and layered writing, and social science prose. In these
texts, concrete action, dialogue, emotion, embodiment, spirituality, and selfconsciousness are featured, appearing as relational and institutional stories affected by
history, social structure, and culture, which themselves are dialectically revealed
through action, feeling, thought, and language (Ellis & Bochner, 2003, p.209).
Such stories can be a wide variety of genres. Some are written purely in narrative
story form, others in a combination of prose and social science text, others still in poetry.
The test of such texts and performances comes down to whether they evoke in readers
a "feeling that the experience described is authentic, that is believable and possible"
(Ellis, 1995:318-319). In telling their stories, autoethnographers ask readers to embark
on a collaborative journey that tacks between individual experience and social roles,
relationships, and structures (Jackson 1989: 18). As Michael Jackson notes, the stories
of autoethnography begin "with the experience of one person, but others make it over
to themselves and give it new uses and interpretations" (1989: 18). (Holman-Jones,
2002, p. 53).
The autoethnographic writing process can be personally risky. Autoethnographers reveal
their personal experiences, thoughts and emotions for others to see and to criticize. Flemons
and Green (2002) write, "when you write a story of yourself, you accept an assumption about
yourself, and if you publish this account, then you are defining yourself not only personally
but also professionally (p. 90).

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45

Through writing the narrative an autoethnographer externalizes the story. This objectifies
and personifies the experiences and allows for reflexive examination and assessment. "We
look analytically at the narratives that shape our lives and ponder their power and value"
(Kiesinger, 2002, p. 108). Questions are asked about the story that may reveal answers about
details hidden from view and not normally brought into the open. The narrative refraining is
also contextualized

. .within a framework of a larger picture (Kiesinger, 2002, p. 108).

Chang (2008) denotes
.five potential pitfalls that ethnographers need to watch out for: (1) excessive focus
on self in isolation from others; (2) overemphasis on narration rather than analysis and
cultural interpretation; (3) exclusive reliance on personal memory and recalling as a
data source; (4) negligence of ethical standards regarding others in self-narratives; and
(5) inappropriate application of the label "autoethnography" (p. 54).
The first pitfall is the claim of critics of autoethnography that the method is narcissistic, or
self-indulgent (Sparkes, 2002)\ Some studies do focus almost exclusively on the self at the
exclusion of the cultural "other". Sparkes (2002) comments that".. .writers of
autoethnographies and narratives of self [like any other form of
Representation] need to be aware that their writing can become self-indulgent rather than
self-knowing, self-respectful, self-sacrificing, or self-luminous" (214). To Chang (2008)
".. .self-indulgent introspection is likely to produce a self-exposing story but not
autoethnography" (p. 54).
The second pitfall is the focus of some writers to engage in the telling of a story with little
to no cultural analysis. This may make for interesting reading but may not adequately address
the intent of autoethnography. As Wall (2006) writes, "the intent of autoethnography is to

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46

acknowledge the inextricable link between the personal and the cultural and to make room
for nontraditional forms of inquiry and expression" (p. 1).
Personal memory is seen by autoethnographers to be as valid a data source as any other
approach. This data source is, however, often faulty and easily questioned by others. This
third pitfall, an over reliance on personal memory, to the exclusion of other sources of data,
provides for little ability for others to assess the validity of the work. Chang suggests that
autoethnographers
.. .can easily complement "internal data generated from researchers' memory with
"external" data from outside sources, such as interviews, documents, and artifacts.
Multiple sources of data can provide bases for triangulation that will help enhance the
content accuracy and validity of the autoethnographic writing" (p. 55).
The fourth pitfall is the lack of confidentiality some writers have shown when writing
about others. This issue requires autoethnographers to be creative to protect the
confidentiality of various other people who may be players in the narrative. In the telling
of a story about oneself the connections to those other people must be forever in mind and
efforts made to disguise those connections (Chang, 2008).
Chang's (2008) fifth pitfall is the use of the term "autoethnography" when one is writing
what would best be described as ".. .highly descriptive self-narratives such as autobiography
and memoir" (p. 56). The term "autoethnography" has been applied to writings along what
can be seen as a continuum of method. Ellis and Bochner (2002), paraphrasing ReedDanahay, (1997) note, "autoethnographers vary in their emphasis on the research process
(graphy), on culture (ethnos), and on self (auto)" (p. 211). The variety and range of what is
labeled as autoethnographic works is wide. A multitude of terms has been collected under the

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

47

umbrella of the term autoethnography and it can be confusing to precisely define the term.
Chang (2008) refers to Hayano's (1979) original meaning,

. .a study of the researcher's

own people" (p. 56) as a guide for ensuring one is using autoethnography.
Ellis (2000) provides a series of questions to ask in order to determine the value of the
narrative. Representative of these questions are:
What is the author trying to achieve? Has he achieved his goals? Are these worthwhile
goals? Are these goals that can be met by this writing form? Might there be a better
way to achieve his purposes? Can the author legitimately make these claims for his
story? Did the author learn anything new about himself? About others in the story?
About the processes and relationships described? What might readers take from the
story? Will this story help others cope with or better understand their worlds? Is it
useful, and if so, for whom? Does it encourage compassion for the characters? If not
for the characters, does it encourage compassion for those acted upon by them? Does
the story promote dialogue [Ellis & Bochner, 2000]? Does it have the potential to
stimulate social action? (p.275).
Procedures
The methodology that was detailed above sets the theoretical stage for my approach to
the practical matters of how my research was conducted. This next section will describe the
procedures I used to gather information, analyze the data and interpret the results. Through a
solid description of the research procedures I provide further trustworthiness and validity to
my work.

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48

The reader is referred to the chart on page 5 and attached as Appendix B for a graphic
depiction of my research process. A clear description of the methodology is intended to show
the efforts taken to increase the credibility of the findings.
Data Sources
An autoethnographer uses their experiences as the primary data source. In this thesis I
have tried to find a middle ground in using my own memory data and other sources. These
other sources include knowledgeable participant interviews, documentary data, and
photographic archival data. The documentary data includes my own field notes, reports and
administrative records and manuals of Cariboo Action Training Society and assorted
government reports and related documents. To connect this research into a broad social
context other data sources, such as cultural artifacts from media websites, comic strips,
advertisements, web-blog responses and a wide assortment of other material is used. This
material serves to place the Camp Trapping experience into the wider social context of which
it, and the staff and students involved, are a part.
Image-based Data
Image-based data, such as photographs, comic strips, web page images and the like, serve
several purposes. As a research tool images were used to aid in the elicitation of my memory
data. Chang (2008) notes "visual data complement textual data and sometimes supersede the
benefit of textual data because visual data make long-term impressions on viewers" (p. 109).
Reviewing the photographic archives of Camp Trapping I have found is an excellent means
to aid my recall of specific incidents, people, places and contexts.
Within the text, embedded images and
(p)hotographs have the capacity to bring textures, surfaces and the sensory

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49

experiences they evoke right up close to the reader: they both invoke embodied
reactions and offer routes by which, via our own memories and subjectivities, we
might anticipate what it feels like to be in another place (Pink, 2009, p. 136).
In the case of this study text and images are combined to provide context and create meaning
from the experiences described. "The images are intended to work in relation to, rather than
as illustrations of, experiences discussed in writing, as such to communicate on a different
register" (Pink, 2009, p. 137).
The images in this text were chosen based on aesthetic qualities and the relation to the
text. Some images have been altered for reasons of confidentiality. Likewise, many images
that I would like to have used were not included because of the need to protect the privacy of
the individuals in the photographs.
Documentary Data
Throughout my tenure with Cariboo Action Training Society I have been responsible for
creating an inordinate amount of paperwork. This bureaucratic documentation is necessitated
by the needs to record incidents, communicate actions, train staff and students, meet the
needs of accrediting bodies and governments, report student outcomes, successes and critical
incidents, inform decisions and a myriad of other purposes. If all of the documents produced
by myself were gathered together into my own archive a comprehensive, though not
complete, picture could be drawn of my employment experience. McCullogh (2004) notes
If modern civilization was built in bricks and metal, and fuelled by coal and oil, it was
inscribed on paper. The bureaucracies of the nation-states produced copious records of
their development, and of their dealings with different interest groups. They produced
large numbers of reports on the problems that they encountered and the policies that

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50

they favoured, and their consultations were also transcribed in loving detail. The new
social institutions also kept details of decisions made and of their burgeoning staff and
clienteles. Strict formal record keeping was routinised and became a discipline in its
own right. Such records might well provide insights into the processes and workings
of the social structures of the modern age (p. 12).
Over the many years that I was Programme Coordinator at Camp I dealt with more than a
few staff who were negligent in maintaining their paperwork. Contrary to some who felt that
paperwork interfered with their "working with the kids" I saw the accurate and timely
completion of records as a necessary part of that work with the youth. The documents that we
produced generally served a valuable communication function within and without the
organization as well as an important record of events. Many documents that I produced go
into great detail about events that occurred.
For the purposes of this thesis these records are a valuable aid to my, oftentimes
increasingly, faulty memory. The records help to fill in blanks, pin down specifics and create
an audit trail to facilitate the credibility and trustworthiness concerns of qualitative research.
As will be explored later in this chapter many of the student records are considered sealed
and off-limits for my access. These records are protected for confidentiality reasons under the
federal Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) legislation. Even given these constraints there is
a wealth of documents accessible to me that aided in the creation of this research.
Reflexivity
Reflexivity is intertwined with the concept of objectivity as is explored above. Davies
(1999) provides the following definition of reflexivity:
In the context of social research, reflexivity at its most immediately obvious level

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51

refers to the ways in which the products are affected by the personnel and process of
doing research. These effects are to be found in all phases of the research process from
initial selection of topic to final reporting of results (p. 4).
As an autoethnography my thesis is, in its very nature, reflexive. I am the subject of study as
well as the researcher. The intent is to explore my own experiences and to find meaning
within that experience. To ensure some semblance of credibility from my analysis and
interpretations I have approached the issue of reflexivity by demonstrating my
trustworthiness in a variety of ways. The first is to state my biases and to explore my stance
as a researcher. This lets the reader know something as to how and where my biases
originate. Throughout the text I provide narrative details from my own experience, or from
interview participants, to demonstrate how my ideas have formed.
To further enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of my own viewpoints, analysis and
interpretations I utilize key informant and peer researcher review. These "credibility checks"
(Ponterotto and Grieger, 2007, p. 413) involved returning transcripts to the interview
participants for accuracy checking. The thesis document was reviewed by my supervisor and
by peers to check the acceptability of my interpretations and to discover discrepant findings.
This member checking and peer review process helped to ensure that my work received
social legitimacy.
Triangulation
"Triangulation involves the use of different research approaches to study the same
research question. The usual method is to collect different kinds of data, such as interviews
and observations, which may include both qualitative and quantitative data" (Marlow &
Boone, 2005, p. 229). To achieve this I used multiple sources of data to look at the Camp

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52

Trapping experience. These sources included my personal memory data, interviews,
literature, documentary data, archival images, and social and cultural artifacts.
Knowledgeable Participant Interviews
Chang (2008) writes, "the interview is not commonly associated with autoethnography
because this research method focuses primarily on one's own life, while interviews are usually
used to draw out life experiences from other people" (p. 106). In autoethnography interviews
are used ".. .to stimulate your memory, to fill in gaps in information, to gather new information
about you and other relevant topics, to validate your personal data, and to gain others'
perspectives on you" (p. 106). To me Camp Trapping is very much a shared experience and is
about connections and communication. I went into the interview stage looking for opinions
from others about the Camp experience and to gather some narratives about the shared
experience as well as to gather some recollections from others about myself. These stories help
to add interest, highlight my own writings, and serve to add credibility to my interpretation and
analysis.

Chris
Chris speaks to the camaraderie between people who have experienced Camp Trapping in
this quote from the interview I had with him:
I think there is a sense of connection because between staff, so as a former staff myself,
if I meet another former staff. Even ifI never worked with them, I know what they have been
through and they know what I have been through because it's all been the same for so long.
The tradition has been the same for so long. And, it's an instant. You are on a different level.
Like an old boy's club. And you have all been through that club together, and it's the same
when youth meet other youth who have been through Camp Trapping. And, they have made it
through Camp Trapping, and there is almost always a sense ofpride for the youth, and so
that is something that they share with each other. And, I think it crosses between when youth,
like I have met youth that I have never worked with, but who have been through Camp, and
they knew that I worked at Camp. So, there is that same line kind of crosses between the
youth and the staff as well. There is Just a connection that way and an understanding of: oh
we have all been through this together.

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53

Sample
A purposive sample of knowledgeable participants was the sampling method chosen. The
intent was not to get a statistically representative sample but to choose participants who had a
high degree of knowledge about Camp Trapping and of my experience there.
If there is one thing the Camp Trapping experience does it is the provision of a unique and
memorable experience. This engagement of almost everyone who attends the programme,
students and staff alike, make for plenty of rich individual and shared narratives. The
participants of this study all had reminiscences that they which to share. The interviews did
not fail to provide plenty of rich details that add colour to this text.
Within the above criteria the participants were then decided by convenience. As
Appendix A shows, a fairly eclectic group of participants was chosen. The sample size was
based on variety and depth of knowledge of the participants. A criterion-based (Morrow,
2007) sample consisted of a mix of current employees, past employees, male staff, female
staff, a probation officer, graduates and Aboriginal graduates of the programme. Adult
graduates of the programme were selected to avoid ethical issues around interviewing youth.
Interviews
Nine interviews were conducted individually in the participants' offices, a home, in quiet
restaurants, and on the phone. Prior to conducting the interview the research information and
consent to participate form were read and signed (See Appendix C). A semi-structured
interview format was used. This meant that an interview protocol served as a guide but
questioning was not confined to that protocol (See Appendix D). During most interviews
some answers provided by the participants gave the impetus to explore other lines of thought

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54

or to explore a specific experience that was mentioned further. All interviews were digitally
recorded.
The anticipation of the interviews was initially stressful. I felt vulnerable going to people
that I had worked with and asking them questions about Camp and my role in it. Once I
started conducting the interviews I found the participants extremely welcoming and the
interviews were actually very rewarding and validating. It was a unique situation to be able to
sit down with people with whom I have shared some intense experiences with over the past
24 years or so and basically reminisce about those experiences. On a couple of occasions
there were some slight emotional moments as we remembered some painful moments. All of
the interviews produced some valuable insights and have greatly helped me to find further
meaning in the Camp Trapping experience.
Transcriptions
My labourious keyboard skills precluded that I would type my own transcripts of the
interviews. A local transcriptionist was contracted to do the work of taking the digital
recordings of the interviews and turn them into written documents. This person signed a
confidentiality agreement prior to doing the work. The transcripts were then read by the
participants to ensure accuracy and were informed they could make any changes to the text
or to withdraw from the project if they so wished. No changes were made by any of the
participants. My supervisor then read the transcripts and myself with an eye for themes and
for significant parts of the interviews that would help build on my narratives. A fair amount
of immersion was involved in reading and re-reading the transcripts in search of significant,
rich details and connections within individual interviews and between participants.

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55

Sitting through the interviews, where language tends to be so much more than just words,
and then seeing the written transcripts it became evident to me that spoken language can be
different from the written. The idiosyncrasies of natural speech do not necessarily make for
an enjoyable and readable written text. The transcriptions were done in a verbatim manner.
For the sake of readability and brevity I sometimes edited disjointed, hesitant, and repetitive
speech. I did this with an eye to maintaining an accurate representation of the participant's
original intent.
Narratives
Stories from my own experience and excerpts from the interview transcripts are added to
provide the Connection to the Camp Trapping experience as well as to highlight the analysis
and interpretation. Pseudonyms are used for my narratives and quotes from the transcriptions.
Pseudonyms were used to protect the confidentiality of the youth I have worked with as well
as the participants in my interview group. I struggled with using some of the more dramatic
stories as these are extremes examples and do not express everyday events. The extreme
events can provide emotional appeal for the reader but I worried that they would be
generalized by the readers a representative of the overall experience. I became more
comfortable with the use of the "memorable" stories when I saw that almost all of the youth I
have worked with share many of the same experiences and the difference between outcomes;
life or death, further criminal involvement or not, completing school of dropping out; is often
measured by slim differences in risk and protective factors in a youth's life.
Analysis and Interpretation
As mentioned above, autoethnography seeks to place personal experience into a larger
social context. To achieve this I have drawn heavily on a wide array of literature sources. My

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56

personal experiences are used as the backdrop and a means to personalize the references. The
analysis and interpretation is, in the end, a result of my own experiences. My description of
my own history and background should provide the reader with an understanding of the
intent of the my analysis and interpretation.
Receiving Research Approval: Kafka Revisited
In the process of applying for approval to undertake the research for this thesis I found
myself comparing my efforts to navigate bureaucratic structures and the need to satisfy the
needs of large organizations to the travails many youth experience when dealing with similar
organizational structures. Youth who need a home to live in, food to eat, someone to love and
care for them, have in my experience often been faced with over-complication of what
should not be a complicated process for young people. Finding the right people to talk to, the
correct forms to fill in, meeting deadlines, fitting into specific criteria, and satisfying
seemingly arcane demands are all too common to those who need to navigate bureaucracies.
On the next few pages I describe this researcher's attempts to receive "official" sanction and
approval. Imagine a youth facing a similar experience.
In the process of applying for Ministry of Children and Families (MCFD) approval to
proceed with my research I found myself examining why it is that few evidence based, truly
quantitative, randomly assigned research studies exist for young offender programmes. Most
studies use "...a quasi-experimental design that compares outcomes for the experimental
treatment group with outcomes for some nonrandom comparison group, which is claimed to
be similar in characteristics to the experimental group" (Greenwood, 2008, p. 187).
Greenwood (2008) outlines several challenges to the development of 'strong' research
design for the evaluation of programmes like Camp Trapping. Among these challenges are

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57

the length of time after departing a programme a behavioural change may take to develop as
an individual ages and that the type of behaviours that are involved are often "covert" and
difficult to measure. Greenwood (2008) goes on to cite "design flaws" and "...inconsistency
in evaluations, which makes comparison nearly impossible" (p.187).
My own efforts at getting a simple request to peruse files and to talk to a couple of
probation officers and adult graduates of the Camp Trapping programme has highlighted
other challenges that would hinder all but the most determined researcher from examining
youth justice programmes. As intimated in the title of this chapter, there is something
Kafkaesque about the process of seeking approval from MCFD. Kafkaesque is defined by my
computer's Encarta World English Dictionary (Microsoft, 1999) as, "characterized by
seemingly pointless, impersonal, and often disturbing over-complexity". I initially made my
request to the local director of Youth Probation. She forwarded the request to the Youth
Justice Branch of MCFD in Victoria. I was then sent a research request/proposal form that
was more in depth than the University of Northern British Columbia's Research Ethics Board
(REB) application form. I was also directed to complete yet another criminal records check
with the police. In order to circumvent the fee required for the criminal record check I had to
have a letter from the probation office stating that I was a volunteer with that office. I wrote
the letter myself, sent it to the probation office to be edited, put on letter-head and then
picked it up by myself as I headed back to the police station to have my fingerprints taken to
be sent off to Ottawa for more in-depth records checks.
A month or so after I had sent off my fingerprints I received a phone call from the RCMP
informing me of a policy change. The fingerprints in Ottawa were rejected and being sent
back to the Prince George Detachment. Ottawa now requires students to pay for criminal

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58

records checks. The cost is $25 in the form of a money order made payable to the Receiver
General Canada. My bank charges $10 for money orders. I couldn't understand why a police
station wouldn't take cash-are they afraid of being robbed, or having employees dip into the
till?
As approval was given verbally I discovered that most files of former students held at the
Camp Trapping office would not be available to me, as the files are considered "closed" and
confidential once the youth leaves the programme. I was required to submit a list of names to
the local probation director for her to vet the files I wished to read. If the youth was no longer
in the youth justice system and their file was "closed" my access to those files would be
disallowed.
I find it curious after this process that the UNBC REB asked, "Does MCFD play a role in
this-should MCFD play a role?" (Personal communication, May 27, 2010). The reason I
approached MCFD in the first place was that I am aware of the confidentiality conditions of
the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002, S.C., c.l). What I did not anticipate was the
can of worms I opened up when I attempted to take the ethically correct actions.
The term Kafkaesque can apply to this situation, as there have been bizarre turns of events
unanticipated by myself and even by others indirectly involved in the process. The
application bounced from the local director level to the Youth Justice Branch in Victoria
where at least three individuals considered the request and then eventually passed it to the
head of the youth Justice Branch. I did receive my letter of permission; with the restrictions I
was to follow clearly denoted.
Another issue that arose from preparing my research ethics applications is the issue of
anonymity and confidentiality of participants. Following the Tri-council (Canadian Institutes

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59

of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada)
policy of "Respect for Privacy and Confidentiality" for research with human subjects I
needed to show to the REB and to MCFD how I was planning to not identify any participants
in my work. As the Tri-council documents state,
Respect for human dignity requires that research involving humans be conducted in a
manner that is sensitive to the inherent worth of all human beings and the respect and
consideration that they are due. In this Policy, respect for human dignity is expressed
through three core principles - respect for persons, concern for welfare, and justice.
(Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics, 2009, p. 4)
In my case this sounds all well and good. It is highly applicable to participants to whom the
Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) applies. My issue is with the many people with whom I
have spent my Camp Trapping career and who have contributed greatly to making Camp a
success. I see my thesis as somewhat of a historical record and to exclude those who helped
shape the programme and my own development as a social worker, from its inception 40
years ago to the present day, seems to be disingenuous.
Evans (2004) discussed these same issues in an article that was written after conducting a
community centered research project about the history of the Island Cache in Prince George.
The researchers struggled during that project, and during the writing of the book, A Brief
History of the Island Cache (Evans, 2004), with meeting the Tri-council guidelines and the
giving voice and credit to people who participated in the research and who had lived in the
Island Cache community. This struggle can be seen in this comment from Evans (2004):
Confidentiality and anonymity can be quite valuable in protecting people in research

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60

involving psychological experiments or quantitative sociological surveys where there
is absolutely no cost to the research, or it is essential to the validity of the research
paradigm. In qualitative branches of sociology, history, anthropology, or Indigenous
studies, and especially in the context of much community centred research, anonymity
can obscure community authority and voice, and the intent of the (Tri-council)
principle above is undone. In fact, misplaced confidentiality can "disappear" people
and communities.(p.72).
Evans (2004) goes on to state that in the above quoted section of the Tri-council policies, nor
anywhere else in the document, "...does a research participant's right to be recognized as the
source of information get any ink" (p. 72).
Kafka comes back to mind here as the Tri-council calls for respect for human dignity but
then takes away the ability to be inclusive of participants in the research credits and to allow
researchers to give credit where credit is due. In my own case I can see providing anonymity
and confidentiality to participants that are guaranteed such protections under the law but
most others are consenting well-informed individuals who can decide for themselves if they
so wish to be acknowledged as making a worthwhile contribution to my thesis and to be
recorded as making substantial contributions to youth justice in British Columbia.
I described my experiences in a Kafkaesque bureaucracy as they pale in comparison to the
world experienced by many of the youth that I have worked with at Camp Trapping. The
roadblocks put up to such activities as finding a home, returning to school, getting a job and
dealing with the legal and social welfare systems is, at times, incomprehensible to many
adults let alone the youth themselves. There are many good people working to provide
continual compassionate care for youth but the structures themselves put in place to provide

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services

6\

. .necessarily have a repressive dimension because of the authoritarian nature of

politics and the connections between political power and wealth" (Schissel, 1997, p. 109). It
can be very frustrating trying to meet the needs of the youth when the main focus of "the
system" is "accountability", "efficiency", and "fiscal responsibility" among other overriding
means of control.
Thesis Limitations
Discovering the autoethnography method was both a blessing and a source of turmoil and
conflict for myself. As a blessing autoethnography allowed for the inclusion of my own
biases and experiences and to place myself firmly within the context of the study. On the
other hand it has caused me much anxiety as to how to write my story, what would be seen as
acceptable to others, and how to find some kind of balance between telling stories of my
experiences with some analysis and contextualizing that experience. In the continuum of
autoethnography, with the highly creative, fictional stories at one end, and the more standard
academic style at the other, I would suppose I have ended up more towards the standard end
of the scale. By this I have leaned heavily on the use of the literature to ensure some sense of
meaning and interpretation is given to the experiential stories. To some, my reliance on
literature may not be creative or fully autoethnographic. In answer to that I followed Chang's
(2008) assertion when she writes,
the autoethnography that I promote in this book combines cultural analysis and
interpretation with narrative details. It follows the anthropological and social scientific
inquiry approach rather than descriptive or performative storytelling. That is, I expect
the stories of autoethnographers to be reflected upon, analyzed, and interpreted within
their broader social context (p. 46).

