It’s hard to gauge how deep the systemic problem is without data. Have you ever come across any statistics concerning what kind of people are admitted to Psych wards in Saskatchewan? In Toronto we have the opposite problem - too many mentally disturbed people end up on the streets begging for change and harassing pedestrians.

I found the case of Kim Walker very interesting, in part because it contained many elements common to another case that previously had come to my attention.

A few years ago I learned of the dilemma of a rural Saskatchewan family with a very attractive sixteen-year-old daughter. It seemed that the young girl recently had been diagnosed with minor epilepsy and did not want to go on the related treatment with the prescribed drug, Risperdal. Risperdal is a drug actually used for the treatment of psychotic disorders and it has disfiguring side effects that include significant weight gain, and rigidity and distortion of the facial muscles. As well, she liked to go to parties at which alcohol often was consumed. As a consequence, she was placed in a major psychiatric facility in North Battleford. She was fifteen years old at the time. During the time that she was a patient in the hospital, she met up with a 46-year-old biker from eastern Canada, who convinced her that the adults in her life were not treating her with the level of respect and maturity she deserved. She soon became his girlfriend and wanted to take off with him. From that time forward the young girl and her family had a biker problem on their hands.

Why it was that a fifteen-year-old, whose main problems seemed to be “issues” surrounding adults and alcohol, was placed in a large psychiatric facility I cannot say. However, it looks a bit suspect. I believe, however, that the young girl’s parents initially thought that their daughter would be safe under the care of the Mental Health System.

Why the staff of the North Battleford psychiatric hospital did not intervene when they could see that this girl, as a minor, was being accosted by a middle-aged man is beyond me as well. Why were the wards not segregated in some way, by gender or by age? I am addressing this question to you because you would be familiar with the heath care system, having had parents who worked in it. You would also be familiar, as a lawyer, with the justice system. It seems to me that it was no small coincidence that the biker just happened to be in the hospital for the young girl. I believe that he was sent after her.

I think that one of the main problems in the Kim Walker case is that nobody is allowed to talk about the System in general (and how it works); therefore the real issues are never discussed.

I previously have had two relatively minor encounters with bikers, and believe it, they are terrifying people to be around! Furthermore, where bikers are found, you will also find morphine. Middle-aged men do not normally worm their way into the social circles of teenagers.

I think that the public really needs to witness a thorough disclosure of the circumstances under which these hard as nails characters find their victims of prey.