I’m going to start off, I believe where it began, and my story begins in 2007, Fall of 2007, when me and my partner had separated shortly after my son’s third birthday. And that situation was, it compiled of addictions, mental health, domestic abuse, but when I reflect back to that moment, it was just two individuals, tow broken indivoduals, trying to have a family, trying to create something they never had growing up. So at that time I was twenty two years old, and I had moved from the Lakeland community to Edmonton. Around that time, that is when social media started taking off, and so Facebook was very popular back then. So I got into this cycle of going out every weekend, meeting new people, adding them to my social media, thinking that they were friends. And so one particular night, it was May Friday night, and at that time I didn’t have a cellphone, and I had gone to this one club just on Jasper Ave because there was a few clubs I would always frequent to because those were the areas, I guess I knew people. It was early in the night, probably around 7pm, and I went to this EDM club, and when I got there, keep in mind like I was sober, like I didn’t have any drinks in me at that point, and because it was still early in the night there was really no body there. So from that club I started walking to another club, which would be probably about 6-7 blocks away down Jasper Ave. So as I’m walking, there was this vehicle that drove past me and when it drove past me the first time it kinda caught my attention because I heard base coming from the vehicle and of course the music was  like catchy, I I’m like, “oh right, that person’s probably having a good time.” Anyways I keep walking and again I notice this vehicle, the same vehicle, drive past me again. And when they drove past me the second time, this time they had their window and they were like, “hey.” I kinda glanced and saw it was a male who was by himself, all I noticed was his smile, and I just kind of waved like “okay whatever” and I just kept walking. And this time I was probably about a block and a half away from this club I was walking to and, that same vehicle this time was parked down the block so it could meet me, I guess. And they were facing Jasper Ave, and again they’re like honking their horn calling me over, and so I went walking up to the vehicle. And of course, you know, as I approach all I could see was this person’s smile, theyre asking what I’m up to, where I’m going, who I’m with. And so it wasn’t uncommon for me to cross paths with people that would ask me questions like that because at that time again, I was going out every weekend meeting new people, and so having that conversation was just like, it was normal so I didn’t feel a threat, I didn’t feel like this person was harmful. Another thing that really caught my attention too was, as I got closer to the vehicle and closer to that person, their vehicle was super clean. They had this interior light that was flashy, you know going with the music, the bass, so just that alone was kind of like giving me like this person is a good person, right? You know you judge people on what you see so I immediately thought this person’s chill, like this person’s, you know, club-whatever. So they were asking me like where am I going, who am I with, and I told them like, I just left from this place I’m going to this place now I’m gonna go meet up with some friends, you know, go have some drinks like it’s the weekend, and so immediately they were like, “Well I have some drinks, do you want to come with me?” And I just remember looking down Jasper Ave and seeing the club I was going to go to and looking back at this person, and this person was male, non-Indigenous, not from this country, dark skin, and so I’m thinking maybe he was either Arab or maybe Pakistani, somewhere near that ethnicity. So again, it was just like, okay like this person wants to go have some drinks, they said they were gonna take me back to the club after we have some drinks, like it was just gonna be a chill time and again, you know, no red flags were going off, I didn’t feel any danger.  I felt like this was going to be an okay situation, so I jumped into the vehicle with him. And at that time, so this was early 2008, and even though I grew up in the city, I really didn’t know the south side as much as I did the north side and now when I think back to it, because I know Edmonton, this person drove me to the Holiday Inn on Gateway blvd just off of Whitemud. And so when he pulled up to this hotel, by that time it was going onto 9 o’clock, so between 8:30-9:00. He takes me up to his room and sure enough he has a bottle of crown royale, he gets some ice, and you know he’s talking to me the whole time, and so again when people are, like, engaging in conversation, like again there’s like no red flags going off, right theres no alarms going off, we’re hanging out, we’re getting to know each other as people, we’re hanging out. And so he pours me a cup and I have the first drink, he goes to the bathroom and comes out and again he’s