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62

Another limitation of this thesis is the concept of generalization. Marlow and Boone
(2005) define generalization as "the application of research findings to other situations" (p.
335). Though I have found the writing this thesis a valuable reflexive exercise, the
experience of Camp Trapping is continually evolving. Though many aspects of Camp remain
constant the staff and students change and the programme gradually adapts and develops. My
experiences of Camp Trapping come from over 20 years of history. I have worked with
approximately 1100 students, participated in and led over 150 wilderness outrips, taught at
least 300 youth how to canoe, been yelled at, sworn at, and convinced many angry and
confused young men that it was in their best interests to start cutting some firewood and let
me help them. I have seen youth adapt their behaviours because of the approach used at
Camp Trapping and the determination of the people that work there to be persistent, and
insistent, on treating the students with pro-social respect and demanding the same in return.
Even though things do change the basic concepts I have outlined in this thesis with regards to
providing youth with continual compassionate care are well founded in research and practice.
As long as that remains at Camp the findings from my experience would have validity.

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Chapter 5:

63

Factors Associated with Youth Crime and Violence

The number of youthful wrongdoers increases steadily and meaningfully. Yet it seems almost
as if the criminal infection today selected youth above all other age groups.
Alois Zucker, Professor of law, Karl-Ferdinands University, Prague, 1894 (as cited in Wegs,
2000, p. 1).

The difficult and troubling behaviours of almost every youth that I have worked with over
the years usually makes perfect sense if one knows the history of the person. Given lack of
attachment to positive adults, psychologically, physically, sexually abused, and socially
isolated and marginalized the angry, violent, criminal behaviours are a logical reaction to the
world as the youth knows and understands it. This does not negate the responsibility the
individual has for their own behaviour but it does indicate that many of the contributing
factors to crime and violence in our society are preventable. It also points to the concept that
became evident while looking at the themes that came from the interview transcripts for this
thesis. The concept that developed was that of the presence or absence of continual

compassionate care in the youths' lives. This chapter will explore the factors that are
associated with youth crime and violence and how these factors are often seen in the Camp
Trapping setting.
Risk and Protective Factors
Waller (2008) writes,
.. .every major organization that has looked at the research, statistics, and good sense
on what prevents crime concludes that the rate of victimization in the United States
could be much lower without any further increases in police and judges and without so
many persons incarcerated or supervised. I will refer to these major organizations as
'prestigious' because they are held in wide esteem and trusted for their analysis and

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64

recommendations in different areas from engineering to health care" (p. xi).
Some of the "prestigious" organizations that have looked at the causes of crime and violence,
in the United States and elsewhere include, the United States Office of the Surgeon General
(2001), Center for Disease Control (U.S.; 2011), U.S. Department of Justice (n.d.), Nova
Scotia Department of Justice (2006), World Health Organization (see Krug, Dahlberg,
Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002) among many others. The conclusions are very similar.
There is no single indicator of the likelihood of engaging in criminal or violent acts. I
combine criminal and violent behaviour together as the two sets of predicating symptoms are
closely matched in most studies that I reviewed. Also, violent offenders tend to be involved
in a wide range of other criminal activities (Krug, et al., 2002, p. 32). There are a variety of
risk factors that indicate an increased chance of becoming involved in such activities. "And,
it turns out that adding on additional risks increases dramatically the likelihood that [a] young
person will engage in antisocial behaviour" (Doob & Cesaroni, 2004, p. 261).
The Nova Scotia Department of Justice (2006) Perspectives on Youth Crime report states,
"most youth commit crime, the majority of which is relatively minor, and most have never
been apprehended by police; the majority of youth who commit crime are one-time
offenders" (p. 4). Likewise, those who are caught and end up in front of a judge are a small
percentage of offenders. The same report reviewed a wide set of research literature and found
the following risk factors
.. .to be consistently and strongly related to delinquency and violence:
• Raised in poverty;
• Neighbourhood crime/disadvantage;
• Exposure to/victim of violence;

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• Early childhood aggression;
• Hyperactivity/impulsivity;
• Association with deviant peers/sibling/parents;
• Early initiation of violent behaviour and involvement in other forms of antisocial
behaviour (e.g. substance use);
• Poor family management practices;
• Poor academic achievement;
• Member of a gang;
• Being male (Nova Scotia Department of Justice, 2006, p. 7).
I particularly am drawn to the last indicator on this list and spend considerable time on the
topic of masculinity in a later chapter.
Familial related predictors that contribute, in relation to other factors, to a likelihood of
violent behavior include socio-economic status, anti-social orientation of the parents, having
abusive parents, and poor relationships and connectedness between the child and the parent
(Leschied, 2008). The strength and importance of these violence potential factors change
depending on the age and development stage of the child. As the child ages the relationship
predictors tend to take on a stronger significance.
A lack of positive attachment to family, other pro-social adults and peers are some of the
greatest risk factors for adolescents (Leschied, 2008; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
[CAMH], 2006). Weak family ties often can lead youth to seek out a sense of belonging that
is missing from the home life.

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Associating with like-minded negative peers then

66
.legitimizes and reinforces antisocial

beliefs and values around violence. The isolation from adolescents who represent more prosocial non-violent beliefs is what lies at the basis of the strength of this factor" (Leschied,
2008, p. 18).

Dieter
He had struggled with Camp. Rules and structure were very foreign to his way of being.
Over time he came to see that the staff were not so bad and that good things could come from
getting along with others. Being in Camp over the summer months meant there were lots of
interesting adventures and challenges. These were also hardfor Dieter at first but he came to
enjoy the trips and had some very memorable experiences. As the graduation day came he
worried about what would happen to him after he left the safety and comfort of the
programme. He was rightfully proud of his accomplishments while at Camp.
On graduation day Dieter got dressed up in new clothes. He borrowed the Executive
Director's cartoon character tie. He then waitedfor his parents to arrive. We put offstarting
the ceremony hoping Dieter's parents would show up as they had said they would, As the
introductions were finally started Dieter and I waited on the porch hoping his mom and dad
would arrive. Dieter was looking worried.
A car finally appeared and out got Dieter's family. As his father came closer to the porch
you could literally see Dieter deflate•. The past four months of good effort, the pride, the
positive frame of mind, the drug and alcoholfree life, the hopes for a betterfuture were all
burst like a bubble the instant Dieter saw his dad. His father was unapologetic for being late,
drunk, had lunch slobbered down the front of his t-shirt, sported a new afro hairstyle that
was at least 20 years out of fashion and had no inkling of an idea as to how important the
graduation was for his son.
In my interview with Ed he mentioned being friends with Dieter after they graduated.
Ed: I remember when I got out of Camp, a couple of times I went and hung around with this
kid. His parents were always fighting and he was allowed to drink at home like I was allowed
to drink at home, and he ended up shooting his brother.
Luckily Dieter was using a small calibre rifle and had missed his brother's heart by mere
millimetres. His brother survived. He showed up at the Camp's Prince George office the
morning after he had shot his brother and wanted to go see his brother in the hospital. Upon
arrival he was quickly whisked away by security, along with the Executive Director, to a
boiler room where he was kept until the police came and arrested him.

Ed:
A lot of them don't come from good homes. What's normal for you and I now, just their norm
is just totally different. Like mom smoking drugs with you, or mom drinking with you, or
brothers taking you out to do crime, or all your friends are gun toting, selling drugs. I think
for them that becomes the norm. You always hear youth at-risk saying, "Oh, I just want to
have a normal life But what is normal for them is not being involved in crime, not drinking,
not doing drugs, staying home, going to work, having a family. I always used to want to have

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67

that. Ijust want normal. I think a lot of these kids, because they don't have that stability,
want to have that.
My mom still abuses alcohol. She drinks quite heavily. When I was young drinking in our
family was common. Ijust thought that was the normal thing. My dad went to work Monday
through Friday, on weekends I wouldn't see him because he would be out at the bars. I
would be stuck at home with my mom. She quit drinking for 13 years to raise us. Its when my
mom and dad separated that she started drinking again. And that's when I started drinking
because it all kind of tied in together.
She would literally just let me do whatever I wanted. If I wanted to bring girls home, I
brought girls home. If I wanted to drink at home, I drank at home. She knew I smoked dope.
She knew all of these things, but I think she needed me there as much as I needed her there,
but I think I needed her to be more firm with me, which she wasn't. Like, I love my mom and I
wish she would have set those boundaries that I needed. I think in the long run it would have
been better.
Community disorganization is also an indicator of the potential for violence.
Comparatively high levels of crime, drug-use, poor housing, neighbourhood violence, the
presence of gangs, low employment rates, and limited access to positive activities all can
contribute to violence.
Race and ethnicity are more to be seen as risk markers than risk factors for violence.
Visible minorities are at greater risk of living in poverty, living in economically
disadvantaged neighbourhoods and as such are therefore exposed to greater numbers of risk
factors. Some ethnic groups have less likelihood of youth violence than others. McCord and
Emslinger, (1995) and Peterson, Krivo and Velez (2001) as cited in CAMH (2006, p. 4)
found that racial discrimination adds to youth violence by contributing to, and strengthening
youths' experiences of, and sense of, community and social exclusion.
Lack of school success, academically and socially, can impact significantly upon a
youth's subsequent developmental outcomes. Again, poverty may play a significant role if a
child is consistently going to school hungry and unable to learn because of this. Bullying and
other violence in the school setting negatively effects mental health, socialization and the
ability to focus on learning. A school setting that is viewed as intolerable by a youth often

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68

leads to school avoidance, academic failure and association with negative peer groups
(Leschied, 2008). This in turn increases the exposure to other factors that also increase to
probability of violent behaviours.
The consumption of violent forms of entertainment, such as television, games, movies,
and music has been found to increase the likelihood of aggression and violence (Leschied,
2008). Like other predictors of violence the use of violent entertainment must be put into
context with the other factors. Being male, identifying with violent characters in media, and
having an aggressive psychological or emotional disorder, increase the chances that a youth
will act more aggressively after viewing violent forms of entertainment (Leschied, 2008).

Doug's Story
As a student at Camp Trapping he came across as being mature and totally in control.
His family was fairly wealthy, especially compared to most other students who come to
Camp. Some people would say he was a lot like many teenagers, he knew everything and
everyone else was in need of changing, not him. In one of the interviews done for this
thesis Duke would characterize the behaviour of students such as Doug's as
...entitlement spectrum disorder... All of those kids that we talked about, ...
all of those kids that come to the programme andfigure that they don't have
any problems and expect the world to kow-tow to them: It fits... we always
talk about the big river in Egypt, the Nile, denial, that kids have, and that's
part of the spectrum.
I don't have a problem, you have a problem. No, I
work here. You are court ordered here. There's a difference'.
Most attempts at holding Doug accountable for his actions saw him lash out with
anger and denial. I remember dealing with a racist comment that he had made and found
myself embroiled in a silly argument that went around in circles. We ended up with an
understanding that I would be providing a negative consequence for further similar
situations. Doug could not be trusted to tell the truth even over something fairly
insignificant that would not lead to a consequence. Even with such issues Doug grew
attached to many of the staff and seemed to understand what Camp was about. Doug did
graduate from the programme and returned to his home community. Some time after he
had graduated Doug showed up at Camp on another graduation day. He roared into
Camp in a big new truck and had a story about getting a job in the oil patch and making
big money. He sat through the graduation ceremony, ate the dinner, made a speech about
how tough life is "on the outs " and how he worked hard and got a good job. After the
ceremony he said goodbye in a congenial manner and spun the tires of his truck on the
gravel road out of Camp in a spray of rocks and a cloud of dust. The staff were
suspicious about the veracity of his story of success.
In an interview Stuart provided the following description ofDoug:

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69

Pretty messed up and one of the stories that I heard, backed up by a
probation officer, was that he [Doug] was disruptive in the house. So, his
father took him out into the garage and hung him up in a gunny sack, and
tied him up so he couldn't get out, and then left him there overnight^That
was their way of dealing with his disruptiveness.
Doug was given some comic books ami a flashlight and left on his own in the garage.
Not long after visiting the Camp at a graduation we heard that Doug had been "...on
a bit of a rampage, stealing cars and doing a number of things with drugs and
alcohol.. ." (Stuart). It was all a build up to the point where Doug took his own life - by
hanging. For all of his presenting as being in control and not needing help Doug was
plagued by the demons of his abusive past.
The story of Doug is an extreme example of some of the youth that attend
Camp Trapping. But Doug's story is not unusual in the existence of many riskfactors that
haunt these youth and an absence of continual compassionate care. Many ofthe risks can
be prevented.
Working with At-Risk Youth
Brendtro, Brokenleg & Van Bockern (1998) discuss "the seeds of discouragement" (pp. 742) for at-risk youth. Discouragement for youth is the combined effects of the division
between youth and adults in today's world. "...The family is under pressure. Parents are too
stressed, schools are too impersonal, and the community is too disorganized to fulfill the
basic human need of children to belong. Estranged from family, friends, school or productive
work, the seeds of discouragement have been sown in the
four worlds of childhood" (Brendtro, et al., 1998, p. 7).

Tim
On a canoe trip on the Crooked River we spent our last evening camped on the west shore
ofMcLeod Lake. We had paddled at a fairly leisurely pace during the day, spending time
fishing along the way. Being the last day of the trip we spent some time as a group talking
about the trip and coaxing some learning from the experience. Just before supper time Tim
gets up and moves away from the group quickly. He was visibly upset about something. He
walked quickly into the bush and into what we would call "out of bounds He was outside
the area that we had designated that everyone must stay inside of I followed him over a
slight hill and towards a spot where he sat down overlooking the lake. I could see that he was
crying. I sat with him and waited. Tun was a young man who had just caught his firstfish
and had a 5-day experience paddling down a meandering river. He had gone swimming, had
a fun mud fight at one bend in the river, helped cook meals over a fire, paddled farther in one

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70

day than he thought he could and generally had a good time. The trip had been a success.
There had been few behaviour problems on the whole trip. I wondered what could be wrong.
What had happened to Tim was not a conflict with another student or a staff. He had had
an insight into his own life. His own words were, " J never get to do this with my own family.
We never go camping or do anything fun
These four worlds being, family, school, peers and work. Brendtro, et al. (1998) attempt to
shift the common focus of educators from the dysfunction of the youth themselves to the
environmental conditions or what they term the

. .four ecological hazards in the lives of

youth at risk" (p.8). These ecological hazards are "destructive relationships", "climates of
futility", "learned irresponsibility", and "loss of purpose" (Brendtro, et al., 1998, p. 8).
Lacking meaningful, trusting, relationships with adults many at-risk youth strive to find other
ways to achieve a sense of belonging with others.
Futility can be found surrounding many at-risk youth. Such youth are

. .crippled by

feelings of inadequacy and a fear of failure" (Brendtro et al., 1998, p. 8). In the Camp setting
this futility is seen in the lack of engagement that many of the youth have; they don't want to
speak out about any issue at all, they have difficulties allowing themselves to become
involved in activities, they don't trust adults, they do not let themselves have fun.

Ed
In talking about his mother's experiences of residential schools Ed stated that it took
several years ofasking before his mother would describe some of what she endured.
Ed: She would tell me small stuff. She wouldn't tell me about the mental stuff or the physical
or anything like that. She told me that when she spoke her language that she would get the
strap. And all of her brothers and all of her sisters were in the same place. And they would
all get the strap. And all the girls got their hair cut because they were dirty. The church said,
"you're dirty! So you are all getting haircuts ". And they were made to dress a certain way to
try and assimilate them. And it definitely did not work out. A mad experience gone wrong.
Learned irresponsibility is displayed in the helplessness of some youth to do even simple
tasks. Rarely having had opportunities to develop skills and trust, achieve moments of
positive success or have someone guide them though everyday tasks, the youth respond with

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71

defiance, become indifferent to what is being asked of them or just rebel in a variety of ways
(Brendtro et al., 1998). To many youth it is fearful to be asked to do something when you
feel that 1. It is not worthy of your attention, 2. It will make you look silly when if you fail.
Many of the youth I can remember have no sense of their heritage. They do not know
much of their own families' stories let alone how their own communities, country and
peoples have come to be where they are today. With this lack of past orientation there is a
corresponding loss of future purpose.
Brendtro, et al. (1998) are concerned primarily with the education of at-risk youth but
many of the issues they present about schools could be generalized to other settings,
including Camp Trapping. A negative approach to working with at-risk youth brings with it
pessimism about the potential of youth, and blame of the individual. The negative approach
to youth problems include "negative expectations", "punitiveness", "boredom", and
"irresponsibility" (Brendtro, et al., 1998, pp. 16-17). Current events with regards to "get
tough" changes to the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002) (CBC, September 22, 2008)
would be examples of this negative approach to youth crime.
In looking at healthy and helpful positive environments for at-risk youth Brendtro, et al.,
(1998) cite Coopersmith's (1967). .four basic components of self-esteem..." (p. 44). These
components are,
Significance is found in the acceptance, attention, and affection of others. To lack
significance is to be rejected, ignored, and not to belong; Competence develops as one
masters the environment. Success brings innate satisfaction and a sense of efficacy,
while chronic failure stifles motivation; Power is shown in the ability to control one's
behaviour and gain the respect of others. Those lacking power feel helpless and

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

without influence; Virtue is worthiness judged by values of one's culture and of
significant others. Without feelings of worthiness, life is not spiritually fulfilling
(Brendtro, et al., 1998, p. 45).

Noah
Noah remembers
...a youth on the [daily] run, who was quite overweight when he first came to camp.
Had very low self-esteem, didn'tfeel very good about himself whatsoever, and on a
regular basis we had to almost pull him up the hill and try to get him to run, and it was
him finally seeing him start to feel good about himself, and do well. And then, his first 16kilometre run we got him to do, I remember him sprinting as hard as he possibly could to
make it across a line within seconds, and then passed. And, the entire — this boy was the
runt of the litterfor sure, and was at the bottom of the food chain out of camp, and was
picked on all of the time. But, every single fad waitedfor him in front of the finish line,
and everyone cheeredfor him, and that to me was one of those moments for sure. His
self-esteem skyrocketed, hisfeelings of self-worth, his just overall well-being, just
blossomed, and it was just — that to me was just amazing to see...He earned a lot of
respect from his peers committing in the manner that he did for the run, and that helped
him out a lot in camp, and that also helped his self-esteem, the fact that he was being
accepted. That he was being recognized. Everybody was happy for him, and I think this
had a lot to do with his motivation to start trying in camp as well. And so, I would say that
this actually was a defining moment in his stay at camp and helped him to continue on in
that manner.
Garbarino (1999) expresses similar notions as Brendtro et al. (1998) in this comment;
"Nothing seems to threaten the human spirit more than rejection, brutalization, and lack of
love. Nothing - not physical deformity, not debilitating illness, not financial ruin, not
academic failure - can equal insults to the soul" (p. 132).
Garbarino (1999) provides a list often facts of life for violent boys" (p. 217). This list
1. Child maltreatment leads to survival strategies that are often antisocial and/or selfdestructive. 2. The experience of early trauma leads boys to become hypersensitive to
arousal in the face of threat and to respond to such threats by disconnecting
emotionally or acting out aggressively. 3. Traumatized kids require a calming and
soothing environment to increase the level at which they are functioning. 4.
Traumatized youth are likely to evidence an absence of future orientation. 5. Youth

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73

exposed to violence at home and in the community are likely to develop juvenile
vigilantism, in which they do not trust an adult's capacity and motivation to ensure
safety, and as a result believe they must take matters into their own hands. 6. Youth
who have participated in the violent drug economy or chronic theft are likely to have
distorted materialistic values. 7. Traumatized youth who have experienced
abandonment are likely to feel life is meaningless. 8. Issues of shame are paramount
among violent youth. 9. Youth violence is a boy's attempt to achieve justice as he
perceives it. 10. Violent boys often seem to feel they cannot afford empathy
(Garbarino, 1999, pp. 217-232).
Garbarino (1999) wrote the above about violent boys. Many of the youth that attend Camp
Trapping have aggressive tendencies and the list provided by Garbarino (1999) is applicable
to their personal approach.
Oppression's Role in Youth Violence
Many articles and studies often have comments similar to the following: "(y)outh violence
results from the interplay of individual, relationship, family, community, and
societal factors. It is strongly shaped by social determinants of health such as poverty, social
exclusion, racism, unemployment, inadequate housing, and community disorganization"
(CAMH, 2006, p. 3). These same studies and articles, more often than not then give scant
attention to the structural factors and focus primarily on the indicators of youth violence that
can best be dealt with on an individual, personal basis. The structural factors and the
influence of oppression on the presence of youth violence are very rarely explored. This
thesis applies ideas about social inequality and oppression to the issue of youth violence.

