(♪♪)
>> Mark: Tonight on the
Fifth Estate, they're teenage
girls -- young, vulnerable --
and they're being sold for sex.
>> I would work 24 hours a day.
>> Mark: She was first sold when
she was 14.
>> And you can do one guy
an hour.
24 guys sometimes in a day.
>> Mark: When she was 16, she
was owned by a pimp.
>> The state that they get the
girls in is like they're moving
cattle.
Like, they get them so drugged
up that if they even wanted to
run away, they couldn't even run
away.
>> Mark: Tonight, you'll meet
the people trying to save the
girls from being the next names
added to the list of the missing
and murdered.
>> We want to keep you alive.
That's our goal.
>> Did anyone say this was easy?
(laughing)
>> Mark: I haven't seen any
easy yet.
>> No.
It's not easy.
And who else would -- who else
is gonna do this?
Really, think about it.
>> I love you, Wallis!
>> Okay.
>> Mark: I'm Mark Kelley, and
this is the Fifth Estate.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Edmonton is one of
the fastest growing cities in
North America.
People drawn here by dreams.
But like all cities, Edmonton
has dark secrets.
Teenaged girls sexually
exploited, their lives very much
at risk.
(♪♪)
>> Okay, this is just the
briefing for the covert portion
of our operation tonight.
So I'm the cover manager for
this operation.
>> Mark: It's 9:45 on a
Wednesday night, and an
extraordinary operation is
underway at this hotel.
It involves about a dozen police
officers teaming up with social
workers in a race against time.
Dave Schening is a vice cop with
the Edmonton Police.
He's looking for young girls who
are sold on the internet.
When he thinks he finds one, he
texts her pretending to be a
customer.
But they won't arrest her when
she arrives.
If she's underage, they'll bring
her to a safe house to rescue
her from being sexually
exploited.
>> Okay.
I sent her a message if she's
available tonight.
Okay.
Let's wait a bit here and see
what kind of response I get.
>> Mark: About an hour later,
his text is answered.
A girl is headed to the hotel.
When she arrives, Schening goes
in to meet her.
He's joined by Kari Thomason, an
outreach worker with Metis Child
and Family Services.
In the room waiting for them is
a tough talking 21-year-old.
>> Okay, thanks.
So, girl, listen, you know, I
want you to understand here
something right from the get-go
here.
You're not in any trouble, okay?
I'm not here to shit on you.
You're in the driver's seat here
right now.
I really believe that the job
you're doing, girl, is probably
the most dangerous profession in
the world.
>> It is.
>> Mark: But because she isn't
underage, all they can do is
urge her to leave the sex trade.
>> I want to talk about -- I
wanna talk about safety, safety
plans.
Have you got a safety plan?
Like, what if you walk in that
door and it was some guy who
was out for -- out to hurt you?
What would you do?
>> I do have a safety plan.
>> Tell me about your safety
plan.
What would you do?
>> My safety plan is my knife.
>> We have such a high murder
rate.
We have serial killers targeting
our women, and escorting is no
different.
You are still at risk.
And, as you know, when you walk
through a door, you never know
who's in the bathroom, though.
And we've had it where girls
have gone to the room, she's in
there thinking, okay, it's just
buddy, and then when she
gets further in past the door,
we've had three other guys pop
out of the bathroom.
We wanna keep you alive.
That's our goal.
And then keeping you alive and
getting you out of this shit
show would be cool.
>> Honestly, I would just try to
run out the door, just fight for
my life.
Because at the end of the day,
if I'm screaming, somebody's
gonna hear it.
So somebody will hear it.
>> Well, hopefully.
Hopefully.
>> Well, they will.
>> It's not always do.
We have one of our girls,
literally, she wasn't found for
about a week later.
She was actually hidden under
the mattresses.
So -- and there was literally
other people that had rented
that room and were sleeping on
top of the bed where she was
dead underneath.
>> I heard that on the news.
>> So this is my card.
And this is also a young lady
that helps with us.
So if you're ever needing
anything, can't get a hold of
us, you can also call her.
She does a lot of work with --
does great.
>> Resources help.
