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Results: 91 - 105 of 242
View Cathay Wagantall Profile
CPC (SK)
View Cathay Wagantall Profile
2021-03-25 22:21 [p.5324]
Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity this evening, even if it is just a very few minutes, to express my heartfelt sympathies and concern for the families of those who have lost their lives in these past months, specifically as they relate to this conversation and this take-note debate tonight.
These are heinous crimes and deserve the full weight of the law applied to them. We truly do mourn every woman who was lost. Over 160 women have been lost in the last year alone to femicide in Canada. It is very disturbing to consider that this is happening in our country, of all places, yet we cannot help but ask ourselves what the underlying cause is of this type of behaviour.
We heard tonight of different circumstances where I think we are not really doing what is best in our society to develop our young boys into men, who then become husbands and fathers. We hear about the after-effects a lot of times of the lives of people facing circumstances where maybe they were not taught properly about the values they needed.
When I went to the YWCA in Saskatoon to talk with the people there about their programs, they talked about how a lot of the young boys who come into their facility are very rough around the edges. We ask ourselves what is causing this. We want to just set that aside when really one of the things, as we talked about that day, is having easy access to pornography at a very young age.
On the Hill, we had an opportunity to see a film done about a wholesome family. The children were home-schooled, sitting at the table doing their homework, and this little boy, at a young age, clicked on a button that said he had to be 18 years old to click on the button but did not stop him from clicking on it. Over time, this young boy began to really act out and treat his mother and sister with an incredible level of disrespect. This was happening very quickly, in the midst of doing homework at the kitchen table while his mom was preparing a meal.
These are things in our society that are impacting the quality of our young men as they are growing up. In fairness, it is not just young men. We have to look at the deeper-rooted issues around violence in games. We hear all the time that we cannot deal with that, but these are things impacting future husbands and fathers, and it all starts at that level within a family.
I also want to make the point that we want to be developing solid relationships among people. We spend an incredible amount of time on our careers, or on getting Ph.D.s, or on things such as maybe developing a very strong ability to ski, but how much time do we spend developing ourselves into the people we would want other people to enjoy being with, and choosing to be the kinds of people other people would choose to marry?
I said once when I was giving a talk that, as a young woman, I had my picture of what I would want in a man. Yes, it was strong masculinity, but not toxic masculinity. It was someone who appreciated and valued me as an individual. There are all of these types of things we want to see in those we are looking for, but we have to remember those people are also looking for that in the person they are looking to have long-term relationships with as well.
This level of violence in relationships, where a partner is killed or controlled, does not happen in the later times. It happens over the time of preparing an individual to have character in life. Churches, gurdwaras and all of our religious institutions play a significant role in building into young people what those relationships should look like and what kind of people they want to be, as well as having character and values, choosing to tell the truth and being caring and compassionate.
These are all character traits that people need to have in their lives, so where—
View Raquel Dancho Profile
CPC (MB)
View Raquel Dancho Profile
2021-02-24 14:16 [p.4489]
Mr. Speaker, today is Pink Shirt Day, a day to stand together against bullying. The pandemic has left millions of Canadians more isolated than ever, with many of us moving online to safely socialize. Unfortunately, bullying and harassment have also moved online, adding to the major mental health challenges already being faced by many Canadians, particularly children, during this difficult and unprecedented time. My heart goes out to the families who have suffered the loss of a loved one due to bullying and the Canadians who live with the ongoing trauma of being bullied. We must do more to protect our children and eliminate bullying, both online and offline.
Pink Shirt Day gives us the opportunity to raise awareness. It is also a reminder to stand up to bullies and to stand up for those who have been victims of bullying and harassment. I encourage all members of Parliament to work together to make sure that every Canadian can live free from bullying and harassment.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2021-02-23 14:45 [p.4452]
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to denying rights to first nation children, the Prime Minister is clear that money is no object. The Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on his obstruction of the Human Rights Tribunal is shocking. Ten noncompliance orders later as a result of the Human Rights Tribunal's being forced to issue maximum penalties to try to bring the Prime Minister to the table, the bill is now $15 billion and has been paid in the lives of far too many first nation children. Those children deserve better. I am asking the Prime Minister, will he end his obstruction to the Human Rights Tribunal and pay the money that is owing to these most vulnerable children in Canada?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, let me be clear once again that this government is unequivocally committed to addressing the long-standing unmet needs of first nation children and resolving these cases. The member will note that we are continuing our mediation with the CHRT partners, two other class action partners, to the complaints first nations partners, provinces and territories to ensure that we fully implement Jordan's principle and resolve this wrong.
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
View Christine Normandin Profile
2021-02-18 12:54 [p.4232]
Mr. Speaker, it seems that was indeed the problem. I am terribly sorry.
I was talking about the first criterion for recognizing genocide, that is, killing members of the group. A number of physicians have reported that as many as several million Uighurs have gone missing, and there is no documentation of their whereabouts. At least two years ago, some actors, including Nury Turkel of the Uighur Human Rights Project, were suggesting that several million Uighurs had disappeared. To date, China still has not acknowledged the concentration camps. The fact that so many people are missing could lead us to believe that there have been mass murders of this group, although that is harder to prove, since few people have escaped from the various camps to report their existence and the conditions inside.
The second criterion for recognizing genocide is causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. In this regard, several witnesses reported to the committee that forced organ harvesting may have been carried out in the Uighur community. Sadly, there is no shortage of accounts from women who were raped in the camps. Women have reported the sexual, psychological and physical abuse they have experienced, which leads us to believe that the second criterion has been met.
The third criterion is that of deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. We know that many Uighurs have been taken from their homes by force, sent to concentration camps and then moved to factories, mainly located in Xinjiang, in order to help to reduce the Muslim population in that part of China. We know that the working conditions in those factories are inhumane and unbearable. Given that the workers are paid little or nothing, this is a form of modern-day slavery.
With regard to psychological destruction, we need only think of China's mass surveillance. As has been mentioned many times, particularly in relation to the issue of Huawei, China has an extraordinary surveillance capacity. The Beijing regime invests huge amounts of money in security and technology. We know that there are security cameras installed everywhere and that, as a result of facial recognition technology, Uighurs can be specifically targeted in a crowd. There is therefore a feeling of ongoing persecution both in China and abroad. We have heard reports of intimidation, harassment and spying from the Uighur diaspora abroad, which leads us to believe that the third criterion is being met.
