BIOGRAPHY

It has been an amazing journey in life – a journey that is chronicled in my Canadian Best Selling Biography “Untwisted”.

The book details my transformational personal experiences as a product of rape born in an abandoned building to a teenage girl, moving from a poverty-stricken inner-city youth to a young offender, a runaway street kid, a gang leader and a drug king-pin who served a total of 21 years in some of Canada's toughest prisons while battling a twenty-year drug addiction, to my overcoming and present citizenship as an elected Member of the Saskatchewan Legislature.

I initiated my university studies in Sociology and Social Work while still in prison, beginning with a formal education that consisted of nothing more than Grade Five. While on parole, I attended the University of Waterloo as a full-time student and graduated on the Dean’s Honour Roll for Outstanding Achievement, with an indepth acknowledge in penology and corrections; crime, gang and societal issues within the culture of poverty, poly-substance abuse and addiction, and the reality facing modern day youth and their families.

I have also spent a considerable part of my professional career speaking about my life experiences. I have been told that I am a dynamic and passionate motivational keynote speaker and have spoken to more than 3,500,000 people across Canada and the United States. I am specifically honoured to have worked with Crime Stoppers nationally and internationally for many years. I have shared my story with a wide variety of audiences including, young people, parents, police services, educators, mental health professionals, community leaders. I have spoken at universities, professional development seminars, school assemblies, church services and youth rallies.

I received a precedent setting Canadian National Pardon in the year 2000 due to my work for youth, their families, and their communities both in Canada and abroad. This Pardon, enforced by an Act of Legislation, honours my life change, present citizenship, and legally exonerates me from all past criminal convictions and social stigma - and may be the only one of its kind in North America.

I moved to Saskatchewan from Ontario at the request of a number of friends to create the registered non-profit charity Teen Challenge Saskatchewan, the province's only long-term residential addictions recovery centre, and became the Regional Director for a number of years.

Following establishing Teen Challenge Saskatchewan as the fastest growing in the nation, I was asked to run as a candidate for the Saskatchewan Party in Saskatoon Northwest. I was then elected as a MLA in the 2007 provincial election. I am one of very few individuals elected to any government in North America after serving time in prison, possibly the only person to do so.

I am currently sitting as an independent MLA representing the riding of Saskatchewan Northwest.

I am also honoured to be an Associate Member of all of the Crime Stoppers Chapters of Saskatchewan and a Rotarian.