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74

Mullaly (2002) states "oppression is generally understood as the domination of
subordinate groups in society by a powerful (politically, economically, socially, and
culturally) group" (p. 27). Oppression

. .is not a static concept but a dynamic and relational

one" (Mullaly, 2002, p. 27). Mullaly (2002) cites Gil (1998, p.l 1) as arguing that as
oppression becomes "...integrated into a society's institutional order and culture, and into the
individual consciousness of its people through socialization, oppressive tendencies come to
permeate almost all relations" (p. 27). Oppression occurs because it
serves several useful functions in society. These functions include ensuring that the dominant
members of society remain so and have greater access and control over the
resources of the society. Oppression also provides for a, somewhat, compliant workforce,
source of consumers of goods and for scapegoats to take the blame for the problems
encountered by the society (Mullaly, 2002). The dominant members of society do not
necessarily believe they are being oppressive. For example the driving members of the ruling
British Columbia Liberal Party probably do believe that low welfare rates are beneficial to all
British Columbians. The beliefs expressed are that low welfare rates allow for more
government funds to be used to stimulate economic growth that will "lift" people out of
poverty. Low rates are also seen as an incentive to obtain the initiative to participate in the
workforce and to get off of welfare. Bishop (2002, p. 48) supports this view of the dominant
members of society believing in the correctness of their actions when she cites that George
(1988) explains:
I DON'T BELIEVE IN THE CONSPIRACY THEORY OF HISTORY [sic]. I take
special pains to state this, because I've been accused of just such beliefs the moment I
pointed out that a great many forces were converging in a single direction. They don't

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75

have to conspire if they have the same world-view, aspire to similar goals, and take
concerted steps to attain them (p. 5).
Oppression contributes to the factors discussed above through the various forms that
oppression takes. Mullaly (2002) summarizes Young's (1990) five categories of oppression
that look at injustice, social and relationship structures, division of labour, culture and
violence. Exploitation is the use of the subordinate groups by the dominant to accumulate
wealth, power, and status. This leads to an unequal distribution of resources and wealth in
society. For the issue of youth violence economic inequality is
growing in British Columbia [BC] (Ivanova, 2009). Evidence of this is seen in the Child
poverty rate in BC. Between 2002 and 2009 BC has had the highest child poverty rate in
Canada (First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, 2009). By all reports this trend
since 2009 has not been improving. Another protective factor in reducing crime and violence
is education and access to good paying jobs. Both of these are becoming increasingly
difficult for youth that have little education and few skills. The types of jobs that these youth
could find for them are generally low paying, unskilled, menial. These jobs provide the
worker with little control over how the job is performed, few opportunities to contribute
creatively to the betterment of the business, few, if any control over the working conditions.
Marginalization serves to exclude classes ".. .of people from useful and meaningful
participation in society, and this, in turn, may lead to severe material deprivation (Young
1990, as cited in Mullaly, 2002, p. 43). Many youth with the above predictors of violence are
marginalized through the neighbourhoods in which they live, the circumstances of their
economic exploitation, and the use, and stigmatization of the experience of the welfare
system and related components.

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76

The lower one is on the economic class hierarchy the less power one has to control one's
own life situation. People with money in our society are generally more able to assert more
control over their own lives, are able to have power over others, as in the control of workers,
or the access by others to resources, and are able to have influence on the institutions and
structures of society.
Cultural imperialism is another of Young's (1990) categories of oppression. As applied to
violent youth the role of media can be expanded upon. Mullaly (2002) writes:
Our social institutions are based on the culture and experiences of the dominant group,
and our educational system, the media, the entertainment industry, literature, and
advertising reinforce this notion of a universal culture. We are socialized into this
ethnocentric view of the world (p. 48).
The concentration of the major forms of modem culture in the hands of a few wealthy people
serves to ensure that certain stereotypes and views of the world are distributed widely
throughout all of society. This cultural imperialism extends as well to the dissemination of
news, views and what is important, and the way things ought to be.
On the receiving end youth are bombarded from an early age with messages through
media of many types about what they should buy, wear, how they should act, and what to
expect from life. For most people in society the images and values presented through the
various modern means of culture create unrealistic expectations. These expectations can
lead to frustration and anger.
The fifth category of oppression is violence. Violence can be overt, physical or covert
through "...harassment, ridicule and intimidation.. .The oppression of violence lies not

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77

only in direct victimization, but in the constant fear that violence may occur, solely on the
basis of one's group identity " (Mullaly, 2002, p. 47). For youth within the predictor range of
risk factors of violence the likelihood of having been a victim of violence, a witness to
violence or being in a group that experiences the violence of oppression is quite high.
Some of this violence of oppression takes the form of the social welfare bureaucracy.
Placing limits on access to services, requiring punitive and demeaning procedures to be
followed, causing undue stress and worry by changing the rules and segmenting services into
"efficient" compartments all fit the forms of violence as mentioned above. As James (1995)
writes: "it can be argued that if you put someone in a situation where they are very likely to
fail and then you sneer at them for doing so, you must not be surprised if they react with
hostility" (p. 131).

Where is Home?
Many of the youth do not know where they are going to go to after they leave Camp
Trapping; many are wards of the state. On one occasion I worked hard over the four months
for a youth who was at Camp to arrange a suitable living arrangement for him. The
probation officer and social worker kept delaying the process. The social worker was happy
that the youth was in a court ordered programme as that placed responsibility upon the
probation officer. Finally, within the last two weeks of the youth's stay with us a plan was
devised. The youth was reluctant at first and then bought in completely. He could see the
benefits of the planned placement and had come around to taking some positive steps for
himself He was keen to give the plan a try. On the Friday prior to his Tuesday graduation I
received phone calls from the social worker and probation officer. They informed me that the
aftercare plan hadfallen through as the people who control the finances would not release
the money needed to pay for the living arrangement that had taken so much time and effort to
prepare. I was visibly angry when I told the youth what had happened and set him up with
the latest aftercare plan: The social worker summed up the pastfour months of effort by the
staff and the youth at Camp Trapping in the statement "Just tell him to show up at my office
when he gets back to town." The youth asked me why I was so angry. I said that I did not
think that after four months of good effort that this should happen. His response was, "It's
all right. It happens all the time." I replied emphatically, "That's why I am angry!!" I never
did hear how things worked out for that youth. He did very well while at Camp and I hope
that he was able to maintain that momentum in his life even when faced with so many things
working against his success.

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78

My Kafkaesque adventures in seeking approval for my research pale in comparison to what
some of the youth need to do. Sometimes the plain insensitivity to the plight of the youth
boggles the imagination.

You're 19. You're OuttaHere!
One youth who had been a student at Camp turned 19 years old while he was living in a
temporary living arrangement. As soon as midnight came around and he was 19 he was
shown to the door. This youth like many others I have known have been in the care of the
Ministry of Children and Families for almost their whole lives. Even if a child is only in care
for a few years before they turn 19 you would think that there would be better transition
planning for these youth*
To be fair I also have experienced the opposite situation where youth were well planned
for and received plenty of assistance. Even if a youth is deemed "difficult to care for " and
resistant to accepting help you would think the system should have the means to adapt to the
youth's needs.
Mullaly (2002) contends that the terms 'structural inequality' and 'social inequality'
should be replaced by the term "socially sanctioned structural violence" (p. 121). The reasons
given for this are that "structural inequalities are socially sanctioned forms of physical and
psychological violence, which over time will lead to hurtful discrimination and slow,
agonizing, premature, and unpunished death" (Mullaly, 2002, p. 121). A look at the social
determinants of health support Mullaly's (2002) claim as well as provide a possible practice
model for ameliorating the effects of oppression in the form of youth violence.
Social Determinants of Health
The Human Early Learning Project (HELP) (Kershaw, Anderson, Warburton and
Hertzman, 2009) is a current attempt in British Columbia to measure early child
development, school readiness and the long-term effects of less than adequate childhood
stimulation and nurturance. The HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) findings are that "29% of
children [currently entering kindergarten in BC] are vulnerable to less than optimal physical,
socio-emotional and cognitive development" (p. 6). The HELP report 15 by 15:

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79

A comprehensive framework for early human capital investment in BC (Kershaw, et al.,
2009) goes on to cite McCain, Mustard & Shankar's (2007) findings that "literacy and
numeracy skills, economic participation, criminality, and many adult health issues, including
obesity, mental health [depression], heart disease, high blood pressure and non-insulin
dependent diabetes, all have their roots in the early years" (p. 7).
The HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) studies indicate that the vulnerability rate is increasing,
even at a time of good economic activity and high employment. HELP (Kershaw, et al.,
2009) presents an argument that for British Columbia to continue to be economically healthy
the most vulnerable in our society need increased support. The suggestions put forward by
HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) would go a long ways toward alleviating many of the factors
that influence violent behaviour in youth. Kershaw, et al. (2009) recommend increasing
maternity leave to 18 months, include a portion of parental leave solely for fathers, increase
opportunities for parents of older children to work less over a year to encourage parents to
spend more time with their children, ".. .without
exacerbating gender inequalities in the labour market" (p.2), and to improve the income
assistance levels to families with children. Three more recommendations include the
increased use of community health nurse contacts during pregnancy and during the 18
months after, improve the access, affordability and quality of childcare resources, and
enhance local early childhood support services up to age six.
Kershaw, et al. (2009) make an economic argument that these investments will provide
for immediate financial gains in the current workforce, will reduce health-care, welfare, and
criminal justice system costs. The economic argument is also carried forward into the future

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80

when the children helped now enter the education system and then the workforce. By making
the investment now our society will be better off in the future.
The HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) studies have found that vulnerability is spread across
all neighbourhoods and socio-economic levels. Developmental vulnerability exists at higher
concentrations in poor neighbourhoods but the middle-class neighbourhoods have the
greatest numbers of children found to be of vulnerable status. HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009)
studies found that some high income neighbourhoods had very low
developmental rates. The resulting conclusion, and suggestion for reducing vulnerability,
is to provide "...equitable access to the conditions that support healthy child development for
all, not just for those at the highest end of the socioeconomic spectrum" (Kershaw, et al.,
2009, p. 13).
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health [CAMH] (2006) supports the notion that
youth violence is a public health issue. CAMH (2006) suggests many of the same approaches
as HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) but also includes improved community development and
employment opportunities for youth as ways to reduce youth violence.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) that the HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) work is
based on information about kindergarten student life experiences and converts that
information into maps showing the prevalence of vulnerabilities within neighbourhoods. This
work provides evidenced-based information on the effects of government policy on a
neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis. As such, HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009), to some
degree, makes the personal a political issue. This neighbourhood mapping fits a critical social
work approach as the neighbourhood vulnerability maps can be used "...to dispel any notion
that any particular difficulty experienced by an oppressed individual is unique and

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81

idiosyncratic to that individual, when in fact the difficulty is a logical outcome of oppression
and is being experienced by many members of a particular subordinate group" (Mullaly,
2007, p. 308). This would help serve to normalize the issues of clients moving the issue from
being centred solely on being a pathological, individualized problem with the client to being
a problem that is shared and is societal in nature.
This normalization of problems is part of the consciousness-raising process of a critical
social work approach; "Consciousness-raising is obviously an important part of intrapsychic
and interpersonal work in that with increased awareness of injustice and
oppression, oppressed people are better able to identify the structural causes of their negative
emotions and interpersonal difficulties" (Mullaly, 2007, p. 303).
This consciousness-raising through the use of the HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009)
information could be used in political education to empower oppressed individuals and
communities to contest the economic and social policies that affect them. From that,
empowerment could lead to collective action to seek changes such as those suggested by
the HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) projects. This education would also occur in a wider public
sense to advocate for systemic change to decrease oppression in society.
Bishop (2002) provides some suggested guidelines for "becoming an ally" (p. 114) with
oppressed groups. Many of those guidelines are ways to be aware of your own part in
oppression and to not replicate that oppression within groups that you become involved with.
Bishop (2002) also suggests that allies should "try to help members of your own group
understand oppression and make the links among the different forms of oppression" (p. 114).
The HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) information and process fits this approach nicely. The

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

HELP (Kershaw, et al., 2009) approach would go a long ways towards reducing youth
violence by addressing some of the core predictors of the issue.
Bishop (2002) ends her book Becoming an Ally with a chapter entitled "Maintaining
Hope". Bishop (2002) writes:
People change. Sometimes the process involves two steps forward, one step back, or
even two steps back, but people do change and heal and grow. People change
individually and collectively, changing structures along the way. It does not even
require a new generation, raised differently, to see change in society (p. 146).
Bishop (2002) goes on to state that her dream of social transformation
.. .is a vision of a world I would like to live in, a world based on cooperation,
negotiation, and universal respect for the innate value of every creature on earth and
the Earth herself. This is a world where no one doubts that to hurt anyone or anything
is to hurt yourself and those you love most, a world where everyone works to
understand what the effects of everything we do will be on future generations (p.150).

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Chapter 6:

83
The Punitive Turn

If.. .the machine of government...is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of
injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Henry David Thoreau (1849, p. 12)

The youth that attend Camp Trapping are some of our society's most vulnerable.
Through interplay of social and personal processes these youth are marginalized: often
excluded from education, good housing, recreational opportunities, social activities,
employment and involvement in mainstream, middle-class culture. When once such
individuals could have left school sometime during high school and been fairly assured of
finding decent paying employment opportunities. Such employment would have provided a
"middle-class" life of owning a car, a house and able to provide for their families. Today
many such jobs have been absorbed into the globalizing economy whereby capital is able to
move manufacturing to those countries with the cheapest labour costs. Many resource
industries have also gone through a mechanization process that reduces the number of
workers required to produce even greater quantities of materials. The lumber industry of
Northern BC would be a good example. Large harvesting machines can cut, de-limb and
stack logs at a faster rate than several people with chainsaws and a skidder machine.
Likewise sawmills are no longer required to process the logs harvested within the local forest
region. This has seen the development of "supermills" that process lumber from a large
geographical area with far fewer workers involved. This effect of globalization has turned
many of the youth at Camp into what is considered an expence and an inconvenience.

Bear Lake
The personification of the outcomes of the rise of corporate hegemony and
globalization were sitting beside me in the van as we drove through the shutdown Bear Lake
sawmill. We hadjust come from a three-day canoe trip into Arctic-Pacfic Lakes Provincial
Park. Employment opportunities for the youth with me that day are not what they were a
generation ago. As we drove through the sawmill yard the only humans around were a

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84

security guard and, in a van were two wilderness based youth care workers trying to preach
a stay in school message to teenaged boys who are largely disengaged, barely engaged, or,
for a couple of them, unable to engage in the school system for a variety of mental health
issues.'
With globalization it would appear that individuals have less say, and certainly fewer
protections, into what happens in their own communities. To me Bear Lake is a vivid symbol
ofpolitics andfinancial powers dictating what is will happen in rural BC. Local sawmills
are no longer needed by big business as the provincial government changed the laws about
processing logs in the communities in which they were cut. Throw in low lumber prices from
a depressed American housing market upon which the lumber industry depends and it is not
long before mills like Bear Lake are shutdown. The corporations take their business and
profits elsewhere and the big banks and the people that own them still make huge profits.
In the mean time I am driving a vanload of disadvantaged youth through a wasteland of a
mill trying to figure out how to get them to a point "...ofshared transformation... (Mullaly,
1997, p. 192)." I desperately wanted them to drop their petty bickering and see that
"...without a common ideology there is no common cause, issues are viewed in a parochial
fashion, and single-issue reform becomes the goals of each group" (Mullaly, 1997, p. 192).
This statement to me is embodied in the youth's very existence. The oppression is
internalized and the youth re-enact their experiences through interactions with peers, family
and their communities. Almost without exception these youth come from a shared experience
ofpoverty and disadvantage. Thirty percent are of Aboriginal descent. Most, if not all, have
experienced personal loss and trauma, be it, parental divorce, physical, mental and sexual
abuse, intergenerational grief, injury and violence.
As we drove along the highway and logging roads these boys were generally oblivious to
their plight as pariahs in a system that does little to recognize their pain and assist them in
improving their lot in life. They can't see beyond their own immediate concerns. They have
built up a front of toughness (anger and violence) and have a narrow range of emotions
(glad, mad, sad, bad) to hide
fear and pain. I am generalizing here but this does seem to be a fairly common and
recurring theme. These were some of the thoughts that I had as I pondered the futures of the
youth I had just taken down a river and up a creek (for real!).

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Figure 15

85

Arctic Lake at Sunset. Looking North from the Campsite

Those that cannot fit in require risk management and control. The successful corporate, neoliberal call for reductions in taxes, less government oversight and regulation and a focus on
individual rights versus collective needs has resulted in the poor, the mentally ill, the
"criminal" and other marginalized groups to be further isolated and blamed for their own
situations. As such they are seen to be in need of punishment and limited assistance. This
chapter will look at some of the issues around this punitive turn and how it affects the youth I
have worked with.
History of Social Welfare in Canada
Throughout the 1950s, 60s and into the early 70s the governments of Canada, both Liberal
and Conservative, advanced political, social, and economic rights of citizens. It is in this time
period of our history that we see such things as the Bill of Rights, the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms (Albeit 1982 but formulated from an earlier era), right to education, employment,

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to join unions, assistance for the unemployed, sick and elderly, expanded ideas of equality
and civil rights. This was a time of substantial economic growth.
All income groups participated in the growing prosperity. Wages and living
standards for all increased in tandem with the growing economy, and income and
wealth inequality fell. The far-reaching reforms brought in by Canadian governments
during the Keynesian era created, for the first time in our history, a broad middle-class
society (Campbell, 2010, p. 2).
Canadians came to view themselves as somewhat enlightened and compassionate towards
each other as fellow citizens.

THE MARSH REPORT
'COWftEM&MSn

6

FOR

Figure 16 Marsh Report (1943) Diagram of the Proposed Social Welfare System
(Begbie Contest Society, 2006)

The social welfare components of this movement after World War Two were based on the
1943 Report on Social Security for Canada, written by Dr. Leonard Marsh (Maioni, 2004).
The Marsh Report was one part of overall post-war planning group formed in 1941 and

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known as the Committee on Reconstruction (Bright, 2005). Originating from an earlier
committee that started work at the outset of the war in 1939 to plan for the demobilization
and return of soldiers, sailors and aircrew to civilian life. It quickly became evident to that
first committee that to assist a smooth transition to peacetime life broader social, economic
and civil concerns must be addressed. The impact of the troops returning from the First
World War, the economic depression at the end of that first war and the resulting inequalities
and social instabilities of the 1920s and 1930s were fresh in the minds of the most Canadians
who had lived through that period. Similar to the British Beverage Report of 1943, Marsh
had studied under William Beverage at the London School of Economics, the report called
for universal and comprehensive social programmes. The report was
.. .constructed around the ideal of a social minimum and the eradication of poverty.
The realization of this ideal, according to Marsh, meant the recognition that individual
risks were part of a modern industrial society, and that they could be met by collective
benefits throughout the lifecycle. Full employment at a living wage would be the
engine for this vision, supplemented by occupational readjustment programmes.
"Employment risks" were to be met through income-maintenance programmes, such
as unemployment insurance and assistance, accident amd disability benefits, plus paid
maternity leave (a proposal ahead of its time). "Universal risks" were addressed
through national health insurance, chidren's allowances, and pensions for old age,
permanent disability, and widows and orphans (Maioni, 2004, p. 21).
Marsh's report did not create much initial enthusiasm but by the mid-1960's most of the
report's recommendations had been enacted.

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The 1970s saw major changes in world markets and international monetary systems. It
was in this adjusted economic climate that neoconservative thought came to prominence.
First Margaret Thatcher, in Britain, and then Ronald Reagan in the United States brought in
policies of less government and the supremacy of market forces. Canada followed suit with
policy changes that continue to today that favor capital accumulation, through, among many
things, weakened labour rights, financial deregulation, regressive tax regimes that favour the
wealthy, privatization of public assets and decreased funding for public services.
Governments have also pursued free-trade agreements that subordinate social, environmental
and citizenship rights to the economic prerogative..
This is a return to pre-1940s ideas about economic security and social welfare. Generally
these ideas hold that all individuals are responsible for their own care, the state should not be
involved in helping those who are able to work but seen as unwilling to take care of
themselves. Social welfare is seen as being a local concern to only assist those who are in
desperate need of assistance.
Monbiot (2007) provides a concise definition of neoliberalism.
The theory of neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market
freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be
confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending
the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will
be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services. By this means,
enterprise is liberated, rational decisions are made and citizens are freed from the
dehumanizing hand of the state (p. 1).

