Over the course of six decades, Justice Karen Weiler has wielded the law in the service of kids. Semi-retired, honoured throughout Canada’s legal community and now with the Order of Ontario in her back pocket, she’s still doing it.

Already vulnerable and alone, many homeless and at risk youth are finding themselves dealing with more than the coronavirus and its restrictions this Christmas. To them, loneliness is another pandemic.

When COVID-19 forced frontline workers to shift their support for homeless youth online, the result was more loneliness, more depression, more drug use, more overdoses and more thoughts of suicide, according to new research from Covenant House, Canada’s largest shelter serving young people.

How young people end up homeless and what happens to them once they’re on the street are basic questions for those who want to end homelessness. 

Young teenage girls on their phones regularly put themselves at risk for sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, but those risks decrease for teens whose parents talk to them about avoiding strangers online, a new Ipsos study for Covenant House has found.

Another refuge from the trade in human flesh has opened its doors in Toronto under the umbrella of Covenant House.

On Christmas Eve, before the presents are handed out, the kids at Covenant House will gather in the chapel, referred to as the sanctuary room at the shelter for homeless youth, to hear the story of Christmas — the birth of the saviour as a homeless refugee.

Canada’s homeless youth population is younger and more diverse than their American counterparts, but they are just as vulnerable of becoming trafficking victims.

Canada’s largest agency for homeless youth is applauding a sweeping overhaul of Ontario’s Child, Youth and Family Services Act which will now treat homeless, abused and threatened 16- to 18-year-olds as children and not adults.

Danielle remembers counting down the days until she would turn 16. On that day she was going to sign herself out of foster care, declare her freedom, begin her life for real.

TORONTO – When Casandra Diamond left “the game” 11 years ago she cried every day for about three months.

TORONTO – It’s not the oldest profession. It’s age-old oppression.

TORONTO – Nick Beckett is an impressive young man in his third year at the University of Toronto working towards a criminology degree. As he makes his way through exams, he’s also heading up a new non-profit which aims to provide a home and transitional programs to young people who age out of the child welfare system.

TORONTO - Canada’s largest shelter for homeless youth has been recognized for having one of the best workplace cultures in the country.

TORONTO - Canada's largest homeless youth agency is calling on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to adopt a broader, more co-ordinated approach to combat the scourge of sex trafficking.