ABC film Fighting For My Daughter broadcasts on Jan. 9 IF YOU are wondering why actress Lindsay Wagner is wearing her hair red in recent car commercials, you can blame it on a North Vancouver woman. By Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter ‘Wagner changed her hair color for a televi- sion movie portraying Anne Dion as she Stopped her teenage daughter from becoming a prostitute. The actress filmed the car com- mercials while filming the movie. Strangely, Dion's natural hair color is blonde like Wagner's, but the movie people felt the straw locks had to go. ' “ZT guess they figured a blonde could never pull this off,” said ‘Dion, who was born and raised in North Vancouver and currently “ lives in Coquitlam. ° Wagner stars in Dion’s story in an ABC movie to air on Jan. 9 called Fighting for My Daughter. The climax of the story involves Dion, dressed like a hook- er, breaking down a Surrey motel door, to free her 15-year-old daughter from the clutches: of a imp. / -“T could only watch part of it. 1 -stayed away when Lindsay kicks in the door,” said Dion, 37. Dion said the movie shows how she didn’t know any of the warning signs concerning the procurement _ of young girls for prostitution. . “Even though 1 considered “myself ‘quite streetwise. These people were able to infiltrate my life” said Dion. -.: Dion's daughter, Melissa, and several other young girls began to . be recruited for prostitution in 1992 by pimps coming out to. their - Port Coquitlam junior high school. “They (the pimps) were coming to my house; having dinner at my .. house. And then she disappeared _with them,” said Dion. Unlike. some. parents of run- ~ aways, Dion. did ‘not ‘wallow ‘in -thoughts of parental failure.’ She . directed her energy to aggressively pursue the return of her daughter. ‘ Dion,.along with a friend, “went “undercover” to find Melissa. . “We dressed as prostitutes and infiltrated the prostitution ring in Vancouver,” said Dion. Dion said her daughter left a phone message on their answering machine. following .a four-day absence from home. Melissa asked for help. “At the time, Melissa was drugged aud was “spotting” licence plate numbers of hooker client cars for prostitutes. She did not actually work as a prostitute during her time away from home, according to her mother. “We staked out the motel she was in. We kicked in the doors and got her out,” said Dion. Dion said after that, she realized there were no support services available for kids and fami- lies in the same predicament. “There was nothing available. There was no awareness on this issue.” said Dion, Dion still doesn't understand why more pitr- ents don't become aggressive and public in sim- ilar situations. “Instead of being ashamed, | am trying to get more people to come out so it doesn’t took like some kind of wild story where this mother did this,” said Dion, who is a single parent with two children. The American film company backing Dion's movie set it in Washington despite filming it in the Vancouver area. But said Dion, “I want people to know that it happened here.” NEWS photo Mike Wakefield ANNE DION displays a copy of a recent B.C. Woman magazine article chronicling a recent experience in which her daughter was victimized by a young pimp. Dion said she contributed to the film and got along well with Wagner. “She agreed that nothing should be-exploita- tive with the girls. She (Wagner) agreed that no cameras were allowed to run up their legs and stuff like that,” said Dion. The end of the movie shows Dion, her moth- er and Melissa leaving the Willingdon Youth Detention, Centre. “I had to make that choice of having her arrested or leaving her with a pimp because by this time he had her so drugged up,” said Dion. Dion now counsels other families through her own organization, Parents for the Protection of Sexually Exploited Children. She has 50 families in the support group who live in the Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody areas. Dion said the money she received from the movie company has gone to pay bills associat- ed with the support group. She moved to Port Coquitlam in September 1992. Ironically, Dion left North Vancouver, in part, because she was fed up with gang violence in local schools. Her daughter, now 17, lives in California, said Dion. Dion wants people in Canada to know that what happened to her family is experienced by other families and children in other schools. She said that she has encoun- tered three girls working as prosti- tutes who attended Ridgeway ele- mentary and Sutherland secondary schools a couple of years ago. “Before I left North Van, [knew them. One of the girls is now 15 and has an international pimp who is running her mostly from Honolulu... “Another one (prostitute) is. very active in Vancouver,” said Dion, who attended Balmoral junior secondary and ~ North Vancouver High. She said that Vancouver has 500 kids on the streets with an additional 500 “unaccounted for.” They cither work for escort ser- vices or in houses set up for pros- litution. . “How many of these girls are dead or have moved to other cities, you just don’t know,” said Dion. She said pimps can be clean- cut, gentlemanly and sophisticat- ed. “They hire pretty-boy pimps to go into the communities to infil- trate into the schools,” said Dion. She said the “pretty-boy” pimps are usually 16 to 18 years old. “They become the | girls’ boyfriends.” said Dion “They tell the girls they love’. them. They will buy them whatev- er it takes, And all of a sudden they get them away from their conmmu- nities and it’s payback time.” ' Dion said these pimp boy- friends may hold young girls in apartnents and abuse them until they ugree to work as prostitutes. “They will beat them, rape them, have them gang banged... threaten their families,” said Dion. Dion’s outspokenness about teenage prostitution has turned her into some- thing of a celebrity. She has appeared on 25 radio talk shows in Canada and has made appearances on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show, Monteil Williams, Northwest Afternoon and Geraldo. Dion next plans to travel to Ottawa’ and lobby for the enforcement of laws relating to sex with children. “Everybody has to understand this game and how serious it is.” said Dion. “And get rid of that myth that these children choose to be there... These kids are not hookers, they are exploited children.” i during follows | WV raid A 19-YEAR-OLD West Vancouver man arrested Wednesday night during a police raid that netted equipment from a drug- making laboratory has been charged with | traf- ficking in a controlled substance. By Ian Noble News Reporter West Vancouver police Set. Stuart Leishman said Thursday afternoon that Omid Ramin faces the charge and a police investigation. into the incident continues, Ramin was in court on Friday morning facing a drug charge unrelated to the Wednesday arrest. Leishman said controlled substances are legal to pos- sess, but illegal to traffic or manufacture. West Vancouver police detective Dave Weaving, who was involved in the raid, said a “finished product” found the raid is being analysed to determine what was being produced. He said the chemicals found could be used to make two. or three different drugs, including speed (ampheta- mine). Ramin’s apartment at 945, Marine Dr. was so.contami- nated with chemicals that it had to be. cleaned by haz- ardous materials clean-up | companies during the eight-/ | hour raid, Leishman said. Meanwhile, some of Ramin’s neighbors said they were surprised to see men in chemical suits when the’ 6 p.m. raid started, but they ~ were not surprised that; the object of their attention was Ramin’s apartment. “That would have beén my first guess,” said one neigh-. bor. who asked that her name not be printed. She said police had visited the apartment a number of times. Police deny rumors that - there were explosives in the apartment. But Weaving said chemicals were found that had the capability of exploding if used improperly. Another neighbor, Richard Wilson, said that Ramin was a quiet, pleasant fellow with lots of guests. Wilson was also taken aback .by the. | appearance of the police and firemen at the scene. He said he thought there -was a fire or an electrical | problem before police told him what was occurring.