Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 21/01) - A Fort McPherson woman who went to Yellowknife to take a trauma and healing course says she came back feeling more traumatized than ever.

Karen Mitchell, 33, says she went to Yellowknife on a social worker's referral to take the course offered by the Yellowknife Women's Centre. When she got there, no one at the centre was aware of her referral, and she was informed she would have to wait for two months to get into the course.

Mitchell says she gave up her house and job as a Gwich'in announcer for CBC in Inuvik to take the seminar, which she was told would start as soon a day after her arrival Sept. 9. Before leaving for Yellowknife, she says she was told that her room and board would be paid for, and that her transportation to and from the course would also be covered by taxi vouchers.

Instead, she had to stay at the women's shelter, where she says she was subjected to harassment by the staff, who threatened to take away her two-year-old daughter, Angel.

"I didn't know they write reports on you everyday, watching your every mood," Mitchell says. "I thought it would be okay to vent some of my issues there, but I felt it was being used against me."

At the end of September, Mitchell says she was pressured to leave the women's shelter, so she got an unfurnished apartment, but because she was ineligible for income support, she found she was soon running out of money. She says she got by with help from friends and groceries from the food bank.

Mitchell was still on the waiting list for the program by the middle of November, when she decided to return home after a confrontation with the women's shelter staff. "They did an assessment and they said I was stressed out and that I was going to be referred to a mental health centre. The women's centre said I needed to be hospitalized and they wanted to know if I would sign over Angel while I went to the hospital."

"I said, 'No, the stress is coming from the fact, I have no income, I've taken time off work.'" Mitchell says the situation was finally straightened out when a different social worker heard her story and allowed her to leave Yellowknife with her return ticket.

"I feel safer out of the Yellowknife jurisdiction," Mitchell says. "It just seemed like I was stereotyped right away. Ever since I reached out, it's been one threat after another, to have my child apprehended."

Mitchell says she wants other women to know what she went through. "I wonder about all the other people, who don't know their rights, who are told to sign this, or do that. These programs should be helping families stay together."

She has complained to Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko, and she says she is also looking into legal action.

No one from the Yellowknife Women's Shelter or Health and Social Services was available to comment.