First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation. I am truly pleased to be here with you. It is a great pleasure to speak to you today. I will begin by giving you a brief explanation of what my work is about and how I got there.
Since 1999, I have worked on the vice squad of the City of Montreal Police Service. In the beginning, I dealt with adult prostitution and afterwards, in 2002, a special squad on the sexual exploitation of children was created. I was an investigator with them until 2005. In 2005, I was promoted to the rank of detective sergeant and I became the supervisor of investigations within this section which deals exclusively with investigations on the sexual exploitation of children, whether it is an issue of child pornography, of pimping or of juvenile prostitution. This is my area of experience.
I would like to paint a picture of the situation in Montreal. In light of my experience, I have also been declared an expert witness in matters of sexual exploitation for the Province of Quebec. I am therefore in a position to give you quite an extensive briefing on what is happening in the sex industry in the Province of Quebec.
If I compare the current situation with what it was in 1999, when I began my work as an investigator, I must state that the sex industry has grown in Montreal and in the suburbs. There are several obvious reasons for this. The resources allocated to the fight against sexual exploitation of women and children are minimal, as compared to the money invested in fighting narcotics. This is seen particularly in the proliferation of escort agencies, massage parlours and strip clubs on the Island of Montreal.
On the Island of Montreal, there are 28 strip clubs. Within the scope of our investigations on the exploitation of children — I am not talking about adults —, our investigations took us to more than 100 strip clubs in the province. For the average person, a strip club is not necessarily synonymous with prostitution, but according to the most recent court decisions, lap dances and $10 dances are still considered as active prostitution. That shows the extent of the phenomenon and the great availability, for the exploiters, of young girls and adult females.
Moreover, the Russian and Asian massage parlours are growing in number. There is a great demand for this among clients and it has become common place within society, there has been a certain acceptance. I fail to understand why it is common place and tolerated, which is the right word.
That is a brief overview of the situation in Montreal. I would like to give you some statistics. For the West Island, we currently have received about 50 complaints dealing only with massage parlours. For the Island of Montreal, I receive one complaint a day on juvenile pimping and on the production, distribution or possession of child pornography. That is the situation as far as children are concerned.
For adults, the situation is just as serious in my opinion, but it is much more widely accepted. There is consensus on the fact that it is unacceptable for children to be exploited, and certain resources, as a result, are allocated to that. As far as adults are concerned, the consensus is far less clear.
I would like to list some of the issues with which we are faced in our fight against this phenomenon. I told you that I was very happy to be here today and to be able to speak to you. That is mostly because I have to fight to justify my work in this domain on a daily basis. I have no problem as far as my work for children is concerned: everyone agrees it is unacceptable. But as soon as a young girl turns 18, 19 or 20, I have to fight to have it recognized that what she is experiencing is unacceptable and that she is a victim. I am always told that she is consenting, that she is there of her own free will, that we live in a free society and that if she has chosen to do this, we must let her be. This logic may seem acceptable, so long as we do not dig a little deeper.
Over the many years of my career, I have met with many victims and with many people who use their services, and the issue of consent is the biggest irritant when we carry out our investigations. Are people who are disadvantaged, whether psychologically or financially, truly giving their consent? Do they really have a choice, when they have been shown the way, particularly within a certain culture?
Nowadays, the hip hop culture and its videos create problems for us, because they improve the image of pimps and exploiters. There is a positive marginalization of these individuals, and our young people are attracted by that. They are in effect willing and consensual.
However, once they realize what they have gotten themselves into, they are emotionally destroyed, sometimes even physically. It is difficult, at that point, to back out and to admit to themselves that they have fallen into a trap and to accept that they voluntarily got into that situation. This is what we see every day.
Despite that, it is easy to see that this consent is tainted. That is what makes it most difficult for us, and it comes from all quarters including the police. There is a lack of education and a lack of understanding among my colleagues and among many of the people working within the justice system. This lack of understanding is one of our greatest enemies. It prevents us from obtaining sufficient funding and support.
When we talk about child prostitution, as I have said, there is a consensus. Even with that, I do not have half, one third or even one quarter of the staff assigned to fight narcotics, and this is true even though there is a consensus and that everyone recognizes it is unacceptable. No need to tell you that as far as adult exploitation is concerned, I have no staff. Not only do I not have any staff, but currently in Montreal, the Crown has no staff, and cases involving bawdy houses are not being dealt with. In my opinion this is very serious. It shows a lack of understanding with the impact that can have. In fact, if we want adult female trafficking cases to be dealt with, we have to be able to connect them to organized crime, to international trafficking, to street gangs or to major organized crime, before the investigation has even begun.
I have been working on this kind of investigations for seven years. When we launch an investigation, for example on Asian or Russian massage parlours — which are bawdy houses —, an investigation must be carried out to show that organized crime is involved, because the words “Russian organized crime” are not posted on the door. We are caught in a vicious circle, which renders us ineffective. If we do not act, there is no information, and if there is no information, there is no problem, and if there is no problem, no staff is assigned to it, and no one sees what is going on, and the women caught in this vicious circle remain isolated.
When we manage to investigate these cases, there are fewer problems in the case of children. In fact, we work very closely with youth centres and youth protection services. There is a whole system already in place.
This system also exists for adults, but it is very finicky. There are shelters for women who are drug addicts, who have been beaten or abused. A woman who is dealing with a pimp who is taking all her money, who has turned her into a drug addict and who beats her, has no access to these centres. I have a recent example I will tell you about.
It is the case of a young woman who had just turned 18. She is Aboriginal, and from the ages of 2 to 4, was locked in a dog crate and was sexually abused by her parents. At the age of 4, she was taken in by social services and given over to the care of a psychotherapist who treated her from the age of 4 to 18. From the age of 4 to 5, she walked on all fours and barked. Her treatments, which lasted until she turned 18, resulted in her having a personality and a psychological condition that are relatively normal. Unfortunately, when she turned 18, those services were taken away and she was left on the street, without any support. She was immediately taken in by a pimp who saw her psychological weakness — that is their specialty — and he exploited it. He turned her into a drug addict, he offered her crack and exploited her sexually.
When we took her in, her psychotherapist, who feels very maternal towards her, helped us. When we carried out an investigation, we discovered that the people involved were part of Russian organized crime and that they were extremely violent. They hung her out from the 12th floor to make her accept her first client, because she was refusing.
When we wound up the investigation, she had no resources, no family and no shelter. We did some research, we approached all of the women's protection centres, and no one would agree to take her in, because of her drug addiction and because of the danger she was in because of the people she had been with. We wanted to place her in a detox centre, but it was very difficult because once again, the risk was high.
There is no safe refuge for these adult victims. They are simply asked to move, they are the victims, and they are asked to move.
I could go on about this for hours, but I know that my time is limited. However, I can tell you that the needs are blatant. We must stop believing that there is consent. Besides, the recently passed legislation for the protection of children has taken this perspective, and it is no longer discussed as far as the exploitation of children is concerned. Consent is no longer a defence, which greatly assists us in our work.
In my opinion, we should not make any distinction between adults and children. They should be handled the same way.