And if you need to get a hold of
us -- if you need to get a hold
of me or us, get to them.
They'll get a hold of me no
problem.
>> Okay.
>> Okay.
Good luck, girl.
Be safe.
>> Yeah.
Which way is the elevator?
>> This way.
>> Mark: Half a dozen other
women will show up and be
shocked to find the police
waiting for them.
Will this be the catalyst to get
them out of what they call
"the life?"
Kari hopes so.
She knows the stakes are high.
Two of her cousins are among the
missing.
That's why her goal is to stamp
out the sex trade, one woman at
a time.
(♪♪)
>> It's heartbreaking.
But at the same time, each one
of them that takes a step, it's
the reason why we keep doing it.
>> Mark: Kari keeps her own
registry of the murdered and
missing.
It's an astonishing list.
Since 2006, she's been
collecting personal information
from the sex trade workers she
meets.
There are 852 profiles.
80 per cent of them are
Aboriginal women.
The names in red, all of them,
dead.
Most of their deaths unsolved.
Another critical piece of her
database?
Look at all these teenagers!
>> M-hm.
Sadly, yeah.
They didn't have an option.
>> Mark: Their age when they did
their first trick.
Kari, I just cannot get over,
though, the number of young
teenagers on this list.
>> M-hm.
>> Mark: I mean, it's not an
aberration.
It's common.
Right through here.
>> And these are the ones that
are willing to give us that
information.
Some of them are too ashamed to
tell us that, you know what, I
was 12 years old when I turned
my first trick.
It's not their issue.
This isn't what they chose
to do.
It's not, you know, something
that any of our girls said, you
know what, I can't wait to grow
up to be abused and used by men.
I can't wait to turn my first
trick at 12.
It's just not -- you know,
you're not taught that unless
you're brought into it.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Kari knows the
younger girls are kept deep
underground by their pimps,
making them harder to find,
harder to rescue.
So who will save these girls?
Girls who are too young to lose.
Girls like Savannah.
(♪♪)
>> Growing up, you know,
I had a really good life.
I always wanted to be a doctor
when I grew up, actually.
It was like my life went really
well until about Grade 7,
Grade 8.
I was raped for the first time
when I was 13.
So --
>> Mark: Who raped you?
>> My friend's dad.
When I went for a sleepover.
>> Mark: What did that do to
you?
>> You know, I felt like I was
nothing.
Like everything had been taken,
right?
Like, I had nothing left in me.
I felt like I was hopeless.
Like, how could somebody do this
to me, right?
I'm 13.
I'm just going into, like,
junior high.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Savannah tried to
bury that secret, growing up in
this middle-class neighbourhood.
She would only speak to us on
the condition we changed her
name and hid her identity.
This must have we can say: She
was, in most respects, the girl
next door until that sexual
assault led her on a downward
spiral and to a side of the city
she never knew existed.
>> Drugs made me feel numb.
It made me not have to think
about, you know, what happened
and being raped.
I got kicked out of my house for
doing the drugs, and I met this
one girl actually one time at a
party and she said, you know,
like, I know this way you can
make, like, really fast money.
And she's, like, you know, I
have some guys that I can hook
you up with.
You know, all you have to do is
have sex with them and they'll
pay you.
You know, you get, like, 300,
$400 a call.
I'm, like, wow, that's, like,
amazing.
I'm going on nothing, trying to
support an addiction, which
wasn't working very well.
So I just got right into it.
>> Mark: But didn't you have any
fear about what kind of life you
were getting into?
>> I had no fear until things
started happening to me.
>> Mark: Savannah explains how
the pimps look for broken girls,
then lure them into the life
with drugs, clothes, affection,
and attention.
Savannah had just turned 14.
(♪♪)
>> The pimps, they look like
regular guys.
Like, basically they can spot
you out of a crowd and they know
that you're a victim.
Of something.
And so they easily get you.
>> Mark: Because if you're a
victim, you're vulnerable?
>> Yes.
>> Mark: And you were
vulnerable?
>> I was vulnerable.
What they would do is -- to get
you hooked, they would take you
-- you know, they would take me
to West Ed, buy me everything I
wanted.