like engaging with small talk or whatever, and as my glass is done so he suggests that he wants to make me another glass I say sure. So I get up to go to the bathroom, and at that time when I think back to it, I wasn’t really aware what date rape drugs were or that it was even common, and so I went to the bathroom, I came back out, my cups filled, and so I take another drink and that’s the last thing I remember. The next thing you know, I honesrly don’t know how long I was out for, but the next thing you know I’m like waking up, I’m laying on the bed, my pants and my underwear are down, my belts undone, and I’m like disoriented, and I see that I’m still in the hotel room and I look towards the window and its dark outside, and as I’m still trying to focus my eyes this man comes out of the bathroom and this time he’s in a robe. And when I think back to it now, again, I’m thinking like he obviously dkid something to me and now he has just taken a shower, coming out, so I’m trying to sit up and I’m like pushing my legs off the bed so I can try to stand up and pull up my pants and whatnot, and at thr same time I’m asking him like, “what happened, what did you do to me, what’s going on, why are yoi coming out of the bathroom in a robe” And I can’t remember exactly what he was responding because mind you I had just woke up and I am still disoriented, and by that time once I got my pants up and I’m buckling my belt, I’m starting to cry and I’m starting to freak out, and I’m like yelling at him, calling him a rapist.  I’m asking him what the hell he did to me, and what I do remember him saying is, “I’m going to drive you home, I’m going to drive you home, lets go.” So we walk down to the lobby, and by the time we get to the lobby I’m feeling very intoxicated and, lets keep in mind I only had one small glass of alcohol, and so that wouldn’t have made me disoriented, and so we get down to the lobby and head to his vehicle. And now the sun is starting to come up, the sky colpur is starting bceome blue, and so when I think back to even that moment, going from 9pm to now its like 5 in the morning, I was out for that length of time and so that’s like what, about 8 hours of being unconscious. Again, I’m crying, he’s driving me to my cousin’s place, and once I get to my cousins place you know I’m waking her up and we’re sitting in her room and I told her what happened and as I’m telling her I’m like, “ugh my body, it just feels so …”, like I didn’t have control over my body and I just remember swanging back and forth. She’s encouraging me to go to the hospital, and you know to go make a police report, to do a rape kit test and I just, you know I was carrying so much shame, I felt so guilty, I felty like it was my fault, and so I was like, “No I don’t want to go to the rcmp, I don’t want to go to the hospital, I don’t want it do any of that” In fact, in that moment I just felt like I wanted to drink. So from that moment of May 2008 up until, I think Feburary of 2009, I guess like my addiction like really spiraled out of control, and now that I think about it, it was because of what happened to me. And if I didn’t have those certain people that came into my life to like say, “hey there’s something going on here, you have a problem let’s get you out of this situation” like I don’t know where I would have ended up. But also reflecting on that actual morning of me waking up, there was a video that had gone viral lasy year where this girl was zip tied, this Indigenous young woman was zip tied in a hotel in Winnipeg, and it made me think of what happened to me; being in a hotel, by this person who I guess had a motive, he knew what he was doing, he targeted me out because I was vulnerable, I was by myself, and you know, to be able to be sitting her and to be able to still share this I feel so grateful because there are circumstances where women are drug-raped and they end up either in a dumpster or a landfill, or their body is chopped up and left in a bag, and they don’t have that moment to share, and again reflecting back to that day I didn’t have a cellphone, I went out by myself, I went out to the club by myself, so nobody in my family knew where I was going or who I would be with, and so like that situation going with this complete stranger and having that happen to me, it could have been a whole lot worse. And it was, like it was a really horrible experience, but again to be able to be sitting her and to have that moment to share, I held onto that guilt and that shame for such a long time because I always thought that it was my fault, like I was so stupid to think that this person was safe to go with, and when rrally it’s not my fault. Again, that person was a rapist; it had nothing to do with me being left by myself, it had nothing to do with me wanting to have drinks, it had nothing to do with what I was even wearinh, and mind you that night I was wearing jeans, I was wearing a black tshirt, a denim jacket, a belt, runners, I wasn’t dress, you know, provocatively, and even if I was, again that situation happened because that