Williams Lake, B.C. – A meeting Thursday at Williams Lake City Hall will address the issue of gang violence in the city.

It’s been organized by youth worker/counsellor Pat Graham, and will include representatives from the city, the RCMP, the justice ministry and First Nations leaders and elders.

Graham moved to Williams Lake from Prince George to open up ‘Guardian Youth at Risk Services’ last fall.

“We came here to work with the gang members, street kids and the drug addicts in town, that’s what our business normally does,” he says. “But as we got motivated and moved in the right direction we came to realize there’s been a decade long problem here in Williams Lake.”

Graham says it involves two warring gangs and notes “until that situation is tackled and some peace treaties have been done, we’re not going to have peace in this town.”

Graham says the “712 gang,” are currently at war with the “Indian Outlaws,” and says the dispute is out of control.

He says they’ve been able to “run free and do what they want to do,” which he claims includes terrorizing the community.

“They’re doing a lot of home invasions and they’re building a huge legacy doing that. Some are random and some are targeted.”

So what’s the goal of the meeting?

“To work with as many of these youngsters as we can work with,” and to target the prolific offenders which he argues “need to be outlawed and dealt with.”

“Everything that you’ve read in the papers the last six months in this town that’s major, I’d have to say was gang related.”

Graham says his history on the streets assist him with his work.

“I started living as a criminal when I was 10 years old and I grew up as a criminal. I grew up in the federal prison system and I ended up hanging out with outlaw motorcycle clubs and gangs and pretty much lived 35 years of my life completely terrorizing B.C. and Prince George in particular.”

But he says that all changed when he had a serious motorcycle accident 11 years ago.

“When I woke up out of my coma from my crash, my anger wasn’t there anymore.”

Thursday’s meeting will take place in the Rick Hansen Boardroom and runs from 2 to 3:30 pm.