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Rise of Neo-Liberal Approaches to Social Issues
The effects of the neoliberal approach in Canada and in British Columbia can be seen in
the mean-spirited marginalization of the youth and their families of those that attend Camp
Trapping. Monbiot (2007) notes
The conditions that neoliberalism demands in order to free human beings from the
slavery of the state - minimal taxes, the dismantling of public services and social
security, deregulation, the breaking of the unions - just happen to be the conditions
required to make the elite even richer, while leaving everyone else to sink or swim
(p. 1).
This shift of the neoliberal approach away from treating youth as a future resource to be
nourished and treasured to one of being a distinct market and as consumers who are gauged
as being participants in the market economy. Public schools, college and university tuitions
and other institutions and services paid for from the public purse that were once viewed as
being beneficial for youth and an investment in the future are increasingly treated as a drain
and liability, a cause of the public financial problem of debt. In such an environment youth,
in particular poor, marginalized and minority youth
.. .have not just been excluded.. .but have become utterly redundant and disposable,
waste products of a society that no longer considers them of any value. Such
youth.. .now experience a kind of social death as they are pushed out of schools,
denied job training opportunities, subject to rigorous modes of surveillance and
criminal sanctions and viewed less as disadvantaged than as flawed consumers and
civic felons (Giroux, 2010, p, 5).

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Instead of being seen as disadvantaged, many youth are taken to be a liability and a risk,
as a dangerous class in need of control. Instead of being seen as being poorly served by our
social welfare and other institutions we are a society ".. .that increasingly views youth
through the optic of law and order and is all too willing to treat them as criminals, and. When
necessary, make them "disappear" into the farthest reaches of the carceral state" (Giroux,
2010, p. 6). Louise Arbour, the former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal
Tribunals for the former Yugoslvia and for Rwanda and current President and Chief
Executive Officer of the International Crisis Group is quoted as saying,
I despair of how the rule of law has been trivialised and reduced to law enforcement,"
Arbour said. "The need is not to build more police forces or more prisons but to move
to a justice-oriented model where all citizens are equal before the law (D'Almeida.
2011, April 16).
It is in this punitive direction that current changes to Canadian youth justice legislation is
headed.
Youth Justice History in Canada
Historically such legislation has taken a largely child welfare and rehabilitation focus. The
Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA), originally enacted in 1908, was focused on child welfare
and had a very paternalistic approach. Social work in Canada as a trained profession was in
its infancy. The child welfare and rehabilitative focus of the JDA would have substantive
meaning for the social work profession.
The Young Offenders Act (YOA, R.S.C., c. 110,1985) replaced the JDA in 1984. The
YOA attempted to redress the lack of legal due process inherent in the JDA while retaining

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the child welfare needs of youth. The flaws of the YOA (R.S.C., c. 110, s. 1., 1985) can be
seen in the following instructions given in the act with regards to sentencing:
17.1) The disposition of the competent authority shall be guided by the following
principles:
(a) The reaction taken shall always be in proportion not only to the circumstances and
the gravity of the offence but also to the circumstances and the needs of the juvenile as
well as to the needs of the society (YOA, R.S.C., c. 110, s. 1., 1985)
This vague guideline meant that the needs of the child were often subordinated to the
punishment and retribution needs of society. This led to very differential sentencing of youth
by individual judges, within jurisdictions and across Canada. By the 1990s Canada had one
of the highest incarceration rates of youth in the western world, even higher than the
American rates.
1,200

S

600

United Slates
Figure 17 The Overall Rate (per 100,000 youth age 12 to 17) of Youth Court Judges Imposing Custody in
Canada and the US (1997). (Department of Justice Canada, 2011)

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The child welfare aspect was being neglected. It also created a situation where a young
person would often be incarcerated for offences that an adult would not be sent to jail for.
The current Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA, S.C. c. 1, 2002) came into force in 2003.
The YCJA gave much clearer directions as to what was expected upon a finding of guilt.
Section 38 (1) of the YCJA (S.C. c. 1, 2002) states the purpose of sentencing
.. .is to hold the young person accountable for an offence through the imposition of just
sanctions that have meaningful consequences for the young person and that promote
his or her rehabilitation and reintegration into society, thereby contributing to the
long-term protection of the public.
Through this, and in other sections, the YCJA acknowledges the research that indicates very
strongly that most youth grow out of criminal behaviour and that the incarceration of youth
tends to increase the likelihood of a youth continuing with crime into the adult years. Sending
a youth to jail surrounds that individual with like-minded, oppositional youth many of whom
are resistant to change. The possibility of returning to jail after being incarcerated is greatly
increased. Likewise the severity of subsequent offences tends to increase if a person has been
incarcerated. Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) note that higher rates of imprisonment are more a
reflection of the harshness of the sentencing and not the crime rate.
Long sentences seem to be less of a deterrent than higher conviction rates, and the
longer someone is incarcerated, the harder it is for them to adapt to life outside.
Gilligan (2001) says that, "the criminal justice and penal systems have been operating
under a huge mistake, namely, the belief that punishment will deter, prevent or inhibit
violence, when in fact it is the most powerful stimulant of violence that we have yet
discovered" (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009, p. 154).

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The YCJA provided for sentencing options that would divert youth away from criminal
proceedings where possible and away from custody for all but the most serious of offences.
A range of alternatives were to be instituted that would provide ".. .meaningful
consequences.. .that promote.. .rehabilitation and reintegration.. .thereby contributing to the
long-term protection of the public" (YCJA, 2003, s.38(l|). For us working with young
offenders this made us very hopeful that here would be the creation of plenty of incommunity resources that would directly address the specific issues of youth crime. We
thought that perhaps more prevention programmes would be funded to engage youth in the
community.

Duke
And that's the unfortunate piece. I don't think there has been any more layers of help, of
counseling, of — there haven't been any new programs developed. If anything, the programs
have shut down. And, jails are one leg because of the numbers of kids in custody has gone
down dramatically in the last five or six years, and continues to go down. But, there seems to
be a big bulge of 18 and 19 year old adults in the system. There is a huge layer of — and my
perspective, it's because 16,17, and 18 year old kids have not been dealt with through the
courts; they have no fear of the courts, they continue on their criminal activity way until they
turn into an adult at 18, when they get slammed. Right? So, there was no real sort of
progression. It seemed like we tried to keep them out of jail, they went, "oh, that's fine, I will
continue on my merry way". They turn into an adult, "bang", they get slammed and go to
jailfor the same offenses that they did a year before, but they weren't going to jail. That's the
point.
I remember at the time that it soon became evident that the province was looking at the
change in legislation as a way to save some money. So fewer youth ended up in the Prince
George Youth Custody Centre that the centre actually laid off some staff. At one point there
were more staff in the centre than "residents". The expected in-community options that were
implemented were very limited in scope. Diversion hearings were used and maybe some
other sorts of alternative sentencing but very little in the way of constructive, meaningful
consequences.

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YCJA Implementation and Camp
An aspect of the implementation of the YCJA that had a significant impact upon Camp
Trapping was the disjointed interpretations between the different players of the justice
system. Prior to the enactment of the YOA in 1984 all the arms of the justice system sat down
together to sort out how the act would be put into practical, everyday use. For the YCJA
none of this seemed to occur. There were conferences and meetings for separate components
of the system but no collective gathering and collaboration that I know of For us at Camp
this meant struggling to get the police to respond to an incident became like pulling teeth.
For years we had developed a good working relationship with the police in Prince George.
They knew that we would go a long ways with a youth before we would call for assistance
and if we did call it would not be for something trivial. I remember being told by a sergeant
who responded to my call to pick up a couple ofstudents that had walked away from the
programme that the police could not charge or apprehend kids at all under the YCJA. I
informed him otherwise and quickly followed up in contacting the probation officer who
contacted the Crown attorney to ensure the police knew what could be done. Even with that
the police released the youths, contrary to what they had been informed they could do, later
that evening onto the streets of Prince George. They were not released into the care of an
adult nor did they have anywhere to go to as they were not from that city. This was a time of
great frustration with the justice system. Over time the jails did regain their numbers
although to a level that closer resembled the need to incarcerate the more "dangerous "
offenders. The police did learn that they could hold youth that were in contravention of court
orders, such as to attend Camp Trapping. The other feature that became useful for Camp
was the ability to obtain the release of a youth from jail on a "deferred Custody Order" with
the express condition of that release being to attend and successfully complete the Camp
programme. Upon graduation from Camp the youth would be returned to the home
community. Failure to comply with this order meant the police could apprehend and return
the youth straight to jail. This type of order, when available, helped immensely with dealing
with the police. These orders were also good for getting kids out offail and seeking their
cooperation at Camp. Not so much as a coercive tool but simply by providing a more
enjoyable, alternative, and meaningful, environment.
After several years there developed a predictable backlash against the lack of "meaningful
consequences". Not only did the public react with criticisms of leniency but the students at
Camp expressed, with some correctness that nothing would happen to them if they didn't
comply with court orders. Today the legislative pendulum is reacting to the political
expedience of calls to "get tough" with youth.

Toby
A kid said to me one time, a noncompliant kid, he said, "If I get arrested, I will be home by
supper." He said. And he was probably right. I said, "Well, that may be, but I seriously doubt
if it will happen this time." And he did as he was told) but it didn't last long. I mean, he had

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been in and out of there, steady, that guy. So, he's not intimidated by the system. And, he's
probably more right than I was in the conversation.
Two Philosophical Approaches to Crime
There exist two distinct approaches to crime. These approaches are based upon the
philosophical understandings that the proponents of each approach have about human nature
and the roles that governments should have in society. The "get tough" approach is of the
"law and order" genre. Under such regimes the criminal has a debt to pay and must be made
an example of to deter them and others. This approach fits very nicely with neo-liberal
patriarchal morality and place of the individual in society. Criminals are seen as being "bad"
and need to be punished, this fits, as well, with the approach that people living in poverty are
in such a situation of their own making and could get themselves out of poverty if they
weren't lazy. In both cases, the criminal and the poor, the individual is punished for their
condition.
Intimately tied to the "law and order" approach is the use of imprisonment. Irwin (2005)
(as cited in Wilkenson & Pickett, 2009) identifies 4 'official' and 3 'unofficial' purposes of
imprisonment. The 'official' purposes are,
.. .retribution for crimes committed, deterrence, incapacitation of dangerous criminals
and the rehabilitation of criminals.. .Unofficial purposes are Class control-the need to
protect honest middle-class citizens from the dangerous criminal underclass;
scapegoating-diverting attention away from more serious problems (and here he
{Irwin} singles out growing inequalities in wealth and income); and using the threat
of the dangerous class for political gain (Wilkenson & Pickett, 2009, p. 153).
The "public safety" approach is the opposing idea to the "law and order" approach. This is
the belief that crime should be dealt with in a manner that is effective and is shown to have

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results in lessening the likelihood of crime and harms to the public. This is an approach that
believes in the striving for an improvement in social conditions through addressing issues of
social, legal inequalities and injustices.
In the last few years the "law and order" approach has taken primacy in the means by
which our society deals with issues of crime and criminals. The ascendance of this approach
is in lockstep with the rise of neoliberal politics. Even as crime rates are dropping through
demographic changes the use of the public purse for "criminal justice" expenditures increases
at a dramatic rate to increasingly marginalize the "dangerous underclasses." (Irwin, 2005)
Increasingly Punitive
With a media that focuses on the more sensational cases of youth violence and disorder
and gives lip service or ignores the broader issues of the causes of youth crime public
perceptions are the same as in past generations that experienced moral panics with their
youth. There is a punitive turn occurring that plays on public fears and results in a war on the
already marginalized and politically disposable. Cracking down on youth crime with harsher
penalties and applying retributive principles serves to show decisive action and seems to
score political points with a large segment of voters.

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Conservatives vow to toughen youth justice
act
Youth 14 and ever would be named when convicted of serious crimes
LetttftxMatf; MomHy, SttMmntmO, MM119:2

t Ijradtr Stephen Harper taU imgher sentences for
yotmg people who commit crimts wW serve as a deterrent. (CBCj

Figure 18

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). (September 22, 2008)

Note the heading of the above news clipping from the 2008 federal election. Instead of
bolstering the original intentions of the YCJA and creating more in-community consequences
and resources, such as prevention programmes, the move is towards, in both the adult and
youth justice systems, a greater punitive, retributive and regressive approach. This approach
ignores the existing research into crime prevention, the ineffectiveness of detention as a
deterrent to criminal activity and the lack of success at rehabilitating and reintegrating
offenders within the correctional system. Corrections philosophy has taken a turn towards
incapacitation and retribution to the detriment of most other of the purposes. Such a move is
driven by the neo-liberal ideology of individual responsibility, and the power of the markets
to correct behaviours. The thought is that people who break the law will not do so if made to
"pay" dearly for their actions.

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The following is an example of public reactions, albeit on the extreme end of the scale of
responses, to a recent event. This is some responses to news article about the police capture
of two young men breaking the law in Prince George, BC.

Opinion 250 News-Site Postings
"He's 18 and on probation. Good grief. We complain about the over population of the world
yet keep trying rehab on wastes of skin like this... Just throw him off a bridge and be done
with it. After a few years this gene pool will start to thin out". (Posted by: interceptor)
(Opinion 250 News Inc., 2011, January 21a.).

"Must wear a red Arm Band at all Times, so every one can spot him".
(Posted by: Outwest) (Opinion 250 News Inc., 2011, January 21b.).
Figure 19

Prince George Responses to News Articles

Focussing on deterrence ignores the conditions inherent in the lives of many offenders,
adult and youth. Drug and alcohol dependence, mental illness, poverty, histories of
victimization and abuse, and similar situations do not lend themselves well to rational, precontemplative thoughts about the consequences of one's actions. For youth in particular,
behaviour can be quite impulsive and done in the heat of the moment and influenced by peer
contagion. Thoughts of deterrence and being caught do not occur when the situation is
exciting or immediately rewarding. On many occasions I have heard youth express that they
just weren't thinking about outcomes when they did something that resulted in a negative
consequence for themselves or others involved in the situation.

Toby
I think they need to look before they leap. I donft think if the consequences of our actions are
inconsistent, how can we learn to make good decisions?
So, / think that consistency definitely helps. And, I mean lots ofguys, most of the guys, most
teenagers don't think about the consequences of what they are doing. "You're breaking the

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law, what did you think would happen? " I've asked that so many times. "Never thought
about itYeah, just did it and never thought about it. And if someone breaks a rule at
Camp? "What did you think I was going to do when I found out?" "Oh, I never thought
about it"Well, you what I'm going to do, what did you think? Let me tell you that there is
going to be a consequence". Take's a while to learn that.
The types of measures being contemplated for changes to criminal legislation include:
o The inclusion of deterrence and denunciation as a principle of sentencing for young
offenders;
o Easier ability to detain young people prior to trial;
o Requirement of the Crown to seek adult sentences for youth as young 14 years of
age for serious offences. This places the onus on the defence to seek a retention of
youth sentences;
o Provisions that allow for the publication of the offender's name in certain
circumstances;
o A requirement that police keep records of all informal measures they use with a youth
in order to acquire a pattern re-offending that can be used in future criminal actions.
These include such measures as warnings, cautions and referrals to social service
agencies and other diversions from criminal proceedings;
o The inclusion of "reckless behaviour endangering the public safety" as a violent
offence. (Department of Justice Canada, 2010).
Though some of the changes to the YCJA are welcome and will improve the ability of the
courts to address criminal actions of young people, especially of violent offenders the overall
language and approach is regressive and not likely to achieve the aims that it sets out to do.
As Turpel-Lafond (2010) the BC Representative for Children and Youth states
.. .the evidence is not clear in support of many of the amendments.. .1 recommend that

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changes be made to make these amendments consistent with the evidence on crime
prevention, reduction and improving the lives of Canadian adolescents, especially
those from vulnerable populations (p. 17).

1

^

" If]

Figure 20 "Lineup". Clay Bennett Cartoon (Bennett, n.d.).

Proposed changes to the Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) seem to be even more punitive. It
is worth a quick look at some of these changes as they eventually do, unfortunately, effect
many of the youth that I work with. Thirty percent of all legislation being considered by
Parliament is related to crime (Mallea, 2010). Of interest in the CCC amendments are the
following changes. The first of the changes is the inclusion of mandatory minimum sentences
for a broad range of offences. This mandatory sentencing upon a finding of guilty removes
judicial discretion to deal with individual circumstances, places greater emphasis upon the
concept of deterrence, increases the use of "backroom deals" that keep key evidence from
entering the court for the judge to consider, and increases the number of not guilty pleas,
effectively taking up more court time. Another change is the "Truth in Sentencing Act." This

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act eliminated the use of one's time served on remand awaiting trial as time served once
sentenced to jail. Every day served in remand was given as two days off on the sentence time
served. This two- for-one arrangement recognized the "dead-time" detainees serve while in
remand. They are not yet convicted of an offence and cannot take part in specialized
programmes, such as drug and alcohol treatment, mental health counseling or schooling. This
also served to recognize that the accused were waiting for the courts to clear some space
from a busy and overworked agenda to hear their case. The result of eliminating this pre-trial
credit may be to speed up holding trials sooner as well as judges seeking ways to lower
sentences to adjust for the change in the legislation (Mallea, 2010). The other change to the
CCC that is of interest is the removal of the "faint hope" clause. This allowed prisoners with
life sentences to apply for parole after serving fifteen years, instead of twenty-five, of their
sentence. Bill C-36, or the "Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act" would eliminate
this possibility of early release.
The impact of these changes and proposed changes to the CCC is already being felt in the
Canadian judicial system. The courts are backlogged, incarceration rates are increasing, jails
are becoming overcrowded with resulting tensions, programmes for inmates are harder to
access or limited, and costs are increasing as incarcerating individuals costs money and new
jails are being built. An expected change to occur within the correctional system will be an
increase in the rate of incarceration of persons of Aboriginal descent. This is a growing
segment of the population, age is associated with criminal behaviour, and is already over
represented given the percentage of the general population.
None of this seems to make much sense beyond an ideology that ignores evidence
contrary to the underpinnings of that ideology and a desire to be seen to be "Tough on

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\ 02

Crime" rather than "Thoughtful on Crime or Smart on Crime" (Mallea, 2010, p. 8). "Nor
does it recognize that imposing more privations upon those who have already suffered much
privation in their lives is counterproductive" (Mallea, 2010,p. 8). These measures are not
likely to reduce criminal activity nor improve public safety. Even using neoliberal fiscal
approaches this "Tough on Crime" punitive movement does not make sense as it will become
increasingly expensive. It is a far cry from minimal government. Many American states have
applied these same punitive approaches for "toughening up" the judicial system. As with
those states our efforts will no doubt cost Canadians untold billions of dollars and will
remove further funding away from other aspects of provincial and federal budgets. Perhaps
this is the true purpose of the "Tough on Crime" agenda, the removal of the financial
capability of government to act for the true greater good of all.
The result is an opposite approach to that which is indicated by the majority of research
conducted by what Waller (2008) calls "prestigious organizations" (p. xi). This is a reactive
style of politics that is producing punitive legislation that will further negatively effect,
marginalize and abuse those less fortunate in our society. An alternative can be seen in the
Camp Trapping approach. Camp is seen, by judges, lawyers, youth and the public that knows
about Camp as a "tough" programme. That toughness does not come from a retributive or
uncaring approach it comes from the physical, mental and social demands that are made of
both the students and staff as they live together in a community. Toughness in youth
corrections should not compound the burdens already experienced by youth.

Toby
You know, the kids that weren't lazy, they thought Camp was fairly easy. For a couch
potato kid, I think pretty tough. I used to have empathy for a lot of tads, especially the
January intake, you know, my God, I mean, they are freaked out, give them a break Get up
in the morning. Get up and running down the road in the bloody black dark, jump in the lake
and do this and go in the bush. Get soaking wet, pack logs. Like give them a break I mean,

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Ymallforit, but I mean, for a couch potato from Vancouver or Nanaimo? Man. Youknow,
we lived it. I don't really think we thought it was much, and I don't think it's that bloody
tough. But, when I think back at some of the stuff, I'm fine. But, for a couch potato, it's tough.

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Chapter 7: Masculinity

Figure 21

Advertisement for the movie Semi-Pro Starring Will Ferrell
(New Line Cinema, 2008).

Issues of masculinity are a continuous concern for the workers at Camp. When angry
young men are confronted with people setting clear boundaries for what is considered
appropriate behaviour those people are often challenged, threatened or ignored. The
behaviour management system at Camp places strong responsibilities on individuals to treat
all others with respect and to use assertive communication skills. For many youth this is not
within one's repertoire of behaving. Rudeness is equated to toughness, fear to respect,
kindness and caring to weakness and homosexuality. Both male and female workers at Camp
routinely challenge the youth's concept of their own masculinity. Issues of masculinity in
respect to the criminal justice system and youth-care work at Camp Trapping are explored in
this chapter.
Almost all staff at Camp do all tasks. The male staff show caring, "softer" emotions, and
they cook, and clean. Female staff are authoritarian, give clear direction and orders, do

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manual labour, such as operate chainsaws, put snow chains on the van, carry a pack heavier
than most students, and run fast and far. The supposed role reversals for many of the students
is endless. The discussion that often ensues helps to drive the point home that being male is
more than putting on a "tough guise" (Katz, 1999).