The fourth criterion in the convention is imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. We know this is happening. Witnesses have told us. The Chinese Communist Party engages in eugenics, practising a form of mass sterilization on Uighur women to reduce the population. Leaked documents show that the government has even set a target and intends to forcibly sterilize 80% of Uighur women of reproductive age. This approach is working. Sadly, the Uighur population's growth rate declined by 84% between 2015 and 2018.
The final criterion for a finding of genocide is forcibly transferring children of one group to another group. Once again, witnesses have testified that children have ben separated from their families. Children have been taken from their families and placed in state-run orphanages, schools or camps to re-educate them, indoctrinate them and turn them into perfect little Chinese citizens, erasing their culture.
I have discussed each of the criteria, but the convention states that the presence of even one of these criteria is sufficient for a finding of genocide.
In this context, I believe that rather than relying solely on the technical analysis of genocide, the government should admit that there is a genocide. The Prime Minister should acknowledge that a genocide is taking place, as he did with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
The main message that emerged from the testimony of several witnesses who appeared before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration was that if we want to tackle the root of the problem, we must stop just treating the symptoms. We must stop implementing measures that only help people after they have been subjected to prejudice and genocide. We must tackle genocide head-on. If we are to tackle the problem, we must be able to name it. This becomes the cornerstone of the measures we can then take to stop the genocide. We must acknowledge that it exists if we want to apply sanctions in response. According to several witnesses, a token acknowledgement will only lead to token measures.
Earlier, colleagues from the government asked why the other Five Eyes countries have not acknowledged the genocide yet. The answer may have less to do with acknowledging genocide and more to do with international relations and the government's willingness to do the right thing about this genocide.
Let me give an example. Foreign affairs minister Zhao Lijian said in November that if the Five Eyes dared to interfere in the government's business and harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests, those eyes could get poked and blinded. That was a direct threat against the Five Eyes.
In my opinion, that provides further justification for the government to take a leadership role in acknowledging the genocide and not be browbeaten by China. Acknowledging the genocide will allow us to have clear measures. It could also prompt governments of other allied countries, the other members of the Five Eyes, to follow suit.
Acknowledging the genocide means clear, appropriate measures could be taken. That acknowledgement would be a political move that could inform the other measures to follow.
View Jag Sahota Profile
CPC (AB)
View Jag Sahota Profile
2021-02-16 10:14 [p.4094]
moved:
That the second report of the Standing Committee on Status of Women presented on Thursday, February 4, 2021, be concurred in.
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Peace River—Westlock.
I am pleased to rise today to voice my support for declaring February 22 as national human trafficking awareness day. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, discretion or influence over the movement of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. It is often described as a modern form of slavery.
Human trafficking is not something Canadians think of often, if at all. When we do, we often think that this horrendous and dehumanizing crime is being committed elsewhere in the world: somewhere that is less fortunate and that lacks effective law enforcement. However, as the Conservative shadow minister for Women and Gender Equality, I have learned from several of my colleagues, including the member for Peace River—Westlock, and from stakeholders and organizations across the country just how vast the human trafficking network is in Canada.
Statistics Canada's 2018 report on human trafficking indicated that 90% of human trafficking in Canada was reported in census metropolitan areas, and that 97% of victims are women and girls with 74% of them being under the age of 25. Of that 74%, 28% were under the age of 18. These numbers are absolutely horrifying and break my heart. These are not just numbers. These numbers represent somebody's daughter, son, grandson, granddaughter, niece or nephew. No one underage, particularly those who are trafficked, has the ability to consent to sexual acts or exploitation.
When I look at my party's record on this issue, I am grateful that we have taken this issue seriously and made significant overhauls to our Criminal Code to address this very serious crime. The member for Haldimand—Norfolk, during her tenure as the minister for Citizenship and Immigration and as minister for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, introduced several changes to the temporary foreign worker program and the immigration act to prevent situations where temporary workers in Canada, including strippers, might be abused, exploited or possibly become victims of human trafficking.
In 2010 and 2012, former member of Parliament Joy Smith introduced and passed two private member's bills: Bill C-268 , minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years, and Bill C-310, trafficking in persons. Bill C-268 amended the Criminal Code and set mandatory minimums for those who were convicted of trafficking anyone under the age of 18, while Bill C-310 addressed a major loophole in our Criminal Code and made sure that Canadians or permanent residents who went abroad for the purpose of exploiting or trafficking foreign individuals would be brought back to Canada for prosecution.
In 2012, our Conservative government launched a four-year national action plan to combat human trafficking. This included Canada's first integrated law enforcement team dedicated to combatting human trafficking, and increased frontline training to identify and respond to human trafficking, enhanced prevention in vulnerable communities, provided more supports for victims of this crime, both those who are Canadians and foreigners, and strengthened our coordination with domestic and international partners in combatting human trafficking.
Our Conservative government also recognized that the majority of people who are trafficked are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This is why, when our government had to revisit Canada's law regarding prostitution and pass Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, we put a heavy focus on protecting these victims.
Until this law was passed, those forced into the sex trade were often treated as criminals by the law instead of being treated as the victims. This law was a made-in-Canada approach recognizing that those who sell sexual services are often victims of human trafficking and often underage. We recognized those people as victims of a more heinous crime, and instead of further victimizing the victim, our Conservative government focused on the pimps and the johns. This included those convicted of procuring, recruiting or harbouring another person for the purpose of prostitution, with a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. If the victim was a child, the penalty carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
We have done a lot to address human trafficking in Canada and stand up for the vulnerable in our society. However, there is still much more work that needs to be done.
Despite all of our hard work as parliamentarians, human trafficking is still a growing crime in Canada and remains very much below the public radar. At the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, one of the facts we have constantly heard from witnesses is the importance of raising awareness to help combat the prevalence of human trafficking. That is why I strongly support declaring a national awareness day. It would give us an opportunity to create an awareness campaign to educate Canadians that this crime happens and happens locally. It would show them the signs of someone who is being or is about to be trafficked and how to report that to the authorities.
The time is now to act on this very important issue. It has been over 16 years since Canada added human trafficking offences to the Criminal Code and 14 years since the House unanimously adopted a motion to condemn all forms of human trafficking and slavery.
The motion also calls for making February 22 the day to be declared national human trafficking awareness day. I believe this is the best and most practical day to use. The Provinces of Ontario and Alberta already use February 22 as the day to bring awareness provincially. Also, the government's own special adviser for combatting human trafficking has said that they would like to see this day declared as the national human trafficking awareness day.
