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Results: 1 - 15 of 1193
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for being here today.
I want to acknowledge the pain and harm that you've experienced from traffickers and men who buy sex. I want to thank you for choosing to appear at this committee in spite of all your pain. I hope that we can bring our committee to some understanding of the realities that Canadians across this country face and help to prevent others from being trafficked, so thank you very much.
Previous witnesses talked a little bit about the role of group homes and child welfare systems as places where youth are lured from. I was wondering if I could get each of you to comment about that a little bit.
We'll start with Trisha.
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Thanks, Trisha.
Bridget, would you comment?
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
View Gary Vidal Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I too want to thank our witnesses today. I'm not going to pretend to be able to even acknowledge the pain and the suffering that you've experienced in some of your journeys. I can't even imagine that. However, I want to thank you for coming and sharing your journeys with us to help us understand this as parliamentarians and try to move forward in a way that might offer some solutions for the future. I appreciate that.
Over 50% of the survivors of sex trafficking in Canada are indigenous women and girls, even though they make up 4% of the population. This is obviously a huge challenge.
You've referred to a number of things as you've each spoken. We've talked about the child welfare system. We've talked about public policy changes. We've talked about exit strategies. We've talked about a number of different things. What I'm looking for from each of you is just a recommendation that would be very significant from a prevention perspective. I get the challenges exit-wise, but how do we stop it in the first place? What are some really practical things that the Government of Canada could do that would help to prevent young women and ladies from even being put in this place?
I think I'll start with Ms. Gobert because she hasn't had an awful lot of opportunity today, and then each of the other witnesses could take a minute of my time and answer that question if they can.
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. I really appreciate your testimony.
Ms. Smiley, perhaps we could just dig into the situation in New Zealand a little bit more. That's really interesting. The situation in New Zealand is similar to Canada's in terms of having a similar kind of basis in law. I'm just wondering how changes in law in New Zealand have affected their first nations communities.
I know that Maori indigenous people account for a percentage of New Zealand's population that is about the same as the percentage within Canada's population of first nations, Inuit and Métis. The correlation is fairly similar, other than the fact that New Zealand is an island nation and not right next to the United States.
I'm just wondering if you can outline a little bit how laws have changed there and what the effect on the indigenous population has been.
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Switching to Ms. McGuire-Cyrette, the national hotline for human trafficking victims has been up and running now for a couple of years.
Do you have any experience with it, and has it been achieving its stated goals?
View Eric Melillo Profile
CPC (ON)
View Eric Melillo Profile
2021-06-17 11:52
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to say thank you to all of our witnesses who have joined us today and who already have given us so much to think about. I appreciate how honest and open everyone has been in talking about such an important and difficult issue—and the many issues, I should say, around this.
I'll start my questions with you, Ms. McGuire-Cyrette. You mentioned the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls action plan in your opening remarks. I'm from the riding of Kenora, just beside Thunder Bay, and unfortunately this is an issue that is deeply personal for a lot of people in my riding. I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but I have previously cited in the House and in other work that somewhere near half of the identified cases over the past eight years were in the Kenora region alone. It's a very important issue to many in my riding.
You mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, that in your view the action plan seemed to miss some key recommendations and missed the mark a bit. I know that you were pressed for time and weren't able to go into a lot of detail, so if you're able to, I'd appreciate it if you could expand on some of your thoughts on that.
View Eric Melillo Profile
CPC (ON)
View Eric Melillo Profile
2021-06-17 11:56
Thank you very much for that.
I also want to pick up a bit on a similar topic. You've already mentioned in your conversation with Marcus some of the transportation gaps in the north. Many of the communities in my riding are remote communities that are serviced by Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout or Winnipeg, and many indigenous people, and many indigenous women specifically, of course, have to leave for basic medical care, for job opportunities, for school and for a number of things. Obviously, that puts them in a more vulnerable situation.
I'm not sure how much time you'll have to respond, but if you can talk a bit more about that as well, I'd appreciate it.
View Jamie Schmale Profile
CPC (ON)
I most certainly am. Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. It is a difficult study, but we appreciate your contributions.
I wanted to talk more about some of the content that was mentioned earlier. I'm going to direct my first batch of questions to Ms. Skye and Ms. Smiley, if I could. I'll let you two decide who would like to go first.
A lot of the conversation that both of you mentioned was in regard to the universal basic income or guaranteed income or whatever you want to call it. To my knowledge, the only country in the world to have that is Iran and that's paid for through subsidies and sales of oil and gas.
Have either of you looked at other potential solutions, such as economic activity and opportunity in some of these communities, rather than a direct payment?
View Jamie Schmale Profile
CPC (ON)
I get that government is the problem. I believe that “Ottawa knows best” is causing a lot of these problems. I understand that.
I'm saying that if we're creating opportunity for all and the ability to climb the ladder no matter where you are or where you're from, it's ensuring a foundation that allows people to do that. That is kind of the cause of poverty—the fact that in some of these communities “Ottawa knows best”—but we want to ensure that there is equal opportunity for all and that these opportunities are available.
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for the admonition there. I appreciate that.
I'll go back to Ms. Smiley.
I appreciate your testimony. One of the things you talked about is a defence of our current PCEPA bill. Could you expand on that a little more?
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
I know that the average trafficking victim raises or is worth about $320,000 a year. There's a lot of money in the sex trafficking world. How do we get that money out of the system? How do we end that demand? That's the big question.
Do you have any comments around that?
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
The PCEPA bill was based on—
View Arnold Viersen Profile
CPC (AB)
I'll give my time over to Mr. Vidal.
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