Chris
Having female staff out at Camp Trapping was always quite effective if they were strong
women, who were good at what they did. For some youth it really, it must have made them
scratch their heads, things weren't adding up for them. That this is a woman, but "she's
strong and confident and powerful and she's in control over me right now, but she's not mean
about it. And, she's caring about it. And, Ilike her". It must be so hardfor women to work
out there, but they play such a vital role in doing that. And so, you would see youth learning
that way. And also, as much as possible, a lot of the male staff out at camp would try to lead
in ways that were — we almost tried to be more goofy than powerful and intimidating and
make the youth laugh and like and respect us because we could make them laugh or we could
just smile about things. But, we could be serious when we needed to.
Alan: We had that toughness in a different way, right? You were good on the run work
program, you had a good work ethic. Different kinds of toughness that these guys would -Chris: And, I feel like I would always try to work really hard to try to redefine what
toughness meant, because while I'm not physically macho tough, I worked really hard out
there. I always thought camp was tough. All of the things that we did in the program were —
it made you tough, being out in the cold, in the winters, outside all the time. And, on the out
trips and stuff like that, running made you tough. And, I always tried to help the youth
redefine that, and you think you are not getting through, but you are. And you are always
trying to redirect the youth as well into what is success out of camp? Success isn't being
tough and intimidating and fighting and getting your way. Or, saying no to authority and
getting your way. Because that really never worked that well. But, it's working hard and
mastering the program that's going to get you power out there, really. And, I think that was
one of the things that Ifigured out, and I worked really hard to try to get youth focused on
that.
Pain and Pain-Based Behaviour
During my interview with Michelle she related a story of a young man who walked
around always puffed up like a peacock. I characterized this as having "grapefruits under his
armpits" in an attempt to make himself look more imposing to his peers and to controlling
adults. Michelle described an incident where the youth had been in a fight and was been
taken away from the main Camp setting to work at the "Alternate" with a staff as a
consequence. The alternate is like a time-out, it is the maximum consequence at Camp short

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of removal. It is usually a twenty-four hour stint of working with a staff at a small cabin
located a short distance outside the main Camp boundaries. The student and staff discuss the
incident that had occurred and find ways to prevent similar situations from recurring. This
discussion is done while working at bringing in deadfall logs to be cut into firewood.

Michelle
...he had this exaggerated walk, which we would describe as a gangster walk He was
strutting and strutting and then they left camp property and all of a sudden the kid started
walking differently. And so, it's not — and for us to think about that example, they are
constantly aware of ~ what did you call it? hyper masculinity? So, they are constantly aware
of that. That is on their minds in terms of the language they are using, how they are walking,
how they are sitting, how they are behaving. For them to switch that quickly back to what we
would think of as a normal walk, or something more comfortable, for them to continue to (?)
be pretending and putting on this front, that takes a lot of energy, and so, where it comes
from, I mean, I don't know how much the media plays a role, but it plays some role. I mean,
that the walk, the talk, all of that comes — it's not something that kids make up, it's actually
something they have seen and that they have, something that they have idealized, something
that they want to be. It's something that—I mean, the reality is, you see it on TV, some
rapper, even some famous actor, whatever. What you see on TV looks like an easy lifestyle,
looks like something that they would want, or that they would like to work towards. And, I
would hate to say that it all comes from the media, though. A lot of it is peer pressure too in
terms of what has workedfor them in the past, and in terms of making a friend or getting
connected with a group of guys. What has worked in the past, and if that has worked in the
past and they
felt accepted, they are going to repeat it again and they are going to keep doing it.

A lot of the behaviours we deal with at Camp Trapping are to do with anger and frustration.
The youth will often become verbally, and at times physically, aggressive, or they will retreat
into a passive shell. These behaviours show themselves most during times of stress. Some of
the youth seem to be in a constant state of guardedness against anything that they may
perceive to be a threat to their own self. These youth are often quick to anger, even over the
most trivial of situations. Many of the youth, like the one in Michelle's story, carry
themselves in a manner that communicates to others a strong message trying to say, "I am
tough and don't mess with me". Conversely this message may be "I am trying to hide, you

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can't see me." Both messages indicate that the youth is defensive against any form of attack,
real or imagined. It is as if the youth have a need to over-compensate for past injustices and
resulting pains that has caused them. As Anglin (2002) notes,
the children and adolescents who came into the group settings participating in this
study had been removed from abusive, neglectful, or overwhelming personal
situations, and they came into substitute care with deep-seated and typically long­
standing pain. This pain sometimes had physical manifestations, such as selfmutilation, but the predominant pain was not physical but psychoemotional.
Interviews revealed that the painful experiences of the residents that the painful
experiences that could erupt into outbursts and explosions or lead to a wall of
protectiveness aimed towards all adults, had resulted from various combinations of the
following: grief at losses and abandonment; persistent anxiety about themselves and
their situation; fear of or even terror about a disintegrating present and a hopeless
future; depression and dispiritedness at a lack of meaning or sense of purpose in their
lives; and what could be termed "psychoemotional paralysis," or a state of numbness
and withdrawal from the people and world around them (p. 109-110).
Attempts at protecting youth from harm by bringing them into the care of the state may
actually continue with the harm. This is not necessarily because the care provided is not
adequate but the removal from even a dysfunctional and dangerous situation is yet another
infliction of pain for the young person. The inconsistency all too common in the ironically
labeled child protection system was mentioned in the following quote by Duke.

Duke
It's something that I refer to as systems abuse. I think this occurs in a lot of the youth we see,
especially those that have been brought into government care, they tend to be bounced from
resource to resource and not have a lot of consistent care in their lives. Further, adding to

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their traumatic life, I think. Kids are brought into care, ironically because of the traumatic
events that they have suffered in their upbringing, and are, on some level, subject to it within
the system. And, I think, that really is a shame, and is it not the objective of bringing kids
into care, to keep them safe, but it serais to be a big issue with a lot of kids in care.
Protest Masculinity
Garbarino's (1999) findings and comments mirror Anglin (2002) and the work with the
youth at Camp Trapping. Garbarino (1999) states,
each of the violent teenage boys I meet moves and intrigues me as I come to know
him as a human being rather than as just a "host" to an epidemic of violence. Many
have committed monstrous acts. Their victims are testimony to that. And yet when I
meet one of these boys. I can see beyond the facts of his crime. He is a sad woman's
son, a young girl's brother, a baby boy's cousin. While never forgetting about the
victims of his violence, I always seek to see him as more than a perpetrator, as more
than his crimes. He is a boy, a dangerous boy to be sure, but still a boy.. ..Some of
these boys appear so tough on the outside. But when I get a glimpse of their inner life,
I am deeply touched by their vulnerability and their pain, and I come to see their
toughness as a survival strategy, as something that helps them get through another
day. In many ways their cold exterior is a defence against overwhelming emotions
inside (p. 22).
This toughness is a defensive wall put up by the youth. It is a logical, though not
conscious, outcome of the multiple abuses, traumas and injustices experienced by the youth
and the resultant sense of vulnerability, powerlessness, hyper-vigilance, detachment from
others and even their own selves (Buffington, Dierkhising, & Marsh, 2010). It is a
synchronicity of the youth's own internal, and external, conflicts and horrors and our
society's influences, pressures and dysfunction. Society has removed these youth from

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ethical, social and political responsibility, by the subordination of government activities to
the market state. A culture of fear and division in society further excludes the marginalized
from those who are able to participate in the commodified and consumerist world of
consumption. The state responds to the created fear, panic and demands to deal with the
"dangerous other" through punitive policies of surveillance, isolation and incarceration
(Giroux, 2009b).
Displays of aggression and anger and distrust of adults are part of a hypermasculine view
of dealing with the world as seen from the position of the youth. Connell (1995) describes the
oppositional behaviour of marginalized youth as "protest Masculinity". Protest masculinity is
defined by Stanistreet (2005) as
.. .a marginalised masculinity that picks up themes in hegemonic masculinity and
reworks them in the context of poverty. That is, the most powerful men within the
marginalized group dominate over the less powerful and do so by overemphasizing
masculine behaviours such as risk taking. It arises from the childhood experience of
powerlessness and results in an exaggerated claim to the potency of masculinity.
This protest masculinity is a hypermasculinity characterized by physical aggression,
". ..destructiveness, low tolerance for delay of gratification, crime, drinking, and similar
dispositions" (Broude, 1990, p. 103). Noah described his experiences with this
hypermasculine behaviour and how it manifests itself at Camp.

Noah
I see this all the time and it's something that I find very frustrating to have to break
through and get through to them. A lot of this has to do with the
mentality of the gangs that are out there or the media that these boys are attracted to. Not to
stereotype rap music or anything of this sort. But, these boys have come to think that it is
cool to have power over other people (emphasis added). That slang and dope, carrying a
gun, womanizing, all of these kinds of things, they feel will get them respect from their peers,
whether it's through fear or admiration, that is what they want to achieve. They want the

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quick money and quick respect, ami this is so often portrayed in the media with a lot of focus
on gangsters in movies, rap videos, whatever it may be.
But, also, not just in the media, but in their actual physical home-towns. A lot of these
kids, like we said, come from lower socio-economic communities, where they don't have
much and they see the older boy rolling in with his nice car, big chain, women hanging off of
him, and he wants that. And, all that is being taught to him, "okay, well you want that? I'm
going to show you how to get it."Not the other end of it, "where's the danger? Where's this
going to go down the road? How long-term is this? Is this safe? " So, that's where I would
say a lot of it comes from is the older youth in their towns that are involved in that kind of
lifestyle, and it's very hard to break down at Camp.
It's very hard to teach a kid that "no, it's not cool to get quick, easy money. It's cool to
work hardfor a living, to build yourself up, to go to school, to getfit. To live a respectful
life." It's very hard to teach them that when somebody on the "outs", they would say, is
teaching them that it's a lot easier to just be handed a bunch of money, sell some crack, sell
some dope, whatever it may be,
and get your respect from a gun or from violence.
I would say that... a lot of these youth feel that they are not being caredfor. And, they
view the gangster who is clothing them and feeding them as more of a care-aid than they are
receiving from social workers, from POs, from school system, from whatever it may be. I find
that they feel that it's a family.

It also manifests itself in misogyny and homophobia. Harland, Beattie and McCready (2005)
cite Connell (1995) and Lorber (1998) placing the reference point of protest masculinity as
being hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic, (the dominant society's ideal), masculinity is
defined as
"-a concept describing the processes of masculinity and femininity embedded in and
sustained by political, legal and social institutions. The hegemonic ideal of
masculinity in current western culture has a number of well-defined characteristics,
epitomizing the white, rational, actively heterosexual and economically successful
man (Harland, et al., 2005, p. 2).
Given the contradictions between what society is telling the youth they need to do to fit the
male role and the reality of their powerlessness
.. .boys make claims to power when there are no resources for doing so. Having few

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resources by which they can achieve hegemonic masculinity and thus 'manhood',
young men utilise the resources that are available to them. In their attempt to
'squeeze' into these increasingly tight gender roles ascribed to them, young men resort
to excessively macho ways of proving their masculinity (Messerschmidt,1994; Yates,
2003; cited in Harland et al., 2005, p. 3).

Ed
What's normalfor you, andfor myself now, just their normal is just totally different. Like
mom smoking drugs with you, or mom drinking with you, or brothers taking you out to do
crime, or all your friends are gun toting, selling drugs. And so, I think for them, that becomes
the norm. You always hear youth at risk saying, "oh I just want to live a normal life. But,
what's really normal?"like, that was the norm. Like violence was normal Drinking was the
norm. Doing drugs was normal. All that stuff was normal...
Maybe they are seeing their brothers treat women like crap. And...it probably a lot of it
has to do with media. The media. Like, they glamorize gang life. And like, even in the news,
they glamorize it. He's a known gangster. These kids are, "yeah, right on, I'm a known
gangster too And, they figure, you carry around a gun, you get respect. If not, you shoot
them, and they are not going to disrespect you. Like, their meaning of respect is a lot
different than mainstream. Their respect is, you gotta have guns. You have to have lots of
money. You have to have girls at your beck and call. And, they are not girls, they are bitches
andhos...
Their way of thinking about respect is it's not earned, it's just taken. Is the way that they
think about it. I would think a lot of it does comefrom mainstream media...the majority are
getting influenced by these hip hop guys and these rap guys
but these people are made to
dress like that because they are selling records. That's the image that they are selling and
kids are buying it and they are eating it up.

Hegemonic masculinity is heavily tied to the consumerist world within which the youth
inhabit. This world is highly 'mediated', or filtered, through many different forms of common
technology and information distribution. Though mainstream media present themselves as
purveyors of information and entertainment they are foremost a corporation in search of
profits buy selling products, be it actual goods or advertising (Visano as cited in O'Bireck,
1996). Children learn what we teach them and they begin to learn what it means to be a man
or a women from their first moments. Media such as television, computers, music, radio,

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movies and the like are ubiquitous in our society and carry messages about all aspects of a
person's life. These messages serve to create a need in individuals and a desire to acquire and
consume. Unfortunately for many of the youth in trouble with the law these generally, middleclass material goods, lifestyles and values are unattainable given the constraints of one's
social and monetary marginalization.
Giroux (2009a) sees
.. .a society driven entirely by market mentalities, moralities, values and ideals,
consuming, selling and branding become the primary mode through which to define
agency and social relations - intimate and public - and to shape the sensibilities and
inner lives of adults as well as how society diefines and treats its children.
....Children now inhabit a cultural landscape in which they can only recognize
themselves in terms preferred by the markets.. ..(Y)outh are commercially carpetbombed through a never-ending proliferation of market strategies that colonize their
consciousness and daily lives. Multi-billion-dollar corporations, with the
commanding role of commodity markets as well as the support of the highest reaches
of government, now become the primary educational and cultural force in shaping, if
not hijacking, how young people define their interests, values and relations to others
(pp.1-2).
Men denied the access and opportunity to partake legitimately in the hegemonic ideal of
masculinity, white, heterosexual, economically successful, and being in a position of power
over others and commanding respect and admiration, will find other means of fulfilling the
role to which they believe assigned to them. Traditional masculinity of rugged independence,

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aggressiveness, rebellion, is used to assert their "authority" and attain a sense of power in an
otherwise emasculated existence (Stanistreet, 2005).
Given that the sovereignty of the state has been displaced by the sovereignty of the market
Giroux (2009a) continues by writing
.. .children are no longer viewed as an important social investment or as a central
marker for the moral life of the nation. Instead childhood ideals linked to the
protection and well-being of youth are transformed.. ..and redefined through what
amounts to a culture of cruelty, abandonment and disposability (p.2).
Youth may not be able to articulate it in a positive manner but the injustices of their own
victimization by deprivation, marginalization, neglect, trauma and abuse are often overlooked
but their own delinquent behaviour is not. Negative and punitive systemic responses only
serve to further entrench the youth responses to these approaches.

A Visitor at the Office
The effect of youth consumer culture was very evident to me in one particular occasion at
the downtown office of CATS. A recent graduate of the programme walked through the door
to pay us a visit. He swaggered in with new clothes, looking, talking and acting like he was
fresh from the suburbs of Chicago. He had the hand gestures and lingo dawn pat, like he had
been watching endless rap music videos. Sadly, there was little trace of his own, local origins
and history.
It is ironic that the neoliberal state reinforces the very behaviours that it abhors through the
use of a hegemonic masculine approach to social issues. The predominantly white, corporate
elite urge tax cuts, reductions in social welfare programmes, the privatization of public
services and fewer restrictions on the flow of capital. The public acceptance of these aims are
achieved, in part, through concentration and control of the mainstream media, who create fear
and false moral panics based on repeated reporting of the most extreme cases and by repeating
the neoliberal viewpoint. The resultant financial strain caused by these policies is the

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reduction of the very social programmes and services that help to ease the inequalities that
divide the society. Cuts to women's shelters, legal aid, financial assistance, roadblocks to
access of healthcare, the under-funding and shutting off of funding to agencies and that strive
to give marginalized and opposing viewpoints a voice, and the punitive approach to justice are
some of the ways the neoliberal agenda asserts itself. This is a non-collaborative, power-over
approach that broaches no criticism. The increased use of criminalization and incarceration of
the "disposable classes" of society sees primarily disadvantaged men having their hegemonic
world view reinforced by forcible confinement, being shown by example that "might makes
right" and that power is wielded to control those weaker than yourself. The marginalization of
alternative viewpoints to the hegemonic culture ensures the continuance of the very
behaviours that are admonished, at an increased, financial and social, cost to us all. It does not
make sense that a philosophy that espouses minimal fiscal expenditures, and minimal state
intrusion into the lives of individuals, as well as public safety, would choose to ignore the
evidence of how to achieve maximum public safety and lower criminal justice expences by
doing the opposite as to what is known to be best practices in this area.

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Chapter 8: The Group Care Context
Outwitted
He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
(Edwin Markham, 1913)
Group-Care Settings
A letter to the editor in the National Post newspaper dated December 30, 2005 discusses a
tragic and brutal shooting of a youth in Toronto. The shooter was another young person. The
author of the letter states that; "There is no making sense of senseless violence. There is no
point trying to understand a criminal act for which there is no excuse....Prevention is only
effective, however if it includes deterrence and strong law enforcement". The author,
Stephen Harper (2005, pp.1-2), was only months away from becoming Prime Minister.

Duke
I think the public, generally speaking, continues to be misinformed about the issues. I
mean, if you ask a lot of people that aren't familiar with the youth justice system, they will tell
you that youth crime is rampant. That gang violence is rampant, and on some level it might
be, the gang related part of it. But, they seem to be misinformed that kids are more out of
control now than they were before, and I just don't think that's true.
Noah
There's kids coming into camp now with a lot higher needs, I find, which is also a problem
potentially with the Youth Criminal Justice Act in general, is the fact that we are getting kids
now that have a long history of issues, rather than just a kid that's coming to camp after a
couple of minor charges, and we just need to set them straight quickly. Get them back on
track. We are coming into a lot of kids that either have mental health issues or they have
been in and out of the jail system alreadyfor such a long time that we have to face breaking
down a lot ofjails mentalities. And, issues that they pick up from the jail system as well,
which has a very very poor way of reintegrating the kids all together. Which I thinkfurther
marginalizes them and makes it more difficult for them to ever have a chance of success.
After about twenty-five years of working with young offenders I disagree strongly with
Harper's assertion that there is no making "sense of a senseless act". Killing is a repugnant
and abhorrent act but there is sense behind all such actions. There are real human stories

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behind the sensational actions we see reported in the media, both of the victims and the
perpetrators of such acts. It is these stories that I have had the privilege of hearing and
learning about through my Camp Trapping employment. Treating young offenders in a
punitive and harsh manner ignores the history of marginalization, abuse and victimization
these youth have endured. It increases the likelihood of further entrenching negative, anti­
social beliefs and behaviours and increasing the depth of their trauma and pain and increasing
the chances of further harms to themselves and to society. In this chapter I will describe how
a group-care setting, such as Camp Trapping, can create a less punitive, more engaging and
caring environment that encourages youth to find positive ways of interacting with others.
The following interview quotes are the exchange between Stuart and I about one young
man who faced a myriad of personal issues that became too big for him to bear. Though an
extreme example it is indicative of many of the youth and of the origins of their trauma and
the "senseless" actions that are a result.

Stuart
lean think of another story of a kid. He was pretty disturbed when he got to Camp Trapping.
Pretty messed up, and one of the stories that I heard, backed up by a probation officer, was
that he was apparently disruptive in the house. So, his father took him out into the garage
and hung him up in a gunny-sack, and tied him up so he coutdn't get out, and then left him
there overnight. They gave him a flashlight and gave him some comic-books. Left him in a
gunny sack That was their way of dealing with his disruptiveness. He went on a bit of a
rampage, stealing cars and doing a number of things with drugs and alcohol, and yeah, I
think he committed suicide.
Alan: Hung himself.
Stuart: Yep.

Therapeutic Milieu
In the work of a group care facility it is imperative to take a healing or therapeutic
approach in order to ensure that the group care experience does not, at the very least, further
traumatize the youth. A group care programme can be "therapeutic" by providing sufficient

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time for trusting relationships to break through the protective distrust and anger, helping the
youth feel safe enough to share with others and to try out new behaviours, and to offer
different modes of dealing with emotions and to develop self-control (Mussell, 2005).
Even if the people working with the youth are not "registered clinical therapists" such an
environment utilizes the power of involved positive adult relationships. The presence of
continuous compassionate care cannot be underestimated. Camp Trapping, with its shift
pattern of primary care staff working twenty four/seven with the youth, is unique in the level
of positive involvement the youth have with adult role models.

Chris
I have thought about that shifting pattern a lot, there are strengths and there is
weaknesses of it...the plus side is that when you have the energy to do it, it's really great
because you are just immersed in camp life, and you are really on the level with the youth
that that's where the relationships come with the youth. You see them, all their highs and
lows and you see every aspect of them and they see that in you... that's when the youth sort of
trust you, and are going to talk to you and are willing to give a little piece of themselves. So,
make themselves vulnerable to authority figures, which a lot of other places don't do. And,
what camp does very well. And, that's huge and that's important.
Noah
The support of the staff of the students in general, I believe the fact that they work one-onone with the youth for a week-on and a week-off, has a lot to do with it because of the fact
that it shows them that it is possible and it gives them good role modeling and leadership to
give to them.. .you have more than half ofyour life at camp and you are removedfrom your
in-town life, and it can be very difficult, but at the same time it can be very rewarding
because yourjob at Camp Trapping isn'tjust a job, it's a lifestyle. And Camp for me was a
lot about growth. So, when I was there it was not just, "oh, I'm at work". It was, "you know
what, I'm going to help people and I'm going to help myself". Because every single week I
learned something that I could take home to better myself...You are... (completely immersed
in the work)...I mean you get 10 or 15 years worth of working in a similarfield somewhere
else as you would in camp over just a couple of years.
Brendtro, Brockenleg and Bockem (1998) list four items that are essential for working
with who they call "children of discouragement" (p. 70). A summary of these items is:
1. Relating to the reluctant...establishing positive relationships with youth whose
lives have been marked by alienation.

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2. Brain-friendly learning presents alternative methods for organizing learning
experiences to reverse patterns of failure and futility.
3. Discipline for responsibility.. .management approaches.. .that counter
irresponsibility and rebellion by mobilizing positive youth involvement.
4. The courage to care .. .fostering prosocial values and behaviour in youth whose lives
are self-centred and lacking purpose (Brendtro, et al., 1998, p. 70).