View Mark Gerretsen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the aisle highlighted the fact that a lot of people assume human trafficking is not something that can happen right here in our own communities. The reality of the situation is, as the data shows, that it can happen in my community, in her community and in communities right across Canada, and that it is actually happening.
If she had one message for families and people responsible for children so they become aware of this issue and recognize that it is a reality, what would that message be?
View Jag Sahota Profile
CPC (AB)
View Jag Sahota Profile
2021-02-16 10:24 [p.4095]
Mr. Speaker, the message would be that it is Canadian children and children from everywhere in the world who are being trafficked. This is not a message limited to Canadians; it is a message for the world. We need to protect our children, and awareness is the first step toward that. We should make sure we have a campaign, set on this day, to talk about becoming aware of the situation, how to identify where trafficking is about to happen and how to take steps to notify authorities so that it does not happen.
View Andréanne Larouche Profile
BQ (QC)
View Andréanne Larouche Profile
2021-02-16 11:06 [p.4101]
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the motion in my capacity as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
The Standing Committee on the Status of Women examined the problem of human trafficking and recommended that February 22 be recognized as national human trafficking awareness day. We agreed that the committee chair would table the report in the House. I would still like to summarize it, to make sure everyone understands what we are going to be talking about today.
The committee recommends, given the unanimous declaration of the House on Thursday, February 22, 2007, condemning all forms of human trafficking—which is defined as a form of modern-day slavery, generally for sexual purposes, forced labour or slavery—and thus encouraging Canadians to hear from victims and survivors of human trafficking, encouraging Canadians to raise awareness of the magnitude of modern day slavery in Canada and abroad, and taking steps to combat human trafficking. Lastly, the committee recommends that February 22 be recognized as national human trafficking awareness day.
As the critic for status of women, I hear about human trafficking on a regular basis. I hear about it even more often in my role as a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. I want to give a shout-out to my colleagues from Peace River—Westlock and Scarborough—Guildwood, who are also members of this group.
When I was asked to join this multi-party group, I remember being very surprised at first. I wondered whether this was still a current issue, and I was even a bit shocked about being approached to talk about it. That was when I unfortunately realized that this was an ongoing problem that should be better known and highlighted.
That is why I will be addressing today three aspects of this crucial issue. I will first reiterate the Bloc Québécois's position by presenting a few promising solutions. I will then speak about the importance of working with the survivors, especially indigenous women and girls. I will conclude by also dispelling certain myths about human trafficking and modern-day slavery, given that this motion is being introduced in the midst of a pandemic and that the crisis has demonstrably exacerbated the problems of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
First and foremost, it is important we all agree on the terminology I will be using in my speech, so I want to review in more detail what human trafficking is about.
According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, human trafficking occurs when criminals recruit, transport, harbour, or control people to exploit them. As I mentioned earlier, criminals, and we are talking about heinous crimes here, generally exploit their unfortunate victims for sexual purposes or forced labour. Human trafficking may occur for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour or even organ harvesting, although the latter is much less common in Canada.
Human trafficking also refers to the exploitation of human beings for financial benefit. Trafficking can come in many forms, and victims are generally forced, coerced, deceived or compelled through the abuse of trust, power or authority, to provide sexual services or labour. In addition, victims of human trafficking experience serious physical, emotional and psychological trauma.
Human trafficking is a violation of basic human rights and a criminal offence. In fact, six separate Criminal Code offences specifically address human trafficking.
In addition, section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act prohibits knowingly organizing the coming into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion.
Trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation means the recruitment, transportation and transfer, inside or outside a country, by legal or illegal means, as well as the harbouring or receipt of persons, primarily women and children, for purposes of sexual exploitation. Phases of human trafficking include recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring and receipt, as well as the means used against the victims, such as the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of a position of vulnerability, or giving or receiving payments or benefits. Tragically, the ultimate goal is to exploit the trafficked women and children to give johns uninterrupted access to sex for money and to earn trafficker pimps substantial profits.
It is important to distinguish between modern-day slavery and human trafficking, however. These terms are not synonymous, although they are connected. Human trafficking is an initial stage, which involves transporting, harbouring, recruiting and receiving victims. All of these steps lead to exploitation or modern-day slavery.
The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline is a confidential service that operates 24-7. It can be reached at 1-833-900-1010. The hotline helps victims and survivors of human trafficking by connecting them with social services, emergency services and law enforcement agencies. It also accepts tips from the public. We must remain vigilant and keep our eyes open.
I will now read an excerpt from Public Safety Canada's 2019-24 national strategy to combat human trafficking. In my opinion, it really sums up the fact that everything is not so simple and that a call to action is not enough to make everything clear.
Human trafficking is a complex crime. It is facilitated by many factors, including the vulnerability of particular populations to exploitation, and the demand for low-cost goods and services. While no individual is immune from falling victim to human trafficking, vulnerable populations, such as Indigenous women and girls, are at higher risk. It is a crime that is highly gendered, with root causes of exploitation, including a lack of education, social supports and employment opportunities, compounded by poverty, sexism, racism, and wage inequality.
For its perpetrators, also referred to as traffickers, it can be a low-risk, highly-profitable endeavour believed to be one of the fastest-growing crimes on a global basis, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Traffickers use various methods to lure and groom potential victims. These methods often include intimidation, false work pretenses, or a technique in which the trafficker pretends to be romantically interested in their potential victim. [This may seem cute, especially just a few days after Valentine's Day, but there is nothing cute about it in real life.]
Traffickers maintain control over their victims through the use of force, sexual or physical assault, threats of violence or blackmail, confinement, abuse of power, or preying on their vulnerabilities.
Victims often suffer physical, sexual, financial, emotional and psychological abuse, and often live and work in horrific conditions. Due to the harm and violence inflicted on victims, human trafficking is associated with substantial trauma, and recovery from its impacts can take a lifetime.
Here are some very intriguing statistics. According to a 2018 Statistics Canada report, police services had reported a little over 1,700 human trafficking incidents since 2009. Of those incidents, 32% were cross-border offences, and 90% were reported by police in major urban centres.
However, the extent of human trafficking in Canada is vastly underestimated. It often involves vulnerable victims and witnesses who are afraid or suspicious of the authorities and who have been threatened by traffickers.
