By Sean Meyer/London Community News

Jaclyn Miles didn’t need to look good in an evening gown to win her title of Miss Canada, she simply had to speak with her typical passion about a subject she knows all too well.

Miles, who twice competed in the Miss Earth Canada pageant, was crowned Miss Canada back on Jan. 14, in a ceremony that took place in Montreal, Que. The Miss Canada pageant focuses on personality and spirit over physical beauty.

Miles, 23, is a survivor of extensive bullying as a child and domestic and sexual abuse as a young woman. Those experiences, Miles said, are what she used to capture not only the Miss Canada crown, but also the platform she was looking for to help share her message.

“It was important for me to speak about my experiences. I had been trying to, but a lot of people don’t want to just listen to anybody,” Miles said. “This gives me an opportunity to make my voice heard about something we need to speak about.”

Miles, who is originally from Amherstburg, is a full-time student at Western’s Althouse College where she is studying to be a teacher. She already has an honours bachelor of arts in family studies and French from the University of Windsor.

The extensive bullying Miles suffered in high school was at least partially responsible, she believes, for what happened to her years later. It is the inter-connection between different forms of abuse that Miles said isn’t talked about enough.

“I was a victim of bullying, really bad, in high school to start with. And then sexual abuse, sexual assault really. Then not ever reporting with it or dealing with it, made me more vulnerable,” Miles said. “I think people don’t take a step back and realize what they should be doing to prevent these things from happening.”

Miles has spoken to young children, high school students, and even in front her own classmates at Althouse. Although she understands everyone has a different story to tell, she is happy to be able to focus on relationship abuse, a subject Miles said doesn’t get a lot of discussion.

“A lot of kids are going through it, but don’t realize it. A lot of time it is emotional, it starts small. If you don’t deal with it when it happens it snowballs. That is what happened to me,” Miles said. “I have taken classes throughout my life . . . studied the cycle of violence and victims, all kinds of abuse. But I never realized I was in it until I was too far into it.”

Coming forward to speak about her experiences is something Miles said has made a huge difference in not only her life, but also the lives of others. In fact, it is the help Miles has given others that drives her to keep talking about her own experiences.

“It is an amazing feeling to help people. Helping people is seriously addicting,” Miles said. “It is so much better when someone tells you they listened to your words and now want to change their lives. That, to me, is the most rewarding part.”

That reward came on the heels of winning the Miss Canada title. It was an experience Miles said was not only fun, but also made all the more enjoyable because of the women she was competing against.

“All the girls were very educated, very well spoken, very nice people. There wasn’t any rude competitiveness. So I thought really anyone could win,” Miles said. “Me and one of my roommates were down to it, I thought it could go either way. And when she was called as first runner-up, at that moment, I was like ‘OK, let’s do this.’ I was so excited to get started.”

Miles has been on the go ever since winning her crown, even spending the 12-hour train ride home from Montreal to line up speaking engagements. Miles is also a student with a daily schedule that runs from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. everyday. And then there are her three part-time jobs.

Once her schooling is finished in April (that includes her co-op placement as actually classes are done in two weeks), Miles said she is going to take a year off to focus on her public speaking campaign before getting into the job hunt.

“My experiences have changed my life in so many ways. For a lot of people, it can affect them in a very negative way. I have been there. There have been days I didn’t get out of bed, that I let it bring me down,” Miles said. “But I know there are a lot of people who need the inspiration to continue, to do positive things about it, teach people how to properly handle it or get out of that kind of situation. That is what I am focused on right now.”