Michelle
We are all people, and we've got these reasons for our behavior, whether they are
maladaptive, learned-responses, you don't have to tie everything to manipulation. It's
actually something that maybe worked for them in the past, and that's all they have got right
now. So, unless we are willing to take the time to teach them something else, then we have
got to put up with their odd way of functioning and dealing with things.
Stuart
I remember one youth coming up to me afterwards, after he had done his consequence
and after he came forward and admitted to stealing, and he said, "You know, that was the
first time I ever admitted stealing in my life." And, I think he said "it felt good" to actually
come clean. And from then on, I think he had about two months left at Camp Trapping,
maybe three, he just came clean each time that he did something that was wrong. He just
owned it. And, for me that was a huge change for this kid. He realized that was the best way
to go. And, I believe that he applied those lessons to his life after he left Camp Trapping too.
Chris
Because just the word punitive, like I think of'behavior modification and the word
punishment is in the word behavior modification right? A positive punishment. I mean, at
camp we use the word "consequence" and the difference always in my mind was a
consequence is a reaction to a behavior that's intended to change a behavior, but it's not
intended to change a behavior with the involvement of pain and with the person who is giving
the consequence out isn't getting any sort ofpleasure from that either. That to me is the
difference between inflicting pain, or inflicting a consequence and inflicting a punishment, a
pain-based kind of punishment*
Noah
The most enjoyable thing I find about camp is the breakthrough moments. These would be
moments where, for example, a youth who doesn't believe that he can do the run, doesn't
believe that he can succeed in the run, puts little to no effort in while he's being motivated
and then finally one day he decides to commit and put his heart into it and do something he
didn't think he could do. And, completes the 16 or completes the grad run, and is so proud of
himself. Same as making a town trip, as well, is the youth that actually have a lot of trouble
at camp through their whole time, and we try to help them with the little things, little things,

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little things, and then they finally start to build enough of a repertoire to actually be able to
handle all of the expectations, and then they finally actually do make it. Yes, and that would
be what I enjoy the most is when they have that sense of accomplishment and I can feel it
through them. That would be what I enjoy the most about camp.
Congruence
Anglin (2002) suggests

. .that the core challenge for the group homes [he] studied was to

achieve congruence in service of the children's best interests" (p. 54). This congruence is an
attempt to ensure that all parts of the organization are in harmony with each other and that
the main goal is the meeting of the needs of the students. For the youth at Camp these needs
can be summed up in the organization's mission statement as

. .a safe, caring, structured

environment promoting personal growth and positive social interaction (CATS, 2007).

Noah
Camp is really the people that are in it. It's notjust the program. I mean the programme is
great, the way it is set up. But, without the people that truly care, this place would be no
more useful than jail, and that's something that I'm always worried about. You talk about it's
hard to keep, or you talked about what makes a good staff, and I land of giggled there just
because of the fact that there is so few people in my mind that can work at camp. It takes an
amazing person, and if we don't have a constant slew ofpeople, then camp is nothing. It's
just a bunch of rules, and no one to make it worthwhile.
A manager of Camp Trapping is quoted in Anglin (2002) as saying,
I had to.. .ensure that they [staff] were not only listening to kids but were considering
what they were saying. I would scrutinize how staff worked with kids, and they had to
rationalize what they were doing in a child-centred way. The staffs needs and wants
were getting met more than the kids. I took that to heart and looked to change that in
people's headsets (p. 120).
A staff member, in talking about the same manager above, echoes this child-centred
approach with, "he is very child-centred. He's always working with the child's welfare in

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mind, not so much with the staffs, though the staffs is important. His priority is delivery to
the kid, and he makes that well known (Anglin, 2002, p. 120).

Ed
I really believe in what the programme does, has to offer, the staff, like office staff,
frontline staff. I believe everyone is there for the greater good.
Dealing with Pain and Pain-Based Behaviours
Anglin (2002) provides three subsidiary themes that work in concert with the overall
striving for congruence. The first is the creation of an "extrafamilial living environment"
(Anglin, 2002, p.55). This is defined by Anglin (2002) as

. .a home-like environment not

attainable within and institutional care setting while removing the intimacy and intensity of a
family environment" (p. 55).
The second goal of effective group living programmes is the "responding to pain and
pain-based behaviour" (Anglin, 2002, p. 55). Given the conditions outlined by Garbarino
(1999) and others (Anglin, 2002; Brendtro, et al., 1998) many of the youth that attend Camp
Trapping can be seen to be the embodiments of the ills of society and the demons from their
past. Group care settings for youth, such as Camp Trapping, must deal with these conditions
by responding to the "...to pain and pain-based behaviour..." (Anglin, 2002, p. xviii) the
youth exhibit. Successful group care facilities do not
...allow themselves to become distracted by 'the mere incidents of the surface' but
.. .seek to discern the inner truth of the pain hidden within the daily reality of group
home life and work and to find ways to guide the young residents and ourselves out of
the darkness and into a collective sense of normality. To do so requires nothing less
than a ceaseless striving for appropriate consistency, reciprocity, and coherence
throughout our child and youth care practice. It is this struggle for congruence in

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service of the children's best interests that provides the unifying theme for the creation
of a nurturing and healing extrafamilial environment-a true 'home for the heart'
[Bettelheim, 1974] (Anglin, 2002, p. xviii).
Effects of Staff Unresolved Personal Issues
Dealing with pain and pain-based behaviours in an intense environment such a s Camp
Trapping can be mentally, emotionally and physically tiring for staff. In such an environment
staff as well as students go through moments of conflict both within themselves and with
others. A staff with unresolved isues or undeveloped means of reflecting on their own
feelings and behaviours is likely to inflict discord throughout the organization or the worst
case scenario cause students to be triggered to relive past trauma and to be traumatized once
again.
Some examples of this from my own experiences with this effect are my desires to not
cause conflict and to please everyone. Not wanting to upset anyone I would avoid dealing
with issues until I needed to take action. I think I learned very quickly that in the pressure
cooker environment of Camp that his was not a good way for me to be.
Some staff with their own unresolved issues have had deleterious effects upon the staff
team and the students. An angry word or comment, a gruff attitude, playing favourites,
starting rumours are all some examples of negative influences that can quickly disrupt the
positive connections and relationships that help everyone at Camp.
Trieschman, Whittaker & Brendtro (1969) have a list of negative influences that interfere
with good relationship building in group-care settings. This list includes:
the need to conform to institutional policy; the need to satisfy supervisors and
superiors; the need to be accepted by co-workers; the need to adhere to personal

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philosophy; the need to control; the need for success with a child; the need to be
accepted by the children (pp. 219-235).
Though not all necessarily negative themselves these issues can become roadblocks to
success with the youth. Strict adherence to rules and structure may not be what a child needs
during a cathartic emotional meltdown. Likewise using the policies and procedures in a
literal reading may be a useful justification for abusive behaviours if a staff was unable to
think "outside the box" to find a way to reach a kid in need. Sticking to a personal
philosophy and approach and believing one's own beliefs and methods are better than those
of the Camp can make for some interesting conflicts depending on how unique that staffs
viewpoints may be. Staff that go out of their way to get the students to like them are doing no
one any good, staff, the students nor themselves. Staff need to be able to build rapport, and
hold the students accountable for their actions. A person who wants to be liked has
difficulties when it comes time to consequence their "friends". Youth respond to these
situations with a sense of betrayal and frustration and are re-traumatized as they are again
being let down by someone they thought they were close to. The following quotes describe
some of the situations included on Trieschman, et al., (1969) list.

Duke
I mean crisis clearly is opportunity for change, right? Not that we create crisis, but kids that
we deal with go through crisis on a regular day to day occurrence in a lot of kid's lives.
Think of the other bey, he came to us and we were out working in the bush and he didn't want
to come back to camp because there was already a lot of ridicule directed his way from some
of the other new students, and he just basically didn't want to play and so he sat down in the
bush and sat there and took his boots off, and said "I'm not going anywhere, I'm just going to
stay here for four months, if that's okay And, I said, "well, you might get a little hungry, let
alone get a little cold, when the sun goes down and it took me a good three hours to build
enough of a trust, a bridge that got him up and moving. But, he wasn't about to go to camp.
And, really, it was important for me to understand, he wouldn't go into camp. He was only a
half kilometer from camp, but he would not put his boots back on. And, Ifound myself
enforcing rules ami kind of undermining the trust, the bridge that we had establishedfor
three hours by telling him, "no, you need to put your boots on, or you can't go. And, then I

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thought about that, because he was very oppositional to the idea of putting his boots back on.
And, he said, "no, I will only go to camp if lean walk in my bare feet". And, I said, "well,
wear your bare feet. Pack your boots and wear your bare feetand of course we walked into
camp. But, it occurred to me that what he was trying to do there was maintain his
individuality, and here I was trying to get him to conform so that he would be of less ridicule
from his peer group. So, my intentions were honourable, but at the end of the day, my
strategy of trying to get him to put his boots on was ill advised because his individuality was
most important to him. More important than my needing him to conform. So, bringing him in
without his boots caused a bit of a stir with the staff, "he's breaking the rules I said, "he
may be breaking the rules, but he's a really neat guy, and look at that, he can walk on
rocks And, we made fun and levity out of the situation, which helped, I think bring him
back into the group, right? So, him and I maintained a very good relationship based on that
small three-hour incident on a shift change Monday, where nobody could get him off the
ground.
A Sense of Order and Structure
One would think that control would be a prime necessity of a programme populated with
youth with known histories of rebelliousness, bullying, fighting, and impetuousness. Control,
however, implies demands for strict adherence to rules and orders without question or input
from those being controlled. It also implies limited personal choice and decision-making.
Personal responsibility and accountability are taken away from people being controlled and
placed firmly in the hands of those doing the controlling. Anglin (2002) suggests the
alternative for group care settings is ".. .to maintain a sense of order and structure within
which the residents could function and develop more independence" (p. 116). This view fits
the Camp Trapping approach of staff participating with the students in all aspects of
programming and through being closely involved with the youth throughout the day. Staff
are able to observe and pick up the cues of whether the group or individuals are in friction or
not and intervene in less demanding ways to circumvent the need to become "controlling".
As an ideal this happens on a day-to-day basis just by the nature of the close living
environment and by the staff adopting the programme's philosophical approach as their own.

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Toby
One time we were doing chores, supper chores I think it was. One guy was drying dishes,
somebody was doing clearing chores, clearing a table. They had a bit of a — slight bit of
friction, and the guy that was doing the kitchen duty chore challenged the guy drying the
dishes. "Don't you ever do that again" or something like that. The guy put down his towel, he
went outside. I left him a minute and I went outside, and he was bawling. And he said, "You
guys have made a wimp out of me. I would have hit that guy so bad." That's a bluff, I said, "if
you feel that bad, go back in and hit him". "No, no," he said. And, I don't remember all of the
rest of the conversation went, but I think that was one for him. He figured it out. And, I think
that after a while he would have processed that "I don't need to be like that".
But, that reminds me of is I'm quite sure my dog never was abused out there, and I mean
there must have been kids there that would have been inclined to do that, but it was just
understood that that was not the thing to do. I think. And, I mean, I think that's the sort of
thing Camp did a goodjob offor a lot of tads. I never heard anybody talking about it or
anything.
Alan: What was your dog called? Relaxation coordinator, or Relaxation counsellor?

Staff Personal Development
Almost every staff have needed to deal with their own pain and pain-based behaviours
when confronted by the pain of the students. My own issues upon coming to work at Camp
were learning how to deal with conflict and confrontation. I didn't want to make anyone
upset. I needed to work at becoming more assertive and set clear boundaries for the
behaviour of others. Staff who work at Camp and have own pain and pain-based behaviours
retriggered by the youth and their trauma are likely to respond with a reactive mode instead
of a logical and helping mode. Camp Trapping forces many people to achieve their own
peace in order to help the youth in a positive manner. Congruence is needed with the
individual as well as with the organization. Staff who are more driven by their own needs are
less likely to see beyond the superficial front of the students and respond in the best interests
of the youth. We used to tell the students a story that the Camp was actually part of treatment
for the staff. The story would be that on days off we had to return to a psychiatric institution.
Some of the following quotes show how Camp has helped some of the staff.

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Stuart
Camp Trapping transformed me in a big way. It gave me a greater purpose in life. It made
me feel like I was actually making a difference in other people's lives, and I loved leading the
way on the run. Leading the way in the field trips. Just going for goals. Setting goals and
going for them and being a role model. Those are really big things. Kids kept us accountable.
If you strayedfrom the rules, boy those kids would let you know it really quickly. They tested
you all the time. And, you had to have integrity because if you didn't have integrity, those
kids would let you know it reallyfast. You know, when you promise something, you didn't
deliver, they would let you know. And I also realized that these kids, yes, they broke the law a
lot, and some of them are big, tough kids. But, if you just let yourselfget to know them Play
with them, play basketball and lift weights with them and run with them, you built a lot of
rapport with them and you get to know them.
Ted
Probably the time management, structure, the responsibility, just trying to have my own kids
be accountable for the decisions that they make and taking ownership ofgood choices, bad
choices. My own self. To be able to live within my own skin.
Chris
Things that I learned at camp that I use in my personal life. I learned to manage stress very
well. I learned to not take for granted the basic every day kind offreedoms of having a life.
Because when you are out at camp for a week at a time, and everything is behind a lock, and
you are always kind of at a heightened level ofstress and awareness. I still kept with mean
appreciation for the land of the free life and stuff like that. It's actually done thatfor me.
Well professional life, there is a lot. Personal life is a lot. I learned a lot about just being
in the outdoors, and outdoors, wilderness skills, canoing skills, hiking skills, those kinds of
things. Which I thought I knew before camp, but I really knew afterwards. I learned the
nature of how to communicate with youth and how to communicate with sort ofhigh-risk
youth. I certainly didn't come in with that skill, but I developed that skill as I went through
camp. And so, that is something that I have carried on through my professional therapy
because I work with youth now. And just knowing how to communicate with them and appeal
to their sensibilities rather than appealing to my sensibilities that I want for them. I have
learned to appeal to what they should want and use it in a way that develops change in
them....
Which is the very part that takes such a toll on staff too, because you are not only
physically challenged out there as the staff, you are putting your heart on the line, all the
time. All the time you are putting your heart on the line. And, those pain-based behaviors can
be really hard for staff.
Just that I have seen a lot of lives changedfor the better as a result of Camp Trapping and
mine was one of them, for sure. It's a good place for a new social workers, new
undergraduate social workers to go if they really truly want to practice that profession that
they have learned about and all of those ethics that you talk about, and what it means to be in
social work and social work skills and everything. That is Camp Trapping. You get all of
those in spades (?). But, it's hard. So, if you really want it, and you can do it, you can do the
physical stuff, then that's a great place to go. I'm glad I did because I was able to move the
next stage of my career with a good base.

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Chapter 9: Wilderness Programming
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of
life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover
that I had not lived (Thoreau, 1992, p. 73).
An aspect of Camp Trapping that I personally was most passionate about and have some
of my most fond memories are from the wilderness excursions. Hiking, canoeing
snowshoeing and backcountry skiing into the wilds of BC are known as "outtrips" at Camp
Trapping. Wilderness experiences, as well as many of the routine activities of Camp
Trapping, like running and work programme, provide physical and mental challenges. The
youth are ever ready to prove themselves in some way. Unfortunately, in the home
community, this proving one's strengths and abilities is often done in a negative manner.
Hiking and canoeing and such activities show the youth a different way to experience
challenges. Many of the youth have never spent much time car camping let alone traveling
under their own power into a wilderness area. It is while on these excursions that I feel Camp
Trapping succeeds the best with many youth. In this chapter the use of wilderness
experiences with young offenders is highlighted.
The familiar world is stripped away and life becomes much more attuned to nature and the
rhythm of the mode of travel. One is left with only the situation currently at hand to contend
with. Once the group leaves the trailhead and sets off the concerns of anything but the
immediate are generally forgotten. The farther along the trail the more in tune individuals are
to the here-and-now. As we depart from the wilderness the reverse occurs with old patterns
of thought and behaviour returning the closer we get to Camp.
The highlights of my time in the wilderness with youth would be when we have achieved
a state of being totally in a shared moment and all have exhilarated at the task we had
accomplished. This has most often happened upon climbing a mountain that to the youth

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seemed insurmountable when viewed from the campsite. Each person struggles to find their
own inner strength and physical ability to face the mountain-side and to slowly progress up
the slopes. One by one the summit is achieved and the view of mountains stretching far off
into the horizon greets them. The climbers are face to face with the enormity of the land and
the fact that they are standing on top of the world. They have succeeded in facing their fears
and at having overcome something that they may have felt was impossible only a few hours
before. Exhilaration rules the moment. This chapter will explore some of the features of
wilderness programming.
Camp Trapping as a Wilderness Programme
Camp Trapping is characterized as a wilderness-based full-time attendance programme.
The concept of wilderness programming has a broad range of approaches and goals. The
continuum of programmes could be seen as ranging from outdoor adventure, the use of
wilderness experiences for recreation and personal development, at one end of the scale and
environmental education, connecting to the natural world, at the other. Even within these
categories there are a further division and blurring of the boundaries between the approaches
(Ungar, Dumond & MacDonald, 2005). For a review of the literature, and for research
purposes, these broad differences in approaches and desired outcomes have likewise been
mixed. Many research studies lump dissimilar programmes into one category. Needless to
say the literature is difficult to follow as the programmes under study are not often
categorized into type.
Camp Trapping itself is often mistakenly called a "boot camp", which implies a harsh,
punitive approach that is meant to "break the will" of participants and through the harshness
deter offenders. The idea of the camp leaders/staff having forceful control over the youth and

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the use of harsh treatment to "treat" already marginalized and often abused, disadvantaged
youth does not seem ethically correct to put it mildly. The main goal that seems to be met by
boot camps is the political goal of being seen to be providing a degrading punishment that it
is presumed young offenders deserve (John Howard Society of Alberta, 1997).

Chris
Maybe a bootcamp style would be more involving staff taking up more of a top-down
approach and yelling it at kids or intimidating them to make them do things. But, at camp, we
do it the hard way. We develop bonds and develop trust, and explain why it's in their best
interest to do these things and we — and the other pieces we do, that all staff work along side
them, with them. So, it's much more egalitarian. And it's almost designed to break them down
physically in some ways, bu t not break their spirit, or hurt them in any way, stuff like that.
So, that's the difference. There is always that caring piece, and that's the hard part for, I
think, for people to understand. And, because until you have been there, you don't see that as
being possible, I think. And, it's hard to explain too.
Which is the very part that takes such a toll on staff too, because you are not only physically
challenged out there as the staff, you are putting your heart on the line, all the time. All the
time you are putting your heart on the line. And, those pain-based behaviors can be really
hard for staff.

Noah
Camp Trapping is tough and we pride ourselves on the fact that it is tough and it needs to
be to break through the behaviors that the kids have. But, what I would do to separate it from
a bootcamp is the people that are working with them. At camp the staff are held to the same
expectations as the students. In a bootcamp, you have drill sergeants who spout at the mouth,
demand the youth to do whatever they want. Whereas, we work with them. We offer
counseling. We offer solid role modeling and go step by step with them along the way. We try
to build them up. We try to build their self-esteem, whereas in a bootcamp, they typically are
trying to break a kid. And, then from there force them in to fit a mold that they want. Rather,
we want to build them to live to their potential, to live to their potential that their mold can
allow them to do.
A lot of these youth look at the staff as not only as a role model, but sometimes as family,
as a strong bond that they could maybe have had with a brother or a really goodfriend, or a
teacher, or somebody like that. But, at camp they get it and we earn respect by living to the
same expectations as the youth, by dunking in the ice hole with them, by running up the hill
with them, by not swearing when we ask them not to. By just living up to the expectations and
showing them that we are there to stay, and that we actually do truly care. We are not just
there for a paycheck, and after awhile they seem to really pick up on that and realize that.
And a lot of these youth have not had someone that cared to that extent before. And, it helps
to break down that wall. The brick wall that they won't let people in, andfor once they finally
do because we actually earn their trust.

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The only facility in Canada that this author knows of that was closest to the boot camp
model was Project Turnaround in Ontario. It ran from 1997 until 2004. It was closed after
being deemed to be ineffective and too expensive.
Camp Trapping would fit closest to the wilderness experiences end of the continuum
mentioned above. As such, Camp borders onto the adventure therapeutic modality of such
programmes. Ringer (1994), as cited by Newes, (2000)..defines adventure therapy as a
generic term referring to a class of change-oriented, group-based experiential learning
processes that occur in the context of a contractual, empowering, and empathic professional
relationship" (p. 9). Camp aims to address certain characteristics of delinquency using a
behaviour modification therapeutic approach but this is not done using "therapists" in the
strict professional clinical association connection. As Newes (2000) comments, "...it is the
processing of the actual experience with the client that promotes the therapeutic process" (p.
9).