Victims of human trafficking were most often young women. Almost all victims of human trafficking incidents reported by police were women and girls. Nearly three-quarters of victims were under 25. The majority, 92% of trafficking victims, knew the alleged perpetrator. Most often, in 31% of cases, the alleged perpetrator was a friend or acquaintance. In 29% of cases, it was even a current or former husband, common-law spouse or other intimate partner. Eighty-one per cent of alleged perpetrators were men. In addition, 44% of human trafficking incidents involved other offences: 63% included sex trade-related offences, 39% included assault, and 21% included sexual assault or other sexual violations.
Not all human trafficking cases brought before the courts are treated as such. Human trafficking cases brought to criminal court involved a higher number of charges, took longer to resolve, and were less likely to result in a guilty verdict compared to criminal cases involving other violent offences.
Between 2008 and 2018, that was true for 45% of cases that police reported as human trafficking cases. It was common practice for the courts to treat these cases as non-violent offences where the Criminal Code and other federal laws were concerned. In 52% of cases, we are talking about crimes involving drugs, guns, theft, and so on.
These statistics beg two fundamental questions. First, why are all human trafficking cases not being judged by the courts for what they are: violent crimes? Second, what are the obstacles preventing prosecutions from leading to convictions for human trafficking? I have no answers to these questions today, but by collectively focusing on this issue during a national awareness day, we could reflect on it further. To illustrate my point even better, I will share some examples of human trafficking cases provided by Public Safety Canada.
To begin with, let us look at the case of a 22-year-old woman who entered into a romantic relationship with an individual who would provide drugs to her and her friends. She was transported to an apartment by her alleged boyfriend, locked into the bedroom and forced, by threats, to provide sexual services to other men. The victim fell pregnant, but she was forced to continue working and was given drugs or alcohol to feed her addiction.
Then there was a case involving two women in their early 20s and a 15-year-old woman who were befriended by an individual who promised them high earnings and accommodation in luxury condos in exchange for sexual services. The trafficker began controlling the victims' phone calls, taking most of their earnings and becoming increasingly violent and abusive. He made the women work in various Canadian cities and held one of them at gunpoint to threaten her.
Here is another case. An 18-year-old woman was in a five-year relationship with an individual who frequently assaulted her and controlled her phone. Under her alleged boyfriend's control, the victim provided sexual services to clients in hotels and handed all of her earnings over to him. The trafficker controlled her by threatening to hurt her.
Another example is the case of a female minor who left her single-parent home because of a conflict and stayed with some acquaintances until she befriended a young couple and decided to live with them. She was given drugs and alcohol, and taken downtown to provide sexual services against her will. The victim was coerced into it using physical abuse and fear.
There are also examples like a 35-year-old foreign national who was offered a position in the hospitality sector in Canada. As soon as he arrived, however, he was forced to work long hours for little or no pay, with the trafficker threatening to harm the victim's family in his home country if he tried to complain to the authorities.
Here is one last example to convince you of the magnitude of the problem. A woman was violently forced to leave southern Ontario to be a sex worker in Winnipeg. The police reported that the victim was held in captivity in a house for four months, suffering severe assaults on numerous occasions, including electric shocks. She was also regularly locked in a freezer when her captor was out. The victim was only allowed to leave the house when she was meeting clients, and that was under strict supervision.
Let us take a look at how Canada's actions compare to those of other countries. July 30 is the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The problem is that the House of Commons did not sit on July 30 last year, even though nearly 14 years ago, on February 22, 2007, the House unanimously voted in favour of a motion to recognize and condemn human trafficking. In spite of this vote to condemn this practice, there are still far too many victims, as I have mentioned, and we need to immediately take further action. February 22 is a sitting day in the House.
We also know that in 2002, Canada ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The protocol focuses on four pillars: the prevention of human trafficking, the protection of victims, the prosecution of offenders and working in partnership with others both domestically and internationally.
Millions of people affected by the COVID-19 crisis are more vulnerable than ever to human trafficking. According to the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020”, which was recently released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, human traffickers target the most vulnerable such as migrants or the unemployed. The recession caused by COVID-19 may expose more people to the risk of human trafficking.
In 2018, for every 10 victims detected globally, about five were adult women and two were girls. Approximately 20% of victims were adult men and 15% were boys. Overall, 50% of victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 38% for forced labour, 6% for forced criminal activity and 1% for begging. In 2018, most women and girls were trafficked for sexual exploitation whereas men and boys were mostly trafficked for forced labour.
Let us look to Quebec and its support for victims. This is a crucial issue because compensation for victims of crime is Quebec's jurisdiction and victim services and assistance vary by province.
Recent efforts by Quebec's National Assembly do not specifically address the phenomenon of trafficking of persons but have looked at how to improve support for victims of sexual assault. The multi-party committee on support for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence received the report and recommendations of an expert panel in December.
In short, the report set out the following recommendations: offer victims the ongoing support of a stable social worker, whether or not they choose to report the crime or press charges, including a meeting with that social worker before they report the offence or make any kind of formal statement to the police; integrate services for victims; provide psychosocial and judicial support in line with indigenous cultural values; give victims access to free legal advice as soon as they report the crime; ensure ongoing support and a consistent flow of information for victims at all stages of the legal process; accompany and support victims at the sentencing stage; be proactive and develop a quality service offer for perpetrators of violence; ensure consistency in the rulings of criminal, family and youth protection courts by creating a judicial coordinator position; establish a specialized court for sexual assault and intimate partner violence; develop specialized training on sexual assault and intimate partner violence for medical, psychosocial and legal stakeholders, police, lawyers, prosecutors and judges; take integrated action to address the overall problem; and bolster victims' confidence in the system.
These are great recommendations to ensure proper support for victims of violence, including victims of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
In conclusion, we would be wrong to think that human trafficking and modern-day slavery only affect people from abroad and that they happen on the fringes and outside the country. In fact, they are much more widespread than we think. One women's organization that our multi-party group recently spoke to reminded us that these individuals could just as easily be our daughters.
That is why it is high time, as suggested by the Standing Committee on the Status of Women in its report on the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on women, that the Canadian government continue its efforts to draw up a national action plan to address the issues raised in “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls”. This needs to happen as soon as possible.
As International Women's Day approaches, I would like to remind you that this year's theme for the Collectif 8 mars is “Let's listen to women”. As stated on its website, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative impact on women and exacerbating existing structural and systemic inequalities caused by the patriarchy, classism, racism and colonialism. The feminist struggle is far from over and we need to talk about it. That is why I believe that a day of awareness could serve this cause very well, providing more space for dialogue and highlighting an issue that we know far too little about and that has a greater impact on women and girls.