We would go to, like, the most
expensive stores, we'd go to
these awesome parties, we'd do
everything.
And then by at that -- like, end
of that week, they would say,
well, you now owe me money.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Savannah's middle-class
life was ripped from her.
But for other girls, the
hardships started even earlier.
Like this girl we'll call Emily.
>> Mm, I remember my dad beating
my mom up every day and my mom,
she was addicted to heroin.
And that they'd leave us alone
all the time.
>> Mark: Did you ever feel, as a
kid growing up, that somebody
loved you?
>> Well, I thought my parents
loved me, 'cause I didn't know
what they were doing was wrong.
Like, I thought it was normal
for people's parents to run off
on them and for them to beat
each other up and do drugs.
>> Mark: Emily was finally
removed from her parents' care
but then bounced from relatives'
houses to foster care until her
social worker dropped her off at
a homeless shelter in Edmonton.
She was just 16 years old.
>> No one really cared about me.
Like, when I was starving and
had nowhere to sleep at night.
Within 2 months, I had probably
tried every drug.
I just kind of felt like there
is no hope in doing anything
better with my life.
>> Mark: Emily met someone she
considered her boyfriend.
They were homeless.
They scraped by selling drugs.
She thought she'd hit rock
bottom until he introduced her
to something worse.
>> He took me into a room and
asked me -- he's like, if you
really love me, I want to get a
lot of money and run away
together.
And I was like, yeah, yeah, I
really do care about you, you
know.
And he's like, well, would you
be willing to make money a
different way than you're used
to?
>> Mark: Emily and Savannah are
at risk of ending up out here,
where sex trade workers fight
over street corners.
Every night, Kari makes the
rounds, checking in on the women
who work here.
>> So this is 118 Ave. now.
So what many of the girls will
call 95 Street and 118 Ave. is
known as Death Row, because this
is where many of the girls that
have gone missing or been found
murdered worked this track area.
>> And do you still see girls
working this track?
>> Oh, absolutely.
You betcha.
This is still the hot -- the hot
spot for all the track.
>> Mark: Kari spots someone
she's seen out here before,
someone she knows all too well.
>> I wanna know what the hell --
how come you didn't call and
come back in?
>> I'll call -- I'll call on
Monday.
>> Tomorrow is Monday.
>> Yes, I'll call.
I will, Kari.
Love you.
>> Love you.
Stay safe tonight.
One of her sisters was murdered.
>> Mark: This woman's sister was
murdered here.
And even then, she's not ready
to walk away from the strip
known as Death Row.
The woman's pimp has a special
hold on her.
It's just another typical night?
>> Sadly, it is.
Yeah, it is.
See it too often.
Those are the ones, though, that
break your heart, knowing that
their mother put them out.
There's no justice
for that.
They're not gonna tell anybody.
They're not gonna take their
mother to court because, you
know what, some love is better
than no love.
>> Mark: Saving a girl like
that's going to be pretty tough.
>> Well, especially when her
mother has such a grip on her.
No matter what we say to her,
she still wants that love that
she's not gonna get.
But if she can do anything to
please her mom to get somewhat
better attention, that's why
she's out here, shaking her ass
and doing that for her mom.
Oh, I don't want to talk about
it anymore.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: When we come back,
we go inside the booming
online marketplace for underage
girls.
>> But if you're looking
for an underage girl now, is she
likely --
>> Yeah, this is where
I'll look.
Absolutely.
This is the first place to look.
>> Mark: Do you remember the
first time you saw yourself on
Backpage?
>> Yeah.
I was really insecure about
myself, so I just kind of
thought, like, I can't believe
my body is, like, up there for
the world to see.
(♪♪)
>> The following program
contains course language.
Viewer discretion is advised.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Edmonton is the only
major city in Canada where
crime is on the rise.
Including violent sexual
assaults.
But typically, many more
assaults are never even
reported.
The victims remain hidden behind
the walls of townhouses in
comfortable neighbourhoods,
where
teenaged girls we met were sold
for sex while their pimps raked
in the profits.
Girls like Emily, who was 17
when her so-called boyfriend
lured her into the life.