Duke
I look at wilderness programming as a spectrum of available assets, if you will, starting with
boot camp on one side, going to the other side of the spectrum where you have your
therapeutic wilderness counseling going on with clinicians in the field with kids. We are
somewhere in the middle. We are far removedfrom boot amp, neither are we clinical. But,
we offer a very cognitive based process that does affect change in kids' lives if we adhere to
our philosophical precepts.
Defining Wilderness
My Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D., 1971) provides the following definitions of the
word wild;
1. Of an animal: Living in a state of nature; not tame, not domesticated: opposed to
tame.. ,.2.0f a plant (or flower): Growing in a state of nature; not cultivated.. ..3.
Produced or yielded by wild animals or plants; produced naturally without cultivation;

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

13 Q

sometimes , having the characteristic (usually inferior) of such production.. ..4. Of a
place or region; Uncultivated or uninhabited; hence, waste, desert, desolate. ...5. Of
persons (or their attributes): Uncivilized, savage, uncultured, rude,; also not accepting,
or resisting, the constituted government; rebellious....6. Not under, or not submitting
to, control or restraint; taking, or disposed to take, one's own way; Uncontrolled.
Primarily of animals, and hence of persons and things, with various shades of
meaning, a. Acting or moving freely without restraint; Going at one's own will;
unconfined and unrestricted.. ..b. Resisting control or restraint, unruly, restive; flighty,
thoughtless; reckless, careless; fig. not according to rule, irregular; erratic;
unsteady.. ..7. Not submitting to moral control; taking one's own way in defiance of
moral obligation or authority; unruly, insubordinate; wayward, self-willed.... (pp.
3776-3777).
The definitions continue for another nine main divisions and many more sub-divisions.
Some key words and phrases associated with the word wild include: "Fierce, savage,
ferocious,...agitated, rough, stormy, tempestuous, raging....Highly excited....Elated,
enthusiastic....Bewildered, perplexed....inconsiderately venturesome, going to
extremes.. .having a somewhat barbaric character.. .Random...Special collocations;

(as in

) wild beast, wild boar, wild berry, wild horse, (and, my personal favourite) wild Irishman"
(O.E.D., 1971,p. 3777).

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Figure 22

\ 3\

Morning at Nazko Lakes Provincial Park Looking North on Tanikul Lake

The word wilderness builds upon wild with many, or slight variations, of the same
definitions. Of interest to me, is the inclusion of the following;
A wild or uncultivated region or tract of land, uninhabited, or inhabited only by wild
animals; 'a tract of solitude and savageness'.. ..Something figured as a region of a
wild or desolate character, or in which one wanders or loses one's way.. ..Rhetorically
applied to a place.. .which one finds 'desolate' or in which one is lonely or 'lost'
(O.E.D., 1971, p.3777).
I see many similarities between the definitions and the students at Camp. There is, of
course, the literal application of the meanings to the behaviours and characteristics of the
youth. The students can have properties of unruliness, tempestuousness, highly excitable,
rude and the like. There are also the qualities assigned by hegemonic society, something in
need of control, cultivation, containment, domestication. The essence is that wilderness is of
an inferior quality, a waste and something that is to be feared and exploited. These cultural
contexts of the origins of the O.E.D. can be seen in the definitions that place inferiority upon

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the uncivilized, and primitive, (and the Irish), as was to be found in many parts of the British
Empire when the O.E.D. compilation was well underway. The dictionary was started in 1878
and the last page of the first edition was completed in 1928 (O.E.D., 1971).
Wilderness as Healer
Given scant reference in the O.E.D. (1971) is the idea of wilderness as a place of positive
benefit. Other than having solitude and some spiritual purpose wilderness is not given
consideration in the hegemonic Western view of the O.E.D. as a place of reflection, spiritual
growth and healing. Nor is it a place where civilized persons would venture into, at least not
for long.
It struck me that the definitions of wilderness reflect a dichotomy of a presence or absence
of something. There is either a presence of civilization or absence of such; domesticated or
undomesticated; controlled or uncontrolled. This fits neatly with my view in writing this
thesis that a common theme in the lives of the students and similar youth is the presence or
absence of continual, compassionate care. I see the concept of wilderness as a powerful
metaphor for the work I have done with youth.

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13 3

Figure 23 The Thrill of Catching a Fish

Wilderness Outtrips as a Metaphor for Life
When Camp Trapping is on an outtrip everyone must travel together. We can proceed only
as fast as the slowest person. We do this on all trips, hiking, canoeing, and winter travels.
This is done primarily for safety reasons, to be able to provide close supervision, to assist
those in difficulty, to make sure no one takes a wrong turn in the trail and a myriad of other
reasons based on how many teenaged boys can come up with unwise ideas and actions. For
many of the youth this is very frustrating if they are more motivated or capable and not able
to empathise as to why someone else might be moving at a slower pace. If a group of youth
are doing a fair number of wilderness trips, such as during the summer months, a slow
progression of acceptance of the rule and an increase in empathy and helping each other
develops. The stronger boys start to understand that perhaps they could carry a bit more of
the group's gear than someone else. Also with the experience of having completed several
trips the youth usually have seen that almost everyone will at some time take a turn at
slowing down the rest. It may be to treat a blister, to fix a broken pack-strap, canoe portages
may be unexpectedly difficult, paddle strokes were not learnt well enough and the canoe does
not go in a straight line, or the sole of one's boot starts to delaminate from the boot, perhaps
someone didn't drink enough water. It could be any number of things that would cause any
one of us to slow everyone else down.
As we travel along we all are facing our own struggles. "The bugs are eating me alive
"I'm hot", "I'm cold", "I'mwet", "my feet hurt", "the pack is heavy", "I'mhungry", "the
pack strap hurts my shoulders ", " When are we going to stop". Whether it is carrying a pack
or paddling a lake, or climbing to a ridge top each person must work their own bodies and
minds to succeed. We are independent of all others in this struggle but we paradoxically
share the struggle with others. The moment on the peak, the safe return to a campsite after a
day trip, the cooking of the day's catch offish over the fire, the return to the vehicle at the
end of a trip are some examples of how we share the wilderness experiences. It always

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134

amazes me how the students often become quite energized and want to tell the story of their
adventures once we return to Camp Trapping after a trip. Even after what seems like the
most horrid outtrip the students are keen to tell others about what they saw and did how they
met the challenge and succeeded. The shared experience of wilderness travels can help bring
individuals and groups together. They have been through tough times, seen each other
struggle the same struggles and came to rely on each other to succeed.
Some groups come to understand how this applies to their life outside of Camp. They see
that there are people they can turn to for help as well as those they should avoid. They learn
that their struggle to stay out of trouble with the law depends on their own struggle to do so
but that there are, usually, others that will help them in that struggle. I have tried to get this
message across to mast individuals and groups. Some understand the metaphor in spades,
others don't.
Chris
Well, I always think that the time that you and I took the youth up to Mount Fitzwilliam.
And we peaked — it took us days. I guess three days before we were able to go up so high that
you can't go up any higher. Mount Clairvaux was definitely clearly a defining moment. And,
to quote Chris Gee.'s work, that was like one of those peak experiences. He called them peak
experiences...
It was certainly a cathartic momentfor some of the youth. They came down and they were
saying things like nVm never going to break the law again" and when Ifirst heard that I just
went, "oh sure". You know, one youth kept saying thatfor days after. And, you think he's just
sort of saying that to make an impact, or whatever, or still on a high. But, he kept saying that
kind of thing after, and even weeks after, his mind changed. Because he defined himself;
there were two guys that defined themselves as lifers, which mean that they saw themselves in
and out of the correction system for the rest of their life, and they didn't define themselves as
that anymore after that experience. And, because I kind of have known ofone of the youths
still, three orfour years later, I know that he still doesn't see himself like that anymore, even
though life has happened to him and stuff.
Alan: Do you remember the session we had after that? Was it the morning after? We sat
down in a circle and did a circle, a healing circle. And looking at the mountain. That one, to
me, that was one of the highlights of my career kind of thing. Having that session. I
remember that group being, at that moment, were able to really talk about things, right? Do
you remember that session at all?
Chris: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. But, it gets clouded with another session that we had.
That you and I had ami it was on Arctic Pacific Lakes, and it was coming back, and it was
when the Parsnip River meets that little creek. And, that one comes to mind because I thought
about that one a few times and it was still in that traditional First Nations style with the
talking stick. And, just the fact that you can get youth to sit and talk about their experiences,
and what they have gained, and things like that. And, be with that topic for a while, and
everybody kind of respects each other's opinion. It is amazing because that's so hard to get
youth to do, let alone male youth, and let alone male youth with a background that Camp
Trapping type kids have. So, it's so funny because it takes so much work to get there. It takes
five days orfour days of being in the woods, plus two months ofpriming for that. To get to
that time where you can have a half an hour long group that's really, really deep.
Alan: A decent conversation, right?

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Chris: And a decent conversation. Yes. That's not to do with what they are used to talking
about.

Figure 24

Approaching Charity Peak in the Ozalenka Valley West of McBride

Gee (2009) found that of the people he interviewed, both staff and students, characterized
. .wilderness as possessing some degree of separation from modern society. This separation
is spoken of as being both physical and psychological" (p. 95). Gee (2009) quotes the
participant "David" in connecting the physical and psychological,
You are away from societies (sic) influence and you don't have that stress, and that is
a huge stress. If you lay there and sleep in a tent and you've got a trickle of a stream
and an owl hooting or some crickets or something, it is peaceful, it is calming, it is
soothing, that is why they have it on tapes. They don't have tapes of trains going by
for you to fall asleep to do they? I think that is a good way of giving you an idea of
what I am trying to say. It is a calming effect and just having that is an experience in
itself. You don't have societies (sic) negative touch you don't have the smell of
pollution and all these things they are triggering your senses. Your five senses are

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being triggered by the environment, you've got sweet, clean, pleasant smells and fresh
water that you don't have to run through a Brita [water filter] (pp. 95-96).

Figure 25

A Dark-Eyed Junco Takes Flight in the Morning at the Arctic Lake
Campsite. Looking North Towards Arctic Creek and the Parsnip River

I find it worthy to note that in the course of his research Gee (2009) found there were two
groups of people with divergent views about wilderness and wilderness experiences.
One group thought of the idea (of epiphany in the wilderness) as common sense,
almost a given. The second group was skeptical and, to some degree, dismissive of
such "airy fairy" (UNBC Research Ethics Board, personal communication, April,
2007) ideas. The commonality amongst the people in the
first group was their depth of understanding of nature and their positive relationship to
the natural world. It would seem that people with close ties to nature see, more
clearly.. .the power within nature to facilitate increased well-being in people (p. 94).
Bettelheim (1980) gives us another view of wild spaces in an essay entitled Mental Health
and Urban Design. In this essay he contends that,

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as for the shack out in the country, the living sphere there was even larger and less
limited; the entire landscape surrounding it was, in one's experience, part of where
one lived. It invited physical and mental roaming. This outdoor space, which could be
taken in by the person sitting on the doorstep or on the porch, seemed to centre around
the inhabitant (Bettelheim, 1980, p. 205).
Of many green spaces in cities, Bettelheim (1980) provides this assessment,
The height of the buildings themselves, the distance of these grassy plots from above,
the insignificance of a person seen when looking down-these do little to invite the
dweller above to amble out of his indoor confinement. Even if he does. He gets none
of the feeling of being in the out-of-doors part of what still belongs to his personal
world. These plazas and lawns are not experienced as belonging to oneself or one's
community. They are at best conveniences, at worst reminders of one's smallness; in
neither case do they enrich one's experience of oneself. They completely fail to
provide a feeling of security and expansiveness.. .(p. 207).
Wilderness Recreation in the Canadian Experience
Wilderness activities have long been seen as an antidote for the dreariness of the city life
and the tedium of manufacturing age. Benidickson (1997 ) notes that in 1908 Canada was
believed to have over fifty canoe clubs spread across the country with thousands of paddlers.
Benidickson (1997) also states
the canoe trip became a widely recognized form of rehabilitation through exertion,
although the range of ailments subject to the remedy and the precise operational
principle of the cure have not been clinically confirmed. The benefits derived from the
exercise of paddling, the contemplation of landscape, and the breathing in of fresh air

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13 g

have all been ventured as explanations why so many have turned to canoeing over the
years as a measure of relief from illness, injury, or the stresses of daily living (p. 32).
From the mid 1880s organized camping and outdoor living came to be seen as healthy for the
bodies and good for the mind and soul of young people. Summer camping facilities were
developed by organizations, like the Young Mens Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.), to take
city youth on wilderness experiences. At least one Canadian Prime Minister had fond
memories of attending a camp. John Turner is quoted in Raffan (1999) as saying,
You learned how to trip.. ..You learned the food you needed.. .You had to make sure
you were warm enough. And you also learned responsibility. You're talking about
leadership. And also you learned discipline. But you also had fun. And you learned to
be optimistic. Sometimes the weather closed in for three or four days and it's pretty
hard to do that when the guys get wet and cold. You learned about the outdoors. It
wasn't as rough as the coureur de bois-you learned how to take hardship, you learned
how to get along with other men outdoors, you learned friendship, you learned the
warmth of a campfire and all the good stories that go with it! You learned the mystery
of the campfire. The stars...the moon (p. 127).
Kurt Hahn and his Outward Bound training school for young sailors during the Second
World War was the start of the current approaches to wilderness adventure programming.
Hahn's idea was to use the sea, not to simply train sailing skills, but to improve attitudes and
outlooks such as confidence and self-reliance (Priest & Gass, 1997). Such training was seen
to be of benefit to all youth. The ideas behind much of the thoughts about the use of
wilderness to help change one's outlook on life were eloquently summed up by another
Canadian Prime Minister who was an avid canoe tripper.

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In 1944 Pierre Trudeau wrote a classic essay on canoe-tripping. In part he wrote;
I would say that you return not so much a man who reasons more, but a more
reasonable man. For, throughout this time, your mind has learned to exercise itself in
the working conditions which nature intended. Its primordial role has been to sustain
the body in the struggle against a powerful universe. A good camper knows that it is
more important to be ingenious than to be a genius. And conversely, the body, by
demonstrating the true meaning of sensual pleasure, has been of service to the mind:
You feel the beauty of animal pleasure when you draw a deep breath of rich
morning air right through your body, which has been carried by the cold night, curled
up like an unborn child. How can you describe the feeling which wells up in the
heart and stomach as the canoe finally rides up on the shore of the campsite after a
long day of plunging your paddle into rain-swept waters? Purely physical is the joy
which the fire spreads through the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet
while your chattering mouth belches the poisonous cold. The pleasurable torpor of
such a moment is perhaps not too different from what the mystics of the East are
seeking. At least it has allowed me to taste what one respected gentleman used to call
the joys of hard living (Trudeau, 1944).
The Effect Wilderness Programmes have on Youth
Within these quotes the different ideas about what makes wilderness adventures work
with male young offenders can be seen. For some it is the experience of nature itself. The
phrase "let the mountains speak for themselves" originated in the early 1960s as Outward
Bound staff discussed whether the wilderness experience alone was sufficient or if some sort
of intellectual discourse was needed. In many ways the skills development and the travel in

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the mountains does seem to lead to intuitive increases in confidence and self-esteem. After
the training and physical and mental exertion of accessing backcountry the thrills of
"bagging" a peak or catching one's first fish are exhilarating.
A self-reflective person, like Pierre Trudeau, would no-doubt find meaning in the
experience that could be taken forward to other life experiences. It has come to be generally
agreed, and studied, that the wilderness can provide a forum for the teaching of youth but a
component of processing makes the teachings understandable and useful to the youth. The
adventures and being in the wilds tend to create opportunities, or "teachable moments"
(James, 1980). The high degree of involvement and sharing of the experience between the
youth and the adults allows for a free, and often naturally occurring, discussion about what is
being experienced that can help to facilitate positive change in individuals.
Bandoroff (1989) cites Skipper's (1974) three steps of the wilderness adventure change
process. These steps are: "1) participants are made aware of self-destructive response
patterns; 2) alternative coping strategies are proposed; 3) opportunities are provided to
practice new behaviours" (Bandoroff, 1989, p. 12). In addition to this process there are five
critical elements that must be present to create the conditions to influence a youth to change
their behaviour. Bandoroff (1989) cites Bernstain (1989) in explaining the first of these five
elements is described as;
the wilderness setting is an integral component of the adventure intervention. It is
evocative, unfamiliar and captivating, and these characteristics energize learning. The
physical challenges offered by nature match the action-oriented and concrete
developmental capability of the participant. The high degree of predictability and
lack of ambiguity in this environment tend to evoke coping as opposed to defensive

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and manipulative behaviour (p. 12).
For someone attempting to assist individuals change negative and often dysfunctional
behaviours wilderness excursions strip down the clutter of day-to-day life. For the social
work profession this connection to the natural world is often forgotten yet could be a
valuable means to increase the therapeutic alliance with the people with whom we work and
return to basic human needs and means of coping.

Rain
On a canoe trip down the lazy Crooked River, just North of Prince George, we were
caught late in the afternoon in a sudden, very dramatic, torrential downpour. The rain
literally came down in sheets. By the time we couldfind a suitable beach that would be above
any rising water levels we were all soaked to the bone. It was interesting to see how the
students responded to the situation they were forced by nature to deal with. Some students
just sat in the rain and were cold. These ones needed staff to come along and help them get
into their fleece jackets and raincoats. They were pretty much useless at helping to get tents
up or to findfirewood or any other tasks. These students were of concern to the staff as they
were getting cold and doing nothing to help themselves improve the situation. Other students
were clearly excited by the challenge and were running around getting firewood, building
tarp shelters, putting up tents, trying to boil water to make hot chocolate and supper and
were not in any danger of getting hypothermia even though wet through. Still others were
oblivious to the needs of others. These youth were more interested in their own plans,
someone even wanted to go fishing when they could have been of help to those in need. The
rain did stop. People were made dry, comfortable, fed and had a good night's rest. Some
thought the rain incident made for a good story of hardships faced and others thought it was
"dumb Either way, I had greater insight for each youth. Andfor some this would lead to
more understanding of their own.
The natural world is very unbiased and does not take lightly to people not paying attention
to conditions that one is a part of. To stay dry in a rain storm a person needs to seek shelter or
put on appropriate clothing. To stay warm in winter warmth is created by moving around.
Failing to angle the canoe the right way heading into waves can cause water to come over the
bow and get you and your gear wet. No amount of complaining, denial, arguing and temper
tantrums will change these situations. Staff may be able to be manipulated but the natural
world exists regardless of the youths' actions.

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The second of the principles is that the foray into the wilds is often seen as an adventure.
This makes for something exciting, possibly fun, short term and not as "therapy". "In the
participants' minds, they are not making permanent changes but just doing what is necessary
to 'get through it'". (Bandoroff, 1989, p. 13). This helps to break down the resistance to
seeing life in a different mode of thinking and to trying new behaviours. It allows for the
experience to aid in the modification of the behaviour.
Action-oriented behaviours is the third theoretical principle of how adventure therapy
programmes work. Many of the youth at Camp Trapping seek out excitement and thrills in
one way or another. In their home communities, in most cases, this adventure is in negative
and destructive, both to property, self, and others. Using drugs, stealing, defacing property,
fighting, and doing dangerous physical activities can all be thrilling.
Wilderness adventure programmes provide for challenging and stressful activities that
force a confrontion with oneself (Bandoroff, 1989). The adventures provide stimulation
similar to the harmful, often criminal, activities the youths otherwise engage in. The activities
are sufficiently challenging to appear very difficult, and yet, with progressive development of
ability and the youth adapting to the situations successes are achieved. Successes are built
upon each other and the youth, experiencing mastery, can gain insight into their beliefs,
attitudes and behaviours (Bandoroff, 1989).
The fourth core theoretical concept of wilderness programmes is the group orientation.
The adventures are a shared experience. Traveling as a small group into wilderness areas
with set goals individuals struggle with their own pain of the effort and exertion but do this
with others in the same situation. As a small interdependent group one person may be
carrying crucial tent parts, another the supper, still another the stove and fuel. A group that

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can communicate well and overcome individual differences develops stronger empathy,
support, sharing and interpersonal bonds. Such a group becomes more efficient in travel,
whether hiking, canoeing, or skiing, and as a result the individual abilities are increased and
weaknesses are decreased (Bandoroff, 1989). The group setting also ensures that there will
be conflict and as such members must learn to get along and to patient and find ways to
resolve conflict in order to achieve the goals.

Figure 26

A Group of Students at Sunset on Arctic Lake West of Bear Lake.

The final component of wilderness programmes with a therapeutic approach is staff level
of involvement and participation with the youth. Expectations are modeled through the staff
"leading by example". "Their authority is unquestionably based on commitment, care, and
competence" (Bandoroff, 1989, p. 16). Rapport and trust is developed that allows for
dialogue to occur where the staff can guide the youth through an exploration of what the
experience means for the group and for the individuals'. This processing is guided to develop
reflection upon one self and on what one has learnt from the experience and how the

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experience can be of benefit in the home community. The deeper the processing of the
experience the greater the growth that occurs through the experience.