Today, we have the opportunity to come together beyond party lines to endorse an essential step in the fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking. This national awareness day will finally make it possible for us to better understand this heinous crime, strongly speak out against it and fight it more effectively. We must act now.
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
2021-02-16 11:36 [p.4106]
Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time with my hon. colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Canada, things were already bleak for women fleeing violence and falling victim to human trafficking. Many have tagged women enduring violence as a shadow pandemic or a pandemic within a pandemic, but no matter what name we give it, the fact is that when a woman encounters violence in Canada and is not seen as a person to be respected and treated equally, but only as a commodity, which is every day, we are failing her.
I am pleased to speak about this issue today, but like violence against women, like pay equity and like so many issues that involve equality and dignity for women, we know the solutions required, but we are not making the political choices to do what is necessary.
I support this motion. I was happy to support it at the status of women committee and I am grateful that our committee has spent the last few months studying the impacts of COVID on women. I would like to share what I heard at committee and from my community about human trafficking.
According to the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, human trafficking impacts women of all different ages, racial backgrounds and cultural groups. Everyone is at risk. The risks can be exacerbated by things like social isolation and emotional vulnerability. These factors, of course, have been aggravated by the pandemic, For those at higher risk, there is something we have heard repeatedly during this pandemic: People who are already vulnerable, such as women living in poverty, women living with disabilities, immigrant women, indigenous women and children, are disproportionately affected by this form of abuse and violence.
The statistics for human trafficking are alarming. The latest Statistics Canada report states that one person out of every 100,000 is a victim of human trafficking, but it also stated that the true rate is likely far higher, given the high level of victim vulnerability and the fact that such crimes often go unreported. The report suggests that the majority of human trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls younger than 25 years old.
I am so sad to say that these crimes in Canada are increasing, and we are seeing a noted increase in my riding as well. In London, Ontario, the London Abused Women’s Centre saw a 37% increase in calls to its organization for support and services related to human trafficking during the pandemic and speculated that the pandemic may aggravate risks of online exploitation. If we think about this, we realize that women and girls, mainly children, are online constantly now. Whether they are at school learning, researching and working online, socializing with their friends online or spending their free time through gaming or entertainment, it is online and it is constant. It is the children who are being treated as the greatest commodity of human trafficking.
Years ago, before I was elected, I was approached by a mom, a woman who was desperate to help her daughter. The daughter had significant mental health issues, and when she was 15 years old, she went online and met a man who promised her love, attention and a good time. He bought her clothes and drugs. She moved in with him. She became an addict. She was told that she then had to start to earn those drugs and clothes. She disappeared. Her family could not find her for years. Eventually, she found the strength to escape and she came back home. She was almost 18 at that time. She was admitted to the hospital to deal with her addiction and her mental health problems. She went home, but shortly thereafter she returned to the man and to the drugs and he sold her again. She turned 18 and her mother could not do anything about her leaving. She was an adult. No one could help.
There are incredible groups in my community that see this story and so many other heart-wrenching stories every day, and they provide the supports and help that this mom needed so desperately.
Services such as support groups, emergency and long-term shelters, affordable housing, counselling and education about human trafficking are integral to a survivor's recovery, but our committee heard that of the organizations providing these services and accepting referrals, a majority had implemented reduced service hours and changes to service provision due to funding cuts and the pandemic.
In 2007, the same committee for the status of women studied these issues and put forward a report called “Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada”. This report outlined necessary actions that government could take to address human trafficking. Certainly, within government organizations and legal institutions, people are more aware, educated and active on the fight against human trafficking. However, almost 14 years later, the status of women committee heard witnesses tell us that these problems still exist and that we are not effectively addressing the issue. I believe that our failure to provide adequate and reliable funding is causing this continuance.
During the pandemic, numerous women's organizations spoke of the need for core funding. Operational-based funding is necessary for any organization to be able to shift within an emergency situation. During the Harper government, a great deal of funding to women's organizations was cut, and any funding provided was made available only under specific project-based funding. Under the subsequent Liberal government, some funding has been returned, but not to the levels required and only through that same project-based funding model.
This has left organizations scrambling, unable to move money to where they need it in a crisis. They cannot plan what they know their community needs. They must adhere to what projects have been put forward by governments. In addition, because they do not have adequate funds, they must rely upon constant private fundraising, which, as we know, is down because of the pandemic.
In London, we saw this exact example when organizations lost government funding to fight human trafficking. In the middle of the pandemic, when victims and survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence were at heightened vulnerability, the London Abused Women's Centre also had to deal with closing down their programming or trying to find funds from the community to survive.
Services for women in situations of human trafficking need greater stability and security. It is key for different levels of governments to work collaboratively to implement long-term, sustainable solutions to address human trafficking in Canada. It is still the case that some provinces did not deem women’s shelters as essential services during the pandemic, so these shelters had to close their doors.
We are months overdue on an action plan to respond to the calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The federal government is failing to deliver on its promise to indigenous people and a key commitment of culturally appropriate and geographically accessible services. An organization in London, Atlohsa, has created Okaadenige, the Survivors circle, which brings together those who have lived experience in human trafficking to provide support, access to traditional knowledge and teachings in a safe space.
We need to increase services related to homelessness, sexual health, mental health and addiction, as well as services to respond to violence and trafficking. Youth Opportunities Unlimited in London provides basic needs and housing, access to physical, mental or dental health care, and education and employment services specifically designed to help youth lead positive lives.
We know that when survivors of human trafficking try to report their experiences to authorities, they can be re-traumatized or intimidated by the process, so many do not report them. Although Canada’s legal system is heavily reliant on victim testimony, it is not designed to support victims and survivors of sexually based violence, including trafficking. We must provide training and education for those in the legal system. Across southwestern Ontario, Courage for Freedom is raising awareness and teaching, training, and certifying front-line staff and community service providers with proven strategies and prevention tactics to serve vulnerable victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Through actions like #ProjectMapleLeaf, they bring awareness to community agencies and personnel, government agencies, workers and families who serve in positions that may be witnessing human trafficking and do not even know it.
One of the greatest unequalizers of all, of course, is poverty. We continually fail to eradicate poverty in Canada. We could start with a guaranteed livable basic income. That would be a great start. When women have power and independence, they have true choice, and only then can we begin to deal with the violence they face.
There is a great deal more that I cannot cover today in my speech. However, to conclude, we must recommit to ensure that we will no longer put women at the back of the line. No longer will we say that they can wait for these programs and services or that we should study this problem again.