But instead of selling her on
the street, he sold her online.
>> He told me that, like, I
would be escorting.
But it's like -- he said, oh no,
it's not like prostitution.
It's different, you know,
because it's, like, fancier
because you're on the internet
and stuff.
Like, no, I thought it was,
like, you know, the sexier, you
know, less whorish version of
selling yourself.
>> Mark: Dave, I want you to
take me to Backpage, because if
there's one thing I've heard
over and over again from the
girls we've been speaking to,
it's that they end up on
Backpage.
>> Yup, that's true.
That's probably the most
popular.
So I'm going to Edmonton
Backpage, a local one.
They're all over the country,
North American-wide.
And where I am going is where I
find Backpage and all the adult
escorts is in the escort site.
>> Mark: Backpage is just one of
the many websites that Dave
Schening keeps an eye on.
The veteran detective is looking
for clues to help find underage
girls who are being trafficked
online.
Schening estimates
20 per cent of
the girls profiled here are
under the age of 18.
>> The street-level sex trade
has dropped off.
I mean, it still exists.
There are, you know, a class of
women that are still on the
street, but it's a fraction.
It's a very small part of what
it used to be.
>> Mark: But if you're looking
for an underage girl now, is she
most likely --
>> Yeah, this is where
I'll look.
Absolutely.
This is the first place I'll
look.
And what I start looking at are
things like their availability.
Are they available 24/7?.
Nobody works 24/7.
So when you see ads and they say
they work 24/7, someone is -- it
suggests to me that somebody's
working that phone for them.
They're not in control of it.
So that's a flag for me.
Or they're in town for a short
time.
That means they're doing a
circuit.
So somebody's driving or taking
them around.
I get a lot of these sex trade
workers doing a circuit from
Eastern Canada all over Western
Canada, chasing the money.
>> Mark: Where they're being
moved from town to town, make
some money in one town and then
move on to the next before
people like you catch up to
them?
>> Exactly.
Exactly.
>> Mark: Do you remember the
first time you saw yourself on
Backpage?
>> Yeah.
>> Mark: What was that like?
What did you see?
>> I was really insecure about
myself, so I just kinda thought,
like, I can't believe my body
is, like, up there for the world
to see, you know?
Like -- and, like, my head
wasn't in it, though, because I
asked them not to because, I
mean, I did want to get a job
eventually.
>> Mark: You're also underage.
>> Yeah, I was only 17 still.
But on Backpage, we put that I
was, like, 19, I think.
>> Mark: Your boyfriend said to
you, hey, just for a week.
Make some money in a week and
everything will be great and we
can run away.
Is that what happened?
>> No.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: And once they're
online, they're in deep.
They're now a commodity, owned
and operated by their pimps and
always open for business.
Savannah said the pimps didn't
care about her, they only cared
about money.
>> They'll make their own
prices.
They'll say, oh, this guy's $50,
right?
Like, they don't care.
So I would have to work, like,
all hours of the day, no
sleeping.
I would work 24 hours a day.
And you can do one guy an hour.
24 guys sometimes in a day.
You finish your one call, you
know, it's the morning, say like
8 am.
I barely get bathroom breaks in
there.
Like, I'm not allowed.
That is not allowed.
You're just supposed to
go, go, go -- work.
It's just my whole day consists
of one guy in, one guy out.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Pimps will move the
girls from city to city.
They call it the circuit.
From Edmonton to Cold Lake to
Fort McMurray.
Moving the girls helps maximize
profits and minimize the risk of
attracting the attention of
police.
That's what happened to
Samantha.
The BC First Nations teen,
orphaned, then abused in foster
care, ended up on the streets
at 16.
Then she became the property of
a pimp.
>> Yeah, we are moved from BC to
Leduc to Fort McMurray.
But to us, it's all the same
fucking hotel.
It's all the same shit.
A lot of the time when I was in
different places, I didn't even
know I was in those places until
someone told me or until I was
leaving that city or town.
Like, that's how fucked up I
would get.
And that just gives them
complete control.
The state that they get the
girls in is like they're moving
cattle.