person was a predatory, that person was a rapist. They already had a motive, they already had a plan of what they were gonna do because they had the drugs, they had the alcohol, they had the hotel room, they presented themselves as this safe person and they targeted me out, and so that is what happened. And I guess my final message, unless you have more questions, but I believe my final message is that if situations like this happen its never your fault, and to speak up, because for the longest time I held that experience in. I think the first time I spoke out to it out loud in front of a crowd was in 2024, and so it had almost been twenty years before I actually shared that experience, and I got to share that experience when I was invited to present at the Kikiwin Health Services STDBI youth conference, and I had to try to think of like, how can I share a story that aligns with the STBBI stigma and conversation, and again when I think back to that moment when that happened to me, I didn’t even go get tested, I idn;t go to the hospital to get tested, I didn’t you know, anything. And so I could have even ended up pregnant, I could’ve ended up with an STI that probably wasn’t curable and thankfully I’m okay in terms of that, but again, when things like that happen and a predator attacks you in that way, it’s never your fault. you know, its never your faukt, don’t carry that guilt because those people, like, they do that because that’s just who they are and it has nothing, it doesn’t reflect on who you are as a person and, so I just wanted to share that. And even when I shared it that day at that conference, it just so happened that we were at the Delta on Gateway and Whitemud, and right across the street was that hotel. So being able to not only speak my story out loud to a group of peoplebut that full circle moment of “I’m still here”, that happened to me and it did cause me to spiral but now I’m stronger and now im more braver and now I can not only speak for myself but for others and hopefully encourage others that may have gone through the same thing to speak up as well because I feel like the more that we speak up and share, then we’re putting light onto the situation and, we’re warriors, right, we’re warriors and when warriors gather, great things can happen and we can start pointing out who these people are who caused this harm. And I know I’m never gonna cross paths with this person again ecause theyre a complete stranger, but even in terms of like, our communities, we need to speak up. We need to speak up against these people that cause harm to our people or to each other, and yeah just put light onto it so that it stops. 

So to this day I dont like staying at hotels, especially if im by myself, so when I do travel I prefer to stay in airbnbs, and I really good example of how hotels are a hotspot for human trafficking is because in December of 2024, I had travelled from the Lakeland to Edmonton and it was a last minte, I gonna get a hotel, I was gonna stay at a hotel that I had already previously stayed at, because of that I knew the place was safe, and so I went onto priceline and all I saw was the Best Western, and I immiedeatwely thought it was the location on Elderslake, and so I clicked on it, I booked it, and then I drove to Elderslake and was going to check in. when I got ythere, the desk lady the receptionist was telling me that it was the wrong location and I had actually booked at the Best Western on Gateway and 51st ave. And so, again  it was 9oclock at night, it was winter time, it was just me and my daughter, and so I’m like, okay I already booked it its non refundable, so I’ll just go to that location and the next day I’ll go somewere else. So anyeays, as Im pulling up to this other best western, as soon as I go into the parking lot, as soon as I was pulling up to the parking lot, immediately, immediately, I just felt danger. I felt my anxiety get to, skyrocket, and so I went tot eh front doors, I had two sets of keys, and so I lock the vehicle, my daughter was sleeping, and I walked into this hotel. And as we walk into this hotel, the way they had it set up is like this long hallway. This hallway turns into, like another hallway so there’s like a corner to go down this hallway, and then this hallway brings you to where the checkin desk is, and as soon as I saw that I’m like, “there’s too much distance happening right now from this desk to the entrance, and so even that alone was like a red flag for me. And so I went walking down to this desk and the way even the checkin desk was set up it was like, a podium, it was just like this podium like-desk type of thing and then in the background it was like, what do you call it, those wall dividers, and so it didn’t even have like the best western logo on it, it was jst like this wall divider and this podium, and there’s one man standing there, you know asking me “who I am, blah blah blah” and as he’s like trying to engage with me, there’s a set of elevators and then at the elevators, there was these stacks of mattresses. And so immediately