As was stated in 2007, “When a woman or girl is reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold, raped, beaten, and psychologically devastated, her fundamental human rights and dignity are repeatedly violated”, and we have failed.
We must act. I hope this motion and the declaration of February 22 leads to the actions and political courage necessary to put an end to human trafficking.
View Shannon Stubbs Profile
CPC (AB)
View Shannon Stubbs Profile
2021-02-16 12:05 [p.4109]
Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles.
I want to start by thanking the status of women committee for tabling this report, which includes designating February 22 as national human trafficking awareness day, and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak today. I am sure that all of us in Parliament are united to end the scourge of human trafficking in Canada, but a day of awareness is only one step in the right direction. The other recommendations are equally important to encourage Canadians to hear from victims and survivors of human trafficking, and to raise awareness of the prevalence of human trafficking in Canada and, most importantly, to take action to combat it.
Conservatives are advocates for victims' rights and for the rule of law, and it has always been that way. In 2012, Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government brought official focus to the travesty of human trafficking and launched the national action plan to combat human trafficking, which consolidated all federal activities into one plan. Two months ago, I joined my colleagues, Senator Boisvenu and the MP for Oshawa, along with two victims' families, in support of Bill S-219, which would respect, strengthen and protect the rights of victims of crime. More recently, I participated in the ethics committee work on protection and privacy online. We heard gut-wrenching testimony from a brave survivor of online sexual exploitation. She was just 13 years old when videos of her went up on a pornographic website, and she had to fight and plead and beg to get them taken down. Conservatives continue to fight for children and adult victims of online non-consensual sexual exploitation and are calling for action to protect privacy and to empower individual ownership over personal images online.
I want to especially acknowledge our colleague, the member for Peace River—Westlock, for his unrelenting focus on victims and survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation and online abuse. Tirelessly and consistently, he has been working without much accolade or recognition, from a perspective of faith and care for the vulnerable, and with an unwavering belief in the equal sanctity and dignity of every human being. I suspect most people do not really know that about our colleague, or might not really have given it much thought at all, but I have gotten to know and appreciate that about him and his heart, since sitting beside him in the very back row where we started in 2015, and from his steadfast internal and external work to bring attention to these issues.
Public Safety Canada says that human trafficking is “recruiting, transporting, transferring, receiving, holding, concealing, harbouring, or exercising control, direction or influence over [a] person, for the purpose of exploitation, generally for sexual exploitation or forced labour.” It is manipulation or coercion of a person to the end of their ultimately being used. It is true that human trafficking is wide-reaching and goes beyond borders, but it is happening right here in Canada right now, and any thought that human trafficking is a foreign problem or beyond our control in Canada is false. In fact, it is bigger and more insidious than what many Canadians might think. Well-known Albertan and country musician Paul Brandt is the founder of #NotInMyCity and a board member of Alberta's human trafficking task force. He says that “Good-willed people would never imagine that this happens. It's just not on a regular, normal, functioning person's radar that there's this trade...happening in Canada to children.”
Alberta also introduced the Protecting Survivors of Human Trafficking Act, which came into force last May. It expands powers to protect victims of human trafficking, enables police to take quicker action and makes it easier for survivors to get protection orders. On a side note, Alberta has already declared February 22 as Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Knowing the full extent of human trafficking in Canada is important, but also difficult to recognize, because it is easy to conceal. The victims and witnesses are often reluctant to come forward because of threats from their traffickers, and feelings of shame and mistrust of authorities. That is why public awareness is so important. The data available from Stats Canada is only a glimpse of the true scale of human trafficking in Canada, and it is shocking. According to a 2018 report titled “Trafficking in persons in Canada", between 2009 and 2018 about 1,400 victims of human trafficking were reported by Canadian police, and 97% of them were women and girls. Nearly half of those victims were between the ages of 18 and 24, and almost a third of them were even younger, below the age of 18. They are minors; they are children. That is several hundred kids in Canada, over a span of less than a decade, whose lives were stolen from them, taken away forever, and they are just the ones we know about. There could be hundreds more who never come forward out of fear, shame or simply not understanding that the abuse they suffered has a name.
One of the reasons human trafficking is so elusive and under-reported is that the victims often know their abusers. Of the incidents reported to police, 92% of victims knew the person who was accused, most commonly a friend, acquaintance or intimate partner, and nearly half of the incidents involved other offences related to sexual services, physical assault, sexual assault or other sexual offences. Staff Sergeant Colleen Bowers with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams' human trafficking unit says that “the problem is they are such silent victims....in a really impossible situation. They are very vulnerable and controlled by these people.”
It is happening right now in Canada, in our own backyard. There are some examples that hit very close to home for many of us. Maddison Fraser left her home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia at 18 and got trapped in the sex trade. She was beaten beyond recognition and in 2015, sadly, lost her life at 21 years old when she was the passenger in a deadly car accident in Alberta. The driver was her suspected trafficker.
Between April 2016 and March 2017, RCMP officers from Nova Scotia travelled across the country for Operation Hellbender to locate human trafficking victims from Nova Scotia. The officers worked with police forces across Canada and eventually charged two men with human trafficking.
In 2016, Clancy McDaniel was drugged and abducted during a trip to Montreal with her friends. She later learned that the men were involved in organized crime, and she barely escaped with her life. She is now executive director of Students Nova Scotia and an advocate for survivors of human trafficking like her. She says, “I could have very easily been in forced prostitution, I had no choice over that. I would have been addicted to drugs and had my life stripped from me, and at that point, nobody would care what happened to me whatsoever.”
In October 2019, Project Convalesce, headed by five police departments in Canada, identified 12 victims in one of the largest sex trafficking busts in Canadian history. Thirty people were arrested and over 300 charges were laid as a result of that operation. Last November, an Edmonton couple was arrested for running a sex trafficking ring involving untold numbers of teenage girls.
Dawn Fisher was just 13 years old when she was forced into sex trafficking by a Calgary gang. Last month, she helped build a fundraising operation and told her story to raise awareness and help other human trafficking victims seek help without fear. She says, “It’s so scary because who do you go to? Do you put your life and your family’s life at risk?”
Moreover, just last month, a 20-year-old student at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia was charged with human trafficking and procurement and exploitation of a 16-year-old girl in the sex trade. Recently, Calgary and Quebec police teamed up and charged two in Quebec and three men from Calgary with human trafficking. The Calgary men are scheduled for court on February 21, just a day before the proposed national human trafficking awareness day.
