Status of Women committee  Our value is that we help other agencies and groups in Canada bridge and make relationships with people in other countries. Our ability to work in different countries, participate in policy development processes at the international level, conduct research, and so on, makes the c

Status of Women committee  I concur. I would add that you deal with the issue of resources and coordination with the provinces. So much of that is principally the responsibility of provinces: administration of justice, social services, child protection. You need to work closely with them. That is probably

Status of Women committee  You are raising several very complex questions. I think that the data you are quoting about the average age at which people go into prostitution are probably right. This is so, not only in Canada, but also elsewhere. It seems that the age is going down each year; they are being r

Status of Women committee  No, we don't. We haven't mentioned this, but in many countries they have a problem with revictimization. Unfortunately, many victims are victims more than once. After repatriation they're not protected, so they're basically exploited again. There's actually the fear sometimes t

Status of Women committee  All of that is true, but it's true because this is where we look. There is also the victim of trafficking who comes because they think they're going to get an education. They're coming here, they think, to go to college, and the next thing they know, they're being exploited, se

Status of Women committee  I would make two quick comments in response to your question. One is that you'd be hard pressed to find an organization trying to work with victims of human trafficking or helping them come forward that does not have serious resource issues. Of course, all of those organization

Status of Women committee  We mentioned earlier the need for research. Certainly some of the early research in Canada was commissioned and supported by Status of Women Canada. Someone needs to provide leadership at the national level, so there needs to be a focal point, and that focal point cannot be just

Status of Women committee  There's a whole range of responses. What Sergeant Lowe has described as RCMP policy is very important. It's costly and difficult to achieve, because it relies on having good relationships with other countries. That is because the protection in another country is not going to be o

Status of Women committee  I would just add to this that the RCMP, as I said, has