Like, they get them so drugged
up that if they even wanted to
run away they couldn't
even run away.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: The pimps use drugs
to keep the girls numb and
in debt.
A debt they're always working to
pay off.
(♪♪)
>> I remember I would just
shoot up, lock myself in the
bathroom, and be shaking on the
bathroom floor.
When I'd wake up, I'd be
surprised I was even alive.
You don't even know what's what.
You don't even know who's
inside you.
You don't even know what's
going on.
Like seriously, I can't explain
to you.
You don't even know reality
at all.
Like, when Vice came into one of
the high-rises, they found me in
the bathtub curled up with half
my hair ripped out because I
used to rip out my hair out on
meth.
Like, I was up for 28 days in my
underwear, and I didn't even
know.
And they had videotapes of guys
raping me.
I can't tell you how you don't
even know what reality is
anymore.
>> Mark: It's difficult for
those not in this life to
understand why these girls don't
run from their pimps.
Savannah tried, but to her pimp,
she was too precious a
commodity.
>> I knew that these guys -- you
know, my pimps -- were taking
everything I had.
You know, I had no identity
anymore.
I was just some random person.
Nobody could contact me.
I was a nobody.
>> Mark: Why couldn't you walk
away?
>> It's not like that.
Once you get involved with a
pimp, they're usually involved
in gangs, and they will come
after you.
You know, I had to escape out of
some pimps' houses through
windows.
They would find you, beat you,
bring you back, tell you to not
ever leave again or they're
going to kill you.
There is no escaping.
>> Mark: You're their property.
>> I am now their property.
You know, I've been sold.
They will sell you.
>> Mark: How much were you sold
for?
>> 3,000.
For one person.
>> Mark: It would be months
before authorities would find
Savannah, but not until she had
been badly beaten in a violent
attack.
But that allowed police to get
her to a safe house, one step
closer to getting her out of the
life.
>> Sadly, that's -- if the guys
get their hands into them first,
it's hard for them to see any
other life because what they've
done to them already.
>> Mark: Back in her office at
the Métis Child and Family
Services, Kari is worried teen
girls like Savannah, Emily, and
Samantha will end up in her
photo album.
It's a bone-chilling collection.
>> Mark: You know, it's one
thing to have a list of names
but another thing to see the
faces.
>> See the faces.
>> Mark: This is a -- this is a
binder of broken lives.
>> M-hm.
Completely.
And trying to repair them is not
the easy part.
It's extremely difficult.
>> Mark: Kari asked us not to
show the pictures.
They're photos of sex trade
workers, including their
identifying marks, like scars
and tattoos.
Documentary evidence in case
they go missing or in the event
police find a body.
But among these photos, one that
gives Kari hope.
>> I mean, she's a great
picture.
She's going in for social worker
right now.
She's in her second year.
She's tell you herself, I never
thought I would even see my 50th
birthday.
And she's -- you know, she's
gonna see it, and she's gonna
see it as a social worker now.
So, I mean, that's -- that's
what keeps us going in this is
that those little steps lead to
bigger ones.
So, I mean, it's all worth it.
But, I mean, for those that are
stuck, they may need a little
shove and holler.
You know, yelled out on the
street by me once in a while.
But that's okay.
>> Mark: That's where you fit
in.
>> Somebody's gotta be the bitch
out there sometimes, and I'm
taking that.
I'll take it on.
>> Wallis, would you be able to
drive me tomorrow somewhere for
a visit?
>> Yeah, I can do that.
>> Yeah, on Wednesday.
>> Yeah.
>> Mark: When we come back, a
radically different approach to
helping girls at risk.
>> Now, where the hell are we
going to go for frigging
clothes?
It's 8 o'clock.
>> It's 8 o'clock.
The mall doesn't close until 9.
(♪♪)
>> The following program
contains course language.
Viewer discretion is advised.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: For every teenaged
girl being sold for sex in
Edmonton, there's someone trying
to find them and rescue them.
Under Alberta law, police can
apprehend underage girls who are
being sexually exploited and
take them to a safe house.
But there are girls who are
harder to reach, girls who are
off radar of most social
agencies.