There is no shortage of examples and I believe all of us would like there to never be further cases to cite. Understanding the challenges and stigma that victims and survivors face is an important step in encouraging more victims to come forward, to seek help and to escape before it is too late. That is why Conservatives support dedicating a national human trafficking awareness day, as well as to hear from the victims and survivors of human trafficking, raise awareness of its prevalence in Canada and, of course, taking the most important step of prioritizing resources and law enforcement networks to take concrete action to end it.
I will close with this powerful quote by Cheyenne Jones. She was a victim of sexual exploitation 20 years ago. Today she is an advocate for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation based in Nova Scotia. She says, “Girls that have survived these horrific situations, they should be praised. Our society should be standing up and clapping when they walk into a room because they are the ultimate survivors. They've beaten death. They've done whatever they could do to survive and I'm proud to walk beside them.”
Every Canadian deserves the right to self-determination and to be in charge of their own destiny, and when criminals try to take that away, victims should be free from stigma and empowered to reach out, to tell their stories and to seek help. I will, of course, support the report introduced by the Standing Committee on Status of Women, including the three recommendations to support these brave victims of unimaginable criminal torture, psychological, emotional and physical destruction. I hope the report will receive unanimous support from all members.
View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to speak to the second report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. In its report, the committee issues three recommendations for the House: encourage Canadians to hear from victims and survivors of human trafficking; encourage Canadians to raise awareness of the magnitude of modern day slavery in Canada and abroad and to take steps to combat human trafficking; and recognize the 22nd day of February as national human trafficking awareness day. The third recommendation is, in my view, the most important one. Personally, I believe it is the least we can do.
We must remember what the Conservative Party has done on this issue. Let us recall the most recent election campaign, in 2019. Our party made a number of proposals, including renewing the national action plan to combat human trafficking, amending the Criminal Code to reflect the international definition in the Palermo Protocol, ensuring that those responsible for human trafficking serve consecutive sentences for their crime and ending automatic bail for those charged with human trafficking.
As we know, 95% of victims are women, and more than a quarter of them are under 18. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected and represent half the victims. This is a subject that concerns me greatly. It is the reason I moved Motion No. 63 a few days ago in the House. The motion seeks to make changes to the Criminal Code with respect to human trafficking and minors.
The motion reads as follows:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) recognize the urgent need for concrete legislative measures to (i) combat the scourge of sexual exploitation of minors, (ii) better protect children and other vulnerable persons from sexual exploitation; and (b) amend, as soon as possible, the provisions of the Criminal Code to implement the four important recommendations contained in the unanimous report of the Select Committee on the Sexual Exploitation of Minors established by the National Assembly of Quebec, namely, (i) the implementation of the consecutive sentencing provision for human trafficking, (ii) adding the crime of sexual exploitation to the proceeds of crime forfeiture mechanism, (iii) eliminating the preliminary inquiry in some sexual exploitation and human trafficking cases, (iv) giving law enforcement more effective legal tools to obtain evidence of sexual crimes committed against minors committed in the cyberspace.
The first request made by the Quebec National Assembly's select committee that has implications at the federal level concerns consecutive sentencing. I would like to remind my colleagues that former Bloc Québécois and NDP member Maria Mourani tabled a bill on which the House voted. The bill went through the entire process. It was unanimously adopted by the parties and sent to the Senate. It was supposed to receive royal assent. All this happened a few months before the 2015 election. Unfortunately, after the election, we had a new government. The new government refused to grant Maria Mourani's bill royal assent, and that was that.
This bill addresses consecutive sentences. Based on the unanimous recommendations of the Quebec National Assembly's select committee, whose members cover the entire political spectrum, everyone is asking that the bill be reintroduced and that pimps be given consecutive sentences.
The second element concerns adding crimes of sexual exploitation to the proceeds of crime forfeiture mechanism. The Criminal Code should provide for the forfeiture of proceeds of crime during sentencing. Normally, the Crown must prove that the property in question fits the definition of proceeds of crime. However, the burden of proof is reversed for certain criminal organizations and offences related to drugs and human trafficking. This means that procuring should be included automatically, without needing to prove it.
The third element concerns preliminary inquiries. The Quebec National Assembly’s select committee recommends eliminating preliminary inquiries for procuring cases, since it is very hard for victims to testify and describe the torture they endured. This would lead to much quicker trials.
Fourth, law enforcement agencies want better tools for obtaining evidence in cyberspace, particularly with regard to determining the place of the offence. Take, for example, an online video in which we can see the victim and the aggressor, but we do not know where it was filmed. The definition of place is complex, especially for police investigating crimes. We should therefore pass cybercrime legislation in order to make their job easier.
Motion No. 63, which I tabled in the House, is very important, and I hope it will lead to the introduction of a bill before the next election. We really need to act. The House needs to wake up, and all of us need to recognize, understand and, most importantly, help law enforcement agencies and victims. Victims are often afraid to testify or worried that their pimp will be released too soon.
Criminal organizations have no problem finding young women and girls, including minors. I am referring specifically to minor victims of sexual exploitation, namely girls who are 13, 14, 15 or 16 years old. Earlier, my colleague from the Bloc mentioned his 17-year-old daughter; my own daughter is 15. The exploitation of minors and young women and girls is particularly stressful and worrisome for us.
The Quebec National Assembly’s Select Committee on the Sexual Exploitation of Minors has four specific requests related to the Criminal Code, which are not particularly complicated and, in my opinion, should be easy to grant. The government should not even wait to receive the requests and should be proactive in proposing amendments to the Criminal Code to protect our young women and girls as quickly as possible.
Although a minority government, this government still has the power to act, especially if the opposition parties all agree. Everything can be done quickly when we all agree. This is not a partisan subject. Young girls—and young boys—who are the victims of these pimps need to know that Parliament and the Government of Canada are there to protect and help them first and foremost and that pimps will be punished for their actions and their consequences.
If a pimp in Montreal has ten minors working as prostitutes, why should he get away with a sentence of a mere three or four years, and concurrent at that? Whether he has one girl or ten, he will get the same sentence. We need to give longer sentences to pimps in order to discourage this type of behaviour in our country.
View Tracy Gray Profile
CPC (BC)
View Tracy Gray Profile
2021-02-16 12:32 [p.4113]
Madam Speaker, the hon. member was speaking about tabling a motion to update the Criminal Code to address a number of issues relating to human trafficking, specifically around consecutive sentences, criminal investigations regarding minors and having better tools in cyberspace.