Figure 27

Watching a Yummy Backcountry Dessert being Made

"Just be a Kid*'
In Gee's (2009) thesis, about moments of Wild Epiphany based on experiences at Camp
Trapping, he interviewed 2 people that related the same story about the effects of wilderness
experiences. Simon: Two of the guys were crying. They were in tears because they were
reflecting on their life. One guy in particular had a real nasty upbringing, a totally criminal
lifestyle...his whole family was that way. Basically, at that moment he didn't want that kind
of lifestyle he wanted to be able to go out and just be a kid and not be involved in the crime.
That kid, on the way down, was jumping and whooping and hollering. He just had a chance
to be a kid for a change. Gabriel: The next day we hiked up to Grizzly Den and then we got
up onto the peak up there and had a little session [group counseling] and we put everyone
facing out from each other. They were all seated in a spot where they would look out over
untouched wilderness and in such a way that they couldn't see each other. We asked them to
sit in silence for 10 minutes,..One kid actually broke down and realized that he had a pretty
bad situation at home, mom and dad both operate chop shops and deal drugs and him and
his brothers were all set up by his parents in another town selling drugs. He was told that he
could have all the drugs he wanted if he sold them for his parents. He seemed to realize at
that point the chaos, or the craziness of that life, and understood that he had to make
changes. He was sobbing. This was a pretty tough kid and he had a reputation as being
pretty hard and was a big risk taker involved in high speed chases up the wazoo. He spoke a
bit about it with the staff up there and he just spent the rest of the trip in obvious
contemplation, Simon: ...he said that he realized that he didn V want the criminal lifestyle but

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it would be extremely hard for him to escape that but this was kind of a first time that he was
able to see that there might be a way out of it. Other ways ofseeing that - something got
through to him - it would be just the - his obvious joy of life after the experience, right, his
running down the trail and his kicking up big rooster tails of snow, just having fun, and later
he told me that it was great to be just a lad to be able to run and play and enjoy being out
there, right, without other worries without somebody else threatening him without having to
worry about having to defend himself or to put up a front (pp. 73-75).
Trust and Risk
During my interview with Duke we talked about the role that trust and risk plays in
wilderness programming. The trust the staff has with the students, and vice versa, is integral
to the five elements as outlined above. The participation of the staff with the students in
wilderness adventures builds rapport and understanding, which, in a reciprical way,
determines how much the individuals and the group can undertake. For myself, each step of
the way up towards a ridge top determines how close to the summit we will get with any one
group. There is an interplay of the behaviours of the individuals, how well people are getting
along, whether they help each other, if people follow direction and if they understand safety
related concerns. Likewise a high degree of trust must be present between myself and the
other staff. If a staff member is not comfortable with what we are doing, or is not
participating in decision-making I am less likely to push forward with trying to achieve more
ambitious goals.
This trust relationship permeates throughout the administrative structure at Camp. If the
person waiting by the phone, the community contact person for daily satellite phone contacts
and emergency responses, has a history of shared experiences with those in the filed and
knows the staff are capable of handling many different issues that may arise there is greater
trust. Just as with the students participating together in incidents helps to create a bond and

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open up a level of communication that wouldn't otherwise exist the staff too develop strong
relationships.
You could also add that this trust has contributed to the longevity of the programme as a
whole. There is a strong connection to the community and to the funding agency. Though
there are times when friction has occurred the Camp has received continuous funding and
support for forty years.
The idea of wilderness programmes are risky also is worthy of exploring. As a group the
youth that attend Camp Trapping lead "high risk" lives. They experience greater degrees of
trauma, abuse, homelessness, loss, drug abuse, mental and physical health concerns than
most teens. I know of around 20 or so youths that I have worked with that have died since I
started working at Camp. These are the ones I know about. I find it ironic that the idea that
taking these youth into the wilderness is seen by many as a "high risk" activity. Granted I can
understand the view that these youth are, in many ways, unpredictable and can be a danger to
themselves and others. The point of contention is that many of them would be engaged in
much riskier activities if they were not involved in Camp Trapping and still in their home
communities. If they were in jail they would not, in a majority of cases, be reducing their risk
potential for after their release. As a social worker intent on helping youth lead safe, healthy,
productive and happy lives the potential risks associated with wilderness activities are worth
the healing that occurs.

The Car Crash
One youth who attended Camp Trapping came to identify his alcohol use as being a big
problem for him while he was at Camp. He would talk to the staff about how his friends were
out partying it up while he was forced to attend the programme. One night there was a
vehicle accident at one of the locations on the highway that the Camp uses on the long runs
on Mondays. We found out a few days later that the people in the car, in which at least a
couple of teenaged boys died were friends of the youth at Camp. He was rightfy quite shook

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up about the incident. He fully believed that he would have been in that car if he had not
been at Camp at the time.
The difference between the risks of the youth being in-community versus in a programme is
the blame when something does happen can be put more easily on the youth if they are on
their own time.

Duke
We are at risk all the time. These kids were at risk when they got here, and we tried to
manage the risk and show them that they can effectively manage risk in their own lives too.
So, there's the other bit that kind of comes into play as well. So, as we are taking tads out
doing things, you know, hopefully they have a better understanding of how to manage risk in
their own lives, as we help them understand how we manage their risk Never really thought
about that too much, but that's important, eh?
Alan: Well, I can think of times where you see these kids, and you don't trust them in the
field, and they do something, but it turns into a cathartic event, and that event turns them into
a trusted individual afterwards. Right? And, I think for yourself as well. I know for myself,
when a staff person has dealt with an incident in an effective manner, you have more trust
with that person in the field as well.
Duke: Absolutely, It kind of underpins the relationship that you are trying to establish, right?
With when you have gone through a traumatic event together, whether it be a hid acting out
or a bad winter storm, that you are out in the middle of, it really has a solidifying and
bonding effect on relationships. Relationshipping.
Alan: And goes for staff to administration as well, right?
Duke: Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I say, that's the profound change that occurs in kids,
right, when you take them on these really extended excursions that are really difficult to
manage, it makes people feel closer together, that you have actually come through something
as a team, as a bunch, and it really doesn't cut along student staff lines, it cuts along the
group, it melds the group.
Alan: If we can get pass the BS, right?
Duke: Oh yeah, always. Always that, and that's always going to be permeating the air.

Jake
While on a canoe trip to Nazko Lakes, west of Williams Lake, BC, Jake became more and
more beligerent and aggressive towards staff and peers. On several occasions Jake was noncompliant to staff safety directions, verbally abusive and threatening harm to those who
didn't let him get his own way.jake was increasingly becoming a risk to his own and the
group's safety.
This behaviour all came to a head on the morning the group loaded the canoes for the
day-long trip back to the vehicles at the put-in. After another verbal assault on staff Jake was
isolatedfrom the group by paddling slightly ahead of the group and being in a canoe with
myself. He insisted on taking the stern seat, the steering position, in the canoe. The results
were predictable. Jake was unable to maintain a straight course, stay ahead of the group and

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14g

quickly became frustrated. Although in the front of the canoe I took steering control away
from overpowering his strokes and correcting for his steering mistakes. Jake blamed me and
the staff and students in the other canoes that we rammed into for our predicament.
After awhile of this zigzagging down the lake and the both of us working harder than we
needed too Jake and I managed to pull ahead of the rest of the group. At this point I turned
around and asked him if he would like me to teach him how to do the J-stroke, the main
steering stroke for canoeing. Jake agreed to listen and to "try After demonstrating the
stroke Jake practiced and listened to my suggestions for improving his method and efficiency.
Within five minutes ofstarting the mini-lesson Jake was steering the canoe in a straight line,
/ did not need to take control of where the canoe was headed and we were both expending
way less energy. This was the first time that Jake had put aside his anger andfrustrations
and desire to have everything his own way and succeeded at learning a new skill.
After around ten more minutes ofpaddling I stopped paddling and turned curound and
asked Jake what he thought. He replied that he had learnt the J-stroke. When asked what
made this time different from others he replied that he "had listened". I took a chance and
yelled "That's right, you listenedI made a big thing out of the fact that he had put aside
his usual bluster and pointed out that he was getting what he wanted, control of the canoe
and his own destiny, and I was getting what I wanted, cooperation, safety and harmony.
This was a turning point for Jake. His anger and non-compliance decreased significantly
in frequency, intensity, and duration. In future learning situations staff would recommend
that he listen and Jake understood and put in effort. I saw Jake about ten years after he had
been at Camp Trapping and he brought up the event described above during our
conversation. He recognized that event as being the defining moment when he could see
himselfgraduating from four months in the programme. Even though Jake did have further,
albeit minor, run-ins with the law he had gained something valuable that day that he learnt
the J-stroke.

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mm

Figure 28

Canoe tripping

These above therapeutic concepts and steps of the wilderness adventure process are an
ideal and occur at varying degrees of success depending upon the groups and the degree of
"buy-in" with the groups. Young offenders are inherently a "high risk" group. They, as a
generalization, do not often think of the consequences of their actions, can be quite selfcentred, can be recalcitrant, resistant and often limited in ability to process outside their
immediate situation - much like many teenagers and adults for that matter. Wilderness
adventures are an excellent catalyst for helping such individuals grow and change. Such an
approach may not address any particular measure of success, such as recidivism, but does
provide plenty of opportunity to build a good foundation of skills and experiences that can
help the person in the future.

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Chapter 10: Conclusion
My time as an employee with Cariboo Action Training Society working at Camp
Trapping was highly rewarding and formative for me. The experiences that I had there, the
relationships that I developed with fellow staff and with many of the students, has enriched
my life in many ways. As a social worker I have had first hand clinical counseling experience
while cutting much firewood, paddling many lakes, and carrying packs. My praxis, skills and
approach to working with youth, specifically young offenders, have been developed by a
myriad of lessons taught by the relationships formed with many youth. Personal connections
developed over the years have taken me literally to the ends of the earth and back. It is
through working at Camp that I was able to further my desires to engage in outdoor pursuits.
As a rookie staff member I learnt how to canoe and also had the time on my off shift to go
rock climbing and mountaineering. These activities I still enjoy today and share with my own
children. My current work as a psychiatric social worker still involves working with young
offenders is heavily guided by my Camp Trapping experiences. This thesis could continue on
with many more stories and examples of working with youth in trouble with the law but I
must attempt to conclude this part of my journey within the next few pages.
I see the outtrips of Camp as containing some of the greatest challenges we ask of the
youth and of staff. The trips are also some of the most rewarding aspects of my time at
Camp. I know that many of the students share this view.
Developing outtrip skills is an incremental process. We do not start by strapping on the
pack and going on 4 day trips without doing the preparation first. Canoe tripping skills start
at the dock at Camp. Putting the canoes on the water for the first canoe lesson I would ask
each group I taught to paddle the 100 metres across the lake as best they could and meet me

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at the other shore. Inevitably this would take upwards of 15 minutes before everyone is lined
up ready for the next part of the lesson. By the end of that first lesson almost everyone is able
to canoe back to the dock in a fraction of the time it took when they started. It is an important
lesson that few fail to recognize-they can learn if they want to.
The incredible joy I have seen on the faces of the students as we have ascending mountain
peaks was something that I will always remember with my own sense of satisfaction. The
power of that shared experience, of struggles of the ascent and then seeing the beauty of the
world from the mountain peak, is incomparable. These occasions do not happen with every
group of students. The weather may not be right for climbing, the snow may not have melted
enough off of the route, or the group is not ready, either through lack of trust or lack of
motivation, to take on even the scramble routes that we have climbed. Almost without
exception the students that have experienced achieving a mountain peak regard that brief
moment on top of the world as a highlight of their time at Camp. As I have written in this
thesis some of these experiences have led to cathartic moments where youth have identified
and shared their fears, concerns, hopes and dreams. It takes effort to get to the mountain-top.
It is done over time with preparation, struggles, sharing and caring. Richard Persig (1974)
writes "It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top" (p. 183). In context of
Camp Trapping students I would agree with this statement but standing on the peak for a
change allows you to see how far you have come and what lies ahead of you.
It is unfortunate that the funding agents as Camp Trapping outtrips do not value such
wilderness adventures, as it was when I first started doing such work. When I started at Camp
in 1987 there were 12 wilderness programmes in the province of BC. Most of these were
smaller operations doing weekend trips. In the 1990's there were some unfortunate accidents

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

15 2

that put such programmes as Camp Trapping under closer scrutiny and greater regulation.
The increased effort and administrative burden drove many of the smaller operations away
from working with young offenders in wilderness settings. Camp Trapping was a large
enough organization and had most of the safety procedures already in place when changes
were made to the "industry" in the terminology some used at the time.
The concept of risk as it pertains to wilderness programming arose on several occasions
during the writing of this thesis. I understand the reluctance of those in authority to approve
and fund wilderness activities for "high risk" youth. The potential for something negative to
happen does exist. The fear of the media feeding frenzy and of the public and political fallout
when something does go wrong cannot be pleasant. For a couple of years I bore the physical
weight of these fears. After a death in a youth in a programme outside the lower mainland we
were only allowed to go into the wilderness if we had 2-way voice communication twice a
day. In the lower mainland a handheld cell phone that would fit in a pocket was all that was
required. In this area and the areas that Camp goes to requires the use of a satellite phone. In
1996 such devices were briefcase sized, weighed 20 pounds and were worth $6,000.1 hauled
that thing in a sled in winter, packed it up mountains, and had an inspector of wilderness
programmes tell me my packed weighed too much. Shall I revisit Kafka again?
Risk for the youth that we work with is a constant in most of their lives. They often come
from an environment where they have an absence of continual compassionate care to one
where such care is present in a large dose. It annoys me to no end that we as a society can see
wilderness programmes as more risky than letting the youth roam at will without the
presence of continual compassionate care. In over 20 years of doing wilderness activities
with students at Camp I dealt with one major injury while in the field, a broken leg. There

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WELDS

15 3

have been plenty of minor injuries. I know of a number of youth that have died after
graduating from Camp. The count for me has approached over 20 youth. Many of these were
by misadventure, suicide and murder. The health concerns for many of the youth that have
graduated from Camp place these youth into a high-risk category. The involvement of such
youth in outdoor adventures does help break some out of their sedentary lifestyle. To believe
that we are putting these youth at greater risk by engaging them in wilderness activities
ignores the facts of these youth's daily lives.
I strongly believe that wilderness experiences are a valuable component of the Camp
Trapping process for youth. I hope that Camp and other programmes that utilize the
wilderness will continue to be seen as a benefit for the youth.
The students at Camp have taught me a lot over the years about direct care social work.
To work at Camp each staff must learn to balance their own approach with the structure of
the programme. Each interaction with a student is a blending of the relationships that exist
between the staff, the student and the organization. To uphold the rules and structure of the
programme with a youth that is lashing out in anger is often very stressful. Over time one
develops a toolbox of skills that help in this process. The biggest device is to firmly believe
in the power of the programme to affect positive change and to realize that avoidance and
changing the rules to appease an individual does no one any good. That said each youth and
each situation must be approached on an individual basis and led in the desired direction.
Continual compassionate care requires strength when faced with an angry, resistant young
man. Is there no better teacher than someone who questions your every request and who
demands full justification for your actions?

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

154

This thesis was written to impart to others some of the social work lessons that working
with youth at Camp Trapping has taught me. The youth all come to Camp with their own
experiences of a lack of continual compassionate care. Much of this stems from individual
influences, such as mental health concerns, some are family related, such as alcohol and drug
addiction or abuse of some sort, but much is of a social and political nature. Almost all are
things that we as a society can work on alleviating in a much better way than we are now.
The current trend towards more punitive measures for crime and offenders is an extension of
the absence of continual compassionate care that the youth already experience.
The year 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the Camp Trapping programme. I
truly hope that the all involved in keeping it in operation will see that it provides much
needed continual compassionate care in a unique setting that many youth benefit from.

Figure 29

Anything is Possible!

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

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Appendix A: Cariboo Action Training Society Photograph Permission Letter

CARIBOO
ACTION
TRAINING
SOCIETY

April 12,2012

Dear Mr. Hugfott
Please accept this letter on behalf of Cariboo Action Training Society (CATS) as formal
peftnroion allowing you to use photograph* owned by CATS tor the purpose* of Inclusion in
your ttxnft and for document* related to your thwfc. This may include, but K not limited to,
presentations, academic posters, and articles. We ttutt you wtil ensure at! photographs protect
the confidentiality of any subjects that may appear in the images as required under the youth
Criminal Justice Act

Daryf Goll,
executive dtnector

»J 30 • tm Aw™*. ftitx* Ctatft, BC VJL 3K2
WekShr

Aw. MV4IS9 F«s;»MlM nwulr iaKSi#KpWipJ)«

163

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164

Appendix B: Data Sources/ Participant Sampling/Validity, Credibility,
Rigor, Trustworthiness Matrix

Interview Data
Participants
Participant Selection

o Purposive sample
o Knowledgeable
participants
o Wide cross section/variety
of participants
o Mus t h a v e b e e n a t C a m p y

Probation Officers
PG (xl)

Presently employed (x2)
Past employees (6)
Counsellors (x7)
Aboriginal & adult
Students
graduate (x2)
o Aboriginal (x2)
Male (x8)
o Local (PG)
Female (xl)
(North) (x2)
Cook (xl)
Teacher(xl)
Programme Coordinator (xl)
Executive Director (xl)

interview Process

> Semi-structured
individually conducted
format
> Member checking of
transcription accuracy and
interpretation
> Analysis; finding themes
arid narrativp dphailc

Memory Data
Literature
Immersion
Insider
Researcher/participant
observation
Field notes
Self-reflexivity

Multiple Data Sources/Social Artifacts

Documentary data
o Image-based data
o Literature
o Social/Cultural artifacts
o

Social Validity &
Interpretation Checks

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

J 65

Appendix C: Participant Information and Consent to Participate Form

Journey Through the Wilds: An Autoethnography of the Experience of
Camp Trapping
Alan Huggett (Researcher)
250-563-9159 (Please leave a message) huggett@unbc.ca
130-1460 6th Ave, Prince George, BC (Please mark mail as confidential)
Thank you for your assistance in helping me to explore the experience of Camp Trapping. The
purpose of this research is to describe and interpret my Camp Trapping experience within the broader
societal context. Your interview will help me to explore what the Camp Trapping experience has
meant to people such as yourself as well as to provide me with insights about my own experience.
This research will be used toward the completion of my Masters of Social Work thesis and possible
subsequent publication. As well, the study may provide information regarding programme delivery at
Camp Trapping and the value of wilderness based attendance programmes within the youth
corrections system of British Columbia.
You were chosen as a participant because of your unique experience with the Camp Trapping
programme. This study will be conducted by talking with you, either by phone interview or in
person. I will record your responses, thoughts, feelings and experiences by written and electronic
recording. The recorded interview will be transcribed and the transcription will be made available to
you for review to ensure accuracy. Only myself, my supervisor and a person hired to transcribe the
recordings will have access to the notes, recordings and transcriptions. The transcriber will sign a
confidentiality agreement. Only myself will know the code attaching your identity to the information
you provide to me. All information gathered from the interview will be kept in a locked cabinet
stored at my residence for a maximum of two years and then destroyed by myself. Any information
you provide that is used in the final report will have your name and any distinguishing features
relating to your identity altered. I will not attach your name to the comments.
Your participation in this study is strictly voluntary. If, at any time, you wish to withdraw from
the study you may do so. If you do choose to withdraw, none of the information that you may have
given me will be used in the study unless you provide further written permission.

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166

I want to be ensured that there is no risk to you of your involvement in this study. If you have any
thoughts, concerns, or questions throughout this process please talk with me or contact the attached
phone numbers for assistance.
I recognize that there could be a risk of retriggering traumatic reactions from participating in
research. Although I am not a clinical counsellor, should feelings of overwhelming distress result
from your participation in this interview I will provide support based on my training, skill and
experience. I am well informed of community counselling resources and can help with such a referral
if the need should arise. You may at any time choose to not answer any questions or to discontinue
any area of discussion.
Copies of the finished thesis will be available at the UNBC library. Copies will also be available
upon request from myself.
If you have any questions please contact myself, or my supervisor, Si Transken at 250-960-6643
(si@unbc.ca).
Any complaints about the project may be directed to the University of Northern BC Office of
Research (reb@unbc.ca or 250-960-5650).

To ensure you understand your rights as a research participant please read
and answer the following:
Do you understand that you have been asked to
participate in a research study?

Yes

No

Have you read and received a copy of the attached
information sheet?

Yes

No

Do you understand that the interviews will be recorded?

Yes

No

Do you understand the benefits and risks of being in
this study?

Yes

No

Do you understand that you can refuse to participate
and withdraw from the study at any time?

Yes

No

Has the issue of confidentiality been explained to you?

Yes

No

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDS

Do you understand who will have access to the
information you provide to me?

167

_ Yes _ No

Alan Huggett explained this study to me.
I agree to take part in this study (Signature)
(Print Name)
(Date)
I believe that the person signing this form understands what is involved in the study and
voluntarily agrees to participate.
(Signature)
(Date)

(Alan Huggett)

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168

Appendix D: Interview Protocols
1. [Openers/ Grand Tours] Tell me about your experience of Camp Trapping.
In your opinion what is the purpose of CT? How does it try to achieve these purposes?
2. [Staff Personal Experience] What do you remember about working at camp that was
most enjoyable?
What would you say was least enjoyable about working at camp?
What lessons do you take away from camp that you use in your personal life?
3. [Marginalization of Youth] Anglin talks about pain and pain-based behaviours. For the
youth at CT what pain is this and how is it exhibited?
What role does child maltreatment play in the lives of CT students? How do the child
welfare/youth justice/corrections systems help to alleviate/add to this maltreatment?
What do you see as the basis of the marginalization of the youth? Are the behaviours
exhibited by the youth at CT a result of marginalization? Are youth becoming more or less
marginalized?
What kinds of changes has/are occurring in youth corrections and work with marginalized
youth? Are these changes moving towards, or further from, a punitive/retributive approach?

4. [Effect of CT on Youth] Can you tell me something about the Camp Trapping experience
and the impact that it has on youth? Describe.
Professor Jim Anglin stated good programmes create a "home in the heart" for youth. Does
CT do this? How do you know? Examples.
I would characterize many of the youth that I have worked with as
"hypermasculine"(respect=fear, women as sex objects/possessions, etc.) Would you agree?
What are your views about this? Where does this hypermasculinity come from?

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\ 69

Were there any moments when you were at Camp Trapping when you were part of a
defining/cathartic moment for a youth? Such a time would be when you or a youth
discovered something about life or the world?
Did you witness youth change their perceptions, attitudes and behaviours around the
following:

- views of gender and masculinity? - views of minorities?

- the use of aggression? Please describe the perceptions and behaviours before and after
the changes.
Describe the most dramatic change you ever saw happen with a youth at camp?
What kinds of behavioural changes do you see occurring with the youth at Camp? / How well
supported are these changes once a youth returns to their home community?
5. [What Makes CT Work?]If you could tell the people currently working at camp
something about the camp experience what would that be?
What makes for a good CT employee?/ What makes for a good staff team?/ What happens
when staff do/don't work well together?
In your view what works in the Camp Trapping process? Describe:
What parts/aspects of the CT programme seem to have the greatest impact on youth?
Many people see CT as a "tough programme" and equate CT with "boot camps". What
makes CT not a boot camp?

6. [Wilderness Component]
What are your thoughts about the wilderness adventures of Camp Trapping?
What changes have occurred to wilderness programmes? Why aren't there more wilderness
programmes, and/or Camp Trappings?

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170

7. [Dream Question] If you could tell the world something about Camp Trapping what
would that be?
8. [My participation] Are there any events or experiences that I was involved in while you
worked at Camp Trapping that stand out in your mind?
9. [Addendums] Is there anything else that you would like to add?