(♪♪)
>> This is a tough
neighbourhood.
I'm just gonna leave you in the
car and I'll go get this thing.
(laughing)
>> Mark: Meet Wallis Kendall,
a former teacher turned
outreach worker.
He has his own unorthodox
approach to reaching the
unreachable.
He doesn't believe in
interventions to rescue girls.
In fact, he doesn't even go
looking for them.
He waits till they find him.
>> I don't advertise.
I do nothing like that.
I mean, we're not after -- we
don't try to find kids.
They find us.
You know, I look at myself as a
friend of these kids, honest,
straightforward, do my best,
make sure they have as much food
as I can get them and make sure
they're taken care of as much as
I can do that, right?
If you're gonna do this, just do
it straightforward.
Don't try to have a lot of grand
ideas.
Like, I hate the preachy shit,
right?
Oh my god.
That's the thing that drives me
nuts.
>> Mark: Wallis co-founded a
group called ihuman, funded by
private and public money and
devoted entirely to helping
high-risk kids living off the
grid in the city.
>> Hello?
>> Hello, where are you?
>> I'm downtown near the TD.
I'll go around the block, and
I'll meet you at TD.
I'll go around, okay?
I'll give you some bus tickets.
>> Mark: On this night, among
his many challenges is to keep
this teen safe.
She's supposed to go to rehab
tomorrow.
>> I'm gonna black the fuck out.
>> Am I gonna take you back to
the safe house later?
It's only 8 o'clock.
Would you go back?
>> Maybe around 10.
I'm saying --
Around 10.
Maybe 10:30.
I love you, Wallis!
>> Okay.
Here, you carry this stuff.
This, too.
>> Mark: All through the night,
Wallis and his car only stop
long enough to pick up one teen.
>> Okay, I'll be back.
>> Mark: And drop off another.
It's difficult to see how this
will help steer these girls into
a better life.
>> Fuck, man.
>> Mark: Explain to me what we
were just doing here.
I just saw you running a
circuit.
I mean, to me it looked like you
were a taxi service for these
girls.
But clearly --
>> I am.
I am a taxi service.
But the thing is that within
that taxi service is a critical
issue happening.
So I'm doing all that stuff, but
more important than that is the
conversation.
Because they're gonna unload on
me everything that's going on.
So in a way, I get to hear all
of the critical issues that
they're facing.
And I've got to try and
translate that into something to
get them out of
the cave, as I call it.
(♪♪)
>> So what I'm gonna do is
I'll get you picked up tomorrow.
>> Okay.
>> Mark: And deep in the cave is
where Wallis found a girl we'll
call Nicole.
She's 16 years old and has been
hurt time and time again.
Her spirit, like her body, badly
scarred.
I see a lot of marks on your
hands.
What's that?
What are those from?
>> Once I started this, I got
cuts all up my arms.
Because I feel so bad about
myself, so...and the things I
do.
>> Mark: How does cutting
yourself help?
>> Um, it's a release, in a way.
It's a different type of feeling
for me.
It's a different type of pain to
feel.
And it just reminds me I'm still
here.
I'm somehow still surviving,
so...
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Nicole was born to
a First Nations mom, later
adopted by a middle-class
family.
Badly bullied, her bouts of rage
landed her in a group home at
the age of 13.
That's where a man, who was 10
years older, found her and began
grooming her.
He would convince her to sell
her body on the streets for him.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: You've heard about
girls who went missing.
Do you think that could happen
to you?
>> At first, no.
But then I started hearing
stories from friends and stuff
or other girls on the Ave who
knew how young I was, right?
And they'd say, well, you gotta
get someone to watch your back.
>> Mark: How do you think you've
managed to survive all these
years?
>> Um ... I don't know.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: The law and order
approach of confining her didn't
work for her.
She's been rescued at least 10
times, only to return to her
pimp.
She couldn't give him up to
police.
>> Their supports aren't the
kind of supports someone would
need.
They want you to basically rat
out or talk to the police about
these people.
But you know you can't, and they
don't seem to understand fully.
>> Mark: Why can't you?
>> Because if you're labelled a
rat on the streets, you might as
well be dead.