I am wondering why the member felt now was the right time to table such an important motion. Why it is important for us to be discussing the motion here today?
View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.
This subject is addressed every year, but no action is ever taken. This motion stems from the very comprehensive report of a select committee of the Quebec National Assembly, which conducted consultations for nearly two years. The committee made four very important recommendations, which are included in Motion No. 63. These recommendations are unanimously supported by four political parties in Quebec. I believe that it is in the federal Parliament's best interest to act now.
Nothing has been happening for far too long. The Government of Quebec came up with these recommendations and the Conservative Party supports them. I do not see why the Liberal government would not take immediate action.
View Rachael Harder Profile
CPC (AB)
View Rachael Harder Profile
2021-02-16 12:50 [p.4116]
Madam Speaker, many would consider slavery to be a thing of the past, and many would consider it to be something that does not happen in the western world, but only overseas in developing nations. This is a myth. It happens right here in our own country, on our own land.
Human trafficking is, in fact, modern-day slavery. It is the world's fastest growing crime. It generates a profit of $150 billion per year, and of this, commercial sexual exploitation of women, girls, boys and young men contributes $99 billion, the vast majority of that revenue. In 2017, an estimated 40.3 million victims were trapped in modern-day slavery around the world.
Trafficking is a pervasive transnational and domestic phenomenon that is happening right now in urban and rural communities across Canada, so it is with a heavy heart that I come before the House today to talk about this issue. It is not something we can look at from a distance. It is not something we can only consider based on stats from other countries. It is not something of our past. It is something of our present, and if we do not take action, it will be something of our future. As parliamentarians, it is incumbent upon us to take action to make sure it stops now.
Designating February 22 as national human trafficking awareness day, I believe, is a necessary step in educating those who are unaware that this crisis is taking place across the country. People's lives are being exploited and destroyed altogether. I would say we have an obligation to uncover the horror that is taking place on a daily basis and do something to stop it.
Sometimes that something is as simple as speaking up. Sometimes that something requires legislative measures. Sometimes that something requires the RCMP or local police involvement. Sometimes that something requires border security and safety measures. Sometimes that something requires all of the above.
We know that 93% of Canada's trafficked victims come from within our country. They are here within our borders. The vast majority of these victims of human trafficking are women and girls. Over 70% of the exploitation that takes place is for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and so it there I will focus the majority of my attention today.
I believe a great deal of light has been shed on this topic as of late, and Pornhub comes front of mind. Numerous national articles have been written on the topic of women and girls being exploited online, and of consent not being granted. This is a form of human trafficking. It is severe in nature, and it cannot be ignored.
I believe that prostitution and trafficking are connected, and most researchers would agree with that. Prostitution, in most cases, is not a choice. The trafficked individual is often under age when they begin, and therefore, cannot legally consent. The individual is often a young girl when she starts, often for socio-economic reasons. Again, it is not exactly a choice.
It is out of survival that she enters into the business of selling her body, and sometimes that exchange results in money for her, but other times, most times even, it results in money being given to someone who is exploiting her body. This is, in fact, trafficking. I would like to defy and challenge the myth that trafficking is somehow a choice. It is not her choice.
This is not only happening abroad, and it is not a thing of the past. Human trafficking, and especially sexual exploitation, is happening right here, in our own country, today.
I would like to share a number of stories pertaining particularly to the tech giant Pornhub, which, of course, is an online platform where individuals can post videos. Now, it is not necessarily the individuals who are in the videos who are posting them. In fact, many of the videos are posted by other individuals who took the videos, sometimes in bathroom stalls and sometimes during a sex act. Sometimes they pressured a girlfriend or another girl in their class, for example, to present them with nude shots or videos of various accord.
Pornhub attracts 3.5 billion visits every month. That is more than Netflix, more than Yahoo and more than Amazon. Some have said it is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy-cam videos of women showering or using the bathroom, again, often underage.
It is footage of women that is then made available online. I should clarify that it is not just women. It is women, girls, young boys and some men, but again, predominantly it is women and girls. These images are uploaded and then made available.
Cali is one victim and will I quote her. She said, “Pornhub became my trafficker.... I'm still getting sold, even though I'm five years out of that life”.
Another individual, Taylor, said, “They made money off my pain and suffering”. A boyfriend who had pressured her into providing a video had then secretly posted it to Pornhub. The students in her class had it available to them within days and, of course, from there we can imagine the type of bullying and conduct that took place at school.
She talks about walking down the hallways and weeping as she went to class. She then talks about trying to take her life several times, but was not effective in doing so. She now lives with the horror of what has happened to her. It is an example of trafficking, an example of sexual exploitation.
Another individual called it soul destroying. Another individual talked about how Pornhub is making money off the worst moment in her life. It is making money off her body. She talked about how two American men paid her when she was 16 for a sexual encounter that they then filmed and posted on Pornhub. Even though she asked repeatedly for Pornhub to remove the video, it refused to do so.
Another individual said that it is an assault that never ends and that the suffering is unimaginable. She went on to say that they are getting so much money from her trauma.
These individuals are just a handful of the many, many women and girls across this country and throughout North America who are consistently exploited. This phenomenon is not just taking place in other countries. This is something that is right here within our borders. This is something that legislators have the opportunity to do something about, but it is also something that we must invite the general public to be a part of, which is where awareness and education come into play.
It is so important that we name a national day because it helps bring it to light. Every single year we would have this day that would stand as a reminder that these things do occur in our country, but we, as the Canadian people, do have the power to stop this behaviour. We have the ability to stand up for these individuals who are trafficked, and we have the ability to say “no more”.
We have to remember that this is about people. This is about preventing the crime. This is about protecting the victim. This is about prosecution of the offender. This is about working in partnership with various agencies, and this is about empowering victims. That is what this is about. It starts with a day, but my hope is that there would be greater action that would take place from there.
Serena Fleites came to the ethics committee a few weeks ago. When asked what would she tell the people at Pornhub about what they did to her, she said:
I would tell them that they're really selfish. They need to really look at themselves in the mirror because they're prioritizing money and content over actual human beings' lives, because obviously, they don't care that much....
I would tell them to look in the mirror and re-evaluate themselves. They need to figure out where their real priorities are and not be so focused on money and content rather than real humans' lives and what they're doing to them.
We are talking about human beings. We are talking about people. We are talking about their present and their future.
For this reason, because of people, because of their innate value and because they deserve us to stand up for them, we ask for this national day.
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