as hes trying to talk to me I’m like, im looking at these matresses and so im like, “oh you have a bunchof matresses here, whats going on?” and hes like, “oh w’re just doing renovations”, and so again Im like, red flags. So then he’s asking for my ID, so I give him my ID, and then hes asking me for the deposit, I told him I had a debit-visa, he said they only take credit cards and I say well this is all I have. So he’s like, well we’ll do cash, and as he’s like telling me they only accept cash as deposit, there’s thse two Indigenous girls, little girls, probably 12 nd maybe 15, coming down from that hallway when you first walk in. And the younger one is holding a stuffed animal and she was barefoot, no shoes no socks. And the other one had a atank top on but she had shoes on, and she’s like, you know whispering in her ear like, “we’re just gonna grab something to eat and then we’re gonna go back up” kinda thing. And so, I’m like watching this, noticing the no shoes and noticing the older one was kind of like, I guess like guiding her or making sure whatever. So then the desk person, the receptionist was telling me that the ATM machine was beside the vending machines, and so when I asked him where that was, he pointed just past the elevators where these girls were walking to. So I wrnt walking up to the ATM and as I’m walking past these two young girls, again the older one is rushing her like, “what do you want to eat, pick something” and the younger one, you know, you could tell she wa really scared, and she wasn’t saying nothing she was like hanging onto this stuffed animal like really tight. So I pulled out the money and again I’m just watchingthese girls. as I get the money I’m walking past them and again, the younger one wasn’t saying nothing, the older one was still trying to get her to pick something from the vending machine, and as I’m walking back to this desk, now there’s a woman behind the desk and on the other side there’s a man. And again these people are, they’re either Pakistani or Arab, and the guy that wason the other side of the desk, he was dressed like he was going tot eh club; he had the bracelets, he had the necklace, he had a poloshirt, his hair was slick back, he had dress shoes, he had like dress pants on, and he’s talking to the two employees and so as I get closer, he looks at me and he’s like, “go ahead”.  And so I guestion him, I said, “oh do you work here?”, and he was like “yeah I do”. And it didn’t really make sense to me that he would work there because like I said, he was dressed like he was going out to the club, and then the people that were on the other side of the desk, they had like best western attire on, and so again I’m like, like my radar is going off, so I approach the desk and was handing over the deposit to the man that was initially helping me from the beginning, and as I was handing him the deposit, he starts asking for my ID again. And I told him, I said, “ I already gave you my ID, why do you need my ID again?” And when I questioned him, he got irritated and he started raising his voice like, “well I need to make sure that”,  like whatever, he was just like, “I just need your ID” And so as he’s engaging with me and I see that you know, his voice is getting elevated, hes getting irritated, there’s a woman standing there looking at me, and then there’s this other man behind me you know, watching while this is happening, and then those two little girls are still over here. And as this is all happening again, my anxiety levels going up, I’m starting to feel afraid, and so I just said, “you know what, forget it. I’m not gonna stay here. Even though that there’s no refund, you can keep that I’m not gonna stay here.” So I walked away, went into my vehicle, and as soon as I jumped into my vehicle I just went driving to the end of the parking lot of this building, and when I got there, now all of a sudden the lights turn on because when I first pulled into this parking lot it was like pitch black. So now that I’m at the end of the parking lot, all of a sudden all of these lights turn on, like the parkinglot loghts turn on, and it was almost like, I don’t know how to say this but like, my ancestors putting light on me, like you’re okay, you’re safe. And I pakred my vehicle but then I was like, shaking. I was skhaking, I started crying, I was hyperventilating, because I think it had to do with, again, what happened to me, but also because now I just witnessed what I assumed was human trafficking, because you have these two little girls coming from this hallway, there’s no parents in sight, one is barefoot, she’s not saying anything while the older one you know is doing most of the talking. And so now we have these two little girls at this vending machine, but the you have this other man come in and he’s standing there, probably keeping an eye on them so that they don’t take off. It’s winter time, so even if they did try to take off they weren’t goingto make it very far, but then yu also have the staff, right. The staff are obviously apart of it, they know whats going on.