I absolutely cannot believe that it has been more than 5 years since Jessie has been missing . . .

[Jessie's Mom Glendene]

I absolutely cannot believe that it has been more than 5 years since Jessie has been missing. I simply cannot believe it. But it is true. There were several news articles last week, mentioning the five year mark.

 

Calgary Metro News: Mom won’t give up search for daughter by JEREMY NOLAIS - http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/816723--mom-won-t-giv... 

 

Kamloops This Week: Where is Jessie? Kamloops' Jessie Foster vanished from Vegas five years ago this week by JEREMY DEUTSCH -  http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_thompson_nicola/kamloopsthisweek/news... 

 

Kamloops CFJC TV: Jessica Foster - 5 Years Today marks 5 years since Kamloops woman Jessica Foster's disappearance with GARETH MADOC-JONES - http://www.cfjctv.com/story.php?id=1922 

 

Las Vegas Tribune: Las Vegas: “Hub” of Human Trafficking by Perly Viasmensky  - http://tinyurl.com/lvhub4ht (see below for column in paper the following week) 

 

Jacked in with Jessica: http://www.am1150.ca/Shows/JackedIn.aspx 

 

JESSIE'S SONG written by Nigel Graham / sung by BellaRose: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbT2K6q0caI&sns=fb 

 

Nigel Graham spreads the word about missing persons with music by Jerrie Dean: 

http://tinyurl.com/nigelgraham4themissing . . . Nigel Graham is a musical advocate for the missing.  He began writing songs four years ago and posting them on YouTube to bring attention to missing-persons cases like Lindsey Baum, Jessie Foster and Madeleine McCann.  

 

One thing for sure, this has been a busy year already. I have been to Toronto, Ontario in January to speak at the launch of the Alliance Against Modern Slavery; to Langley, BC in March to speak at a forum arranged by the Soroptimists the of Langleys about human trafficking; also in March I was back in Ontario, this time at our Nation's capital for a human trafficking conference hosted by the RCMP and the Ontario Police Service and from there to Brantford, ON for some training and orientation with Canada Fights Human Trafficking; and in between those events, I have been to schools in and around Kamloops, British Columbia (including Penticton, BC) and in Calgary, Alberta. Next week I will be in Red Deer, Alberta for Raise Their Voice: The Trafficked + Exploited: http://raisetheirvoice.com/raise-their-voice-the-trafficked-exploited and in May I will be back in Toronto, ON for CFHT's Be a Voice gala event: http://www.canadafightshumantrafficking.com/events.html and the International Conference on Motherhood Activism & book launch (one of the chapters in this book was written by me): http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org/. I will be a keynote speaker at all three of the events mentioned above.

 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011, Jessie's case will be told on Access TV's (CTV) Alberta Primetime show,Domestic Human Trafficking: We take a closer look at human trafficking here in Alberta, and what's being done to prevent the problem from getting worse. The reporter, Danny Baldassarre, started his interview with me last October when I was in Edmonton for Professor Perrin's book launch and the fundraiser for MLAP. We communicated for several months via phone and email and then he met me in Calgary last month and filmed me doing a presentation at Henry Wise Wood Secondary School. Alberta Primetime is out of Edmonton, and will be on at 7PM and 11PM Mountain Time (here in BC it will be on at 6PM and 10PM). In Edmonton it is on Channel 9 (Cable 9); in Calgary it is on Channel 13 (Cable 13); if you have satellite – Shaw Direct is on Channel 351; Bell Express Vu is on Channel 267; and Telus TV is on Channel 9. It will also be available online after it airs at: http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2205.

 

Canada Fights Human Trafficking: http://www.canadafightshumantrafficking.com/ is holding a nationaltraffickjam fundraiser on April 23, 2011. I hope you will all take the time to check out this site: http://www.traffickjam.cfht.net/ and sign up to join us in your city, and please help CFHT by sponsoring me in the walk. Click here to sponsor: http://www.traffickjam.cfht.net/participant/1687. 

 

So, friends and loved ones – thank you all for being here for me and with me during the past 5 years. Without everyone there, I know I would not have been able to carry on as I have. The strength I get from you, I pass on to others. I love you all – Glendene. 