>> Mark: And for some high-risk
teens, this is the last resort.
This is the office of iHuman,
where there's no pressure, no
judgment.
A safe haven for girls on the
edge of being drawn into the
life.
>> Hi.
>> Hi, Dakota.
>> So I'm gonna read to you?
>> Yeah.
>> So where I left off?
>> Did you read from -- since
last time?
>> No.
>> Oh.
That's all right.
>> Mark: Take Dakota, for
example.
She's 16 years old and struggles
to read.
She got help once she asked
for it.
>> I think of his last orders.
Don't trust them.
Don't go back.
Kill Pita.
Do what you came to do.
>> Good.
>> Can I stop reading now?
>> Yes.
>> Dakota.
>> She did good.
>> How are you doing?
>> Mark: For Wallis, this is a
model that works.
Start with a car ride, build
some trust, turn that trust into
an anchor for kids who feel
abandoned by their families and
social agencies.
>> Like, these kids are so
disconnected, right?
And half of them -- like, Dakota
doesn't have a place to live.
So that's a problem.
Nobody wants to work with these
kids because they're too
difficult.
>> I'm the one who made the
bannock so...
>> Yeah, but she's helping you.
>> She's just frying it up.
>> Well, what's more important
than frying it up?
>> Having to mix it all together
and make sure it's the right
shit, yo!
>> And yo, are you gonna do your
own dishes?
>> Fuck no.
That's why there's a dishwasher.
(chuckling)
>> Have you ever eaten bannock?
>> Yeah.
>> It's good, isn't it.
>> Yeah, that's why I smiled
when I saw bannock.
(laughing)
>> Mark: After falling through
the cracks of other social
agencies, Nicole has landed
here.
But her future still hangs by
the thinnest of threads.
>> I do wanna change.
It's just I have to -- like, I
think wanting to and being ready
to, in my world, are different.
Like, I really do want to, but I
don't think I'm ready to
actually make the move to
change, so...
>> Mark: Is it scary for you to
think of making the change?
>> Yeah.
At this point, I wonder what
it'd be like, prostitution and
drug-free.
Would it be a good life?
And, I don't know, when I think
about it, I just -- I get lost
in thinking, what would it
actually be like?
>> Mark: That doesn't make it
sound like you see it as a
better life.
>> That's the problem.
I don't -- like, I'm sure it
would be, but I just don't see
that far down the road right
now.
>> Mark: Nicole may not be ready
to make that leap, so for now,
Wallis wants to keep her warm
and safe.
Her coat was stolen.
She walks Edmonton's frigid
streets in a hoodie.
So he takes her shopping for a
coat and new shoes, a gentle
reminder someone's looking out
for her.
>> Let's have a quick look in
here, because you need shoes.
>> I'll just find a large hoodie
here, because look at the
hoodies.
>> Yeah, you could.
Their hoodies are nice.
>> Mark: How do you measure your
success?
>> I don't.
Are you nuts?
>> Mark: Why not?
>> Because I don't think I use
success as a mantra of this.
I have terrific results with
girls changing their lives.
There's no fixes for these kids,
you know.
You can't fix them.
You have to work with them and
then see if they somehow, when
they get a bit older, can come
out of that shadow place that
they're in.
>> Mark: When we come back,
what does the future hold
for the three other girls we
met?
>> Well, you're doing already so
well, and I'm so extremely proud
of you.
>> I know.
But I still have my doubts.
Like, I text you and I'm just
like...
>> But you're doing so well.
(♪♪)
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Everyday in Edmonton,
there's a struggle over the most
vulnerable of teens.
Police and social agencies
trying to pull them out of a
life of sexual exploitation
while powerful pimps try to pull
them deeper into a life of sex,
money, and drugs.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: Remember Savannah?
The girl next door?
Well, she says she's struggling
to leave the life but now has
help from social worker Kayla
Simms.
>> Well, you're doing already so
well, and I'm so extremely proud
of you.
>> I know.
But I still have my doubts.
Like, I text you and I'm just
like...
>> But you're doing so well.
>> Mark: Savannah's been sent to
a safe house twice in an attempt
to get her out of the grasp of
her pimp.
