The Victor Walk returned to Calgary, as community members walked around downtown to raise support and awareness for victims of childhood sexual abuse. “We’re just here to gather and let people share and hear other people’s stories and let them know that they’re not alone,” said Breaking Free Foundation co-founder Amber Craig. “One in three girls, one in five boys before the age of 18 will have some sort of unwanted sexual experience,” added Theo Fleury, a former NHL all-star who’s also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. In his 2009 memoir Playing with Fire, co-written with Kirstie Mclellan Day, Fleury described multiple instances of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his junior hockey coach Graham James. In 2013, Fleury started the original Victor Walk, where he walked from Toronto to Ottawa over 10 days to raise awareness for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. “Sexual abuse is silent in every aspect of our life. People don’t talk about it. People hide it. It’s important for us to provide a space for people to come and reveal this stuff,” Fleury said. Since writing his book and becoming an outspoken advocate on this issue, Fleury said he’s met with thousands of people who all share similar stories of abuse. He said he hopes continued advocacy gives other people the courage to step forward and find help and support. “I met thousands and thousands of survivors that were coming to my book signing saying, ‘hey, I read your book. You told my story.’ And then it was ‘me too, me too,’ on social media,” Fleury said. Inspired by Fleury’s book Among those who found the courage to step forward due to Fleury’s actions was Craig, who hosted a Victor Walk in Calgary at the same time as Fleury’s original 2013 walk. “If people don’t talk about this, then nobody really knows how to move past it or that it might even be happening to them. It certainly was my experience because I never heard anyone tell a story like what happened to me. I didn’t actually know that I was dealing with abuse for quite some time,” Craig said. “When I read Theo’s book, it certainly made me clue in that that’s what happened to me, but I still didn’t feel comfortable talking about it until the first Victor Walk, when I heard a bunch of strangers sharing their story and I just thought, ‘why am I holding this in?’ I shared it for the first time, and now my life is completely turned around,” she continued. Like Fleury, Craig says she’s also met many people who have had their lives changed due to finding the courage to speak out about their past traumas. Even if it’s not done in a public way, Craig says continued advocacy through things like the Victor Walk can help create safe spaces for people to reach out and find resources and support. “There’s lots of people reaching out to us who are suicidal. There’s lots of people struggling with addiction, severe mental health, like we deal with PTSD primarily, but also complex PTSD. It has life altering and life damaging impacts if people don’t get the help that they need, or understand that they’re not alone,” Craig said. “We don’t ever ask the question, ”'What happened to you?’" she said. “We always focus on the mental health issue or the addiction issue. But we never asked the question, ‘what happened to you?’ And when you ask people what happened to them, it gives them that opportunity to say, ‘hey, I’m a trauma survivor too,’” Fleury said. “We have an unresolved trauma issue. People carry trauma or experience trauma, and then they carry that trauma their whole entire lives without ever speaking to anybody, without ever getting help. And how it manifests itself is in mental illness and addiction,” Fleury continued. Craig hopes the Calgary Victor Walk becomes an annual event. For more about the Victor Walk and Breaking Free Foundation, go here.