 

 

 

 

MY MESSAGE FROM THE REPORTER WHO WROTE THE STORY LAST WEEK FOR THE LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE:  

 

Glendene: Last week's article has created lots of comments. Some good, some not so good and others asking not to deliver the paper when we have controversial articles like the one of Jessie's, because hotel and motel owners are afraid  of what might happen to them. Remember this is Las Vegas. 

 

The one enclosed is an answer to a call received in the office. Perly

 

 

LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE - Volume 13, Issue 5

THE ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER IN CLARK COUNTY

April 6-12, 2011

 

My Point of View by Rolando Larraz

 

The election is temporarily over this week. I say "temporarily" over because now, after the primary election is over, the  real election starts and the people of Las Vegas are ready to elect those who they think will do the best job for the city.

 

So now we are – or at least I am – in suspense until we get the results of the primary election and learn who are those who are left over for the general election about eight weeks from now. So while I wait for the results of the election, I am going to deal with some issues that have come to my attention recently and that I consider kind of interesting.

 

The latest one is the man who called me to talk about our last week's front page article. The man, who said his name was Greg or something like that, wanted to meet with me to talk about the article; but before he got into a halfway normal or, at the least, civilized tone, he was very upset because the receptionist asked him for his name.

 

He claimed that he is writing a similar article for some publication that I have never heard of and he wanted to let me know that he had located somebody that he thinks is one of the guys in the Las Vegas Tribune story and wants to meet with me to point the man out to me. I asked him to come to my office, but he declined with a simple “I cannot do that; you have to come to me,” as if I were some kind of stupid person. 

 

Why would I be some kind of stupid person who refuses to meet with someone that could be a good source, even if he had a bad temper, a nasty attitude and an accent like some of the characters in the story? Simple; because I happen to believe it may be dangerous to my health and well-being.

 

People may think that because I speak with an accent I also think with an accent, but nothing is farther from the truth. I do speak with an accent but I can assure you that I do not think with an accent. 

 

The guy raised his voice and talked tough like he was some kind of Don or Capo in a Family that controlled some territory, trying to intimidate the receptionist; and even tried to speak over my voice until I stopped him, making sure that he knew that I was in total control of the conversation and the situation. I did not think it was a good idea to let him out-talk me at any time and I wanted him to know that I was not being intimidated or afraid of him. He was supposed to call again but he never did, and I am both happy and disappointed because I have never had someone who is not a cop talking to me like that and pretending to be so macho – as though he were wearing a badge and a gun. 

 

Only cops talk like that, hiding behind the badge and the gun because if they leave those two items at home, they are very polite, soft and sweet; that is why I didn’t believe the story that he was writing a similar story as the one I had just approved for the front page of the last issue of the Las Vegas Tribune. 

 

No one that I know would be staying at a Roach Motel as the one the caller told me he was staying at, even if he knows the owner of the place. Most of the pimps that I know have better taste than that and enough money to at least stay in a weekly a little closer to the Strip or Paradise Road. I called back the number that appeared in my Caller ID and it was in fact a place similar to Fremont Street East. Like I said, this guy was either a cop pretending to be a tough guy, or it was someone I call a "suitcase pimp," which is the man who walks behind the girl while she strolls up and down the street because he is afraid that she is going to leave him, or is afraid that a more classy pimp with a car, or at least a bicycle, could steal her from him. 

 

Regardless of who this guy was, I am very happy that he called me because that means that the paper is read by all kinds of people – the good, bad, rich, poor, hard-working, lazy, low-life, and everyone in general. As long as people read the Las Vegas Tribune and call in with comments, I don’t have to write the article; I am satisfied that I can OK it and approve it for publication; and last week's paper disappeared from the racks like a candy bar thrown in the doorway of an elementary school, where kids fight to take possession of that candy bar. 

 

All I want is more articles like that and to see the Las Vegas Tribune being picked up by everyone interested in reading such a human interest story. With more articles like the one on the front page last week maybe the police will pay more attention to the disappearances of those girls that come to Las Vegas under false pretenses and later do not have a way out. 

 

I believe that the least the police can do is try to investigate the disappearances of these girls and give their family closure to their pain and suffering.

 

It's bad enough that some family's little girl changed her life completely, leaving home on bad terms, maybe lying to the   family and following the lies of someone she hardly knew, but for the parents to them not even know if their daughter is alive or dead...? Maybe those police officers should think about that; some day they may find themselves in the same position.