But her case worker knows one
drug binge and she could be lost
again.
>> Would you ever, ever, ever
consider going back?
>> To where?
>> To treatment.
>> Kayla, don't tell me this
right now.
I don't know.
I think right now I'm doing
pretty good.
>> You are doing amazing.
>> I'm just gonna leave the
rehab on the side for now.
>> On the back burner?
>> I've had multiple situations
where I should not be here.
I'm alive.
You know, some don't make it out
alive.
I would not want anybody to go
through what I've been through.
It's not somewhere you wanna be.
It's not somebody you want to
be.
(♪♪)
>> I wanna see that baby.
>> Mark: What about Emily whose
so called boyfriend lured her
into the life?
Well, she's now a mother of a
baby boy.
She's made a clean break,
because she wants to give her
son something she never had: A
mother who puts her child first.
(♪♪)
>> Growing up, people would
always tell me, you know,
you're exactly like your mom.
Because I do look like my mom,
but I didn't want to be like my
mom, because my mom was a drug
addict.
She prostituted.
>> Mark: Did you realize you
were starting to be become your
mom?
>> Yeah.
I was -- just felt, like,
exactly like people were right,
you know?
I'm gonna end up exactly like my
mom.
Like, 40-something and still
doing drugs and having kids
taken away from me.
>> Mark: How do you want your
son to see you when he's growing
up?
>> I want him to know that I was
always there for him.
>> Mark: And you want to protect
him in the way you weren't
protected?
>> M-hm.
Yeah.
>> So hopefully this counsellor
that your advocate recommended
will be good, and if not, if
she's too busy, then I know
another person that specializes
in -- and we can call them as
well if she's -- if she's
booked.
>> Mark: Then there's Samantha,
the girl who was moved like
cattle from town to town by her
pimp.
She was sent to a safe house.
Kayla is her case worker, too.
She's trying to connect her with
a psychologist.
Her best hope for a future may
be to free her from her past.
>> Mark: Do you think anyone
would notice if you had died, if
you had been dumped on the side
of the road?
>> I would've just been another
one of the missing murdered
women that is unexplained and
not mourned very much.
'Cause it's too common.
Like, it's a miracle that I'm
here.
There's no amount of money
that's worth your body.
And nobody, nobody, nobody that
exploits you cares about you.
At all.
Because you can never do that to
somebody that you love.
>> We give a lot of our girls my
cell number.
So if I don't hear from my girls
in an hour, I'm gonna send them
a text saying, "what's up".
>> Mark: Meanwhile, back at the
hotel, the rescuers keep
rescuing.
Every month, vice cop Dave
Schening and social worker Kari
Thomason set up a sting to save
underage girls and persuade
women like this 23-year-old to
get out of the life while
they're still alive.
>> I came out here.
And I was actually gonna to try
to find a real job in Fort Mac.
That was my plan.
But then I got sidetracked.
It's hard.
Like, you know, I can go to a
call and, like, walk away with
like a thousand, 2,000, $3,000.
I mean, like, yeah, that --
yeah.
(laughing)
>> It's kinda tempting.
>> But it's like gambling.
It's risky.
>> It is like gambling.
That temptation is never gonna
go away fully.
That's the reality of it, right?
So you either gotta go legit,
completely, 'cause one toe in,
one toe out is just, fucked,
that temptation, the money,
all of it.
Little too easy.
And too addicting to stay into
the game.
>> Hopefully she took in half of
what we offered her, and
hopefully she'll come around one
day.
Can't control that.
She's a grown-up.
If I rescue one girl -- if one
girl gets out of the sex trade,
it's a victory.
We've done something.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: But victories are hard
to come by.
A month after we first met
Savannah, she disappeared.
So Kayla scours escort sites
looking for her.
Too young to lose, Savannah is
now one step closer to being
lost.
>> I look at Backpage almost
every day just to see -- make
sure there's no ad that
resembles her.
She'll just text me random
things or at weird times, and I
wonder how -- how does she have
money?
How is she living?
How is she paying for her drugs
if she's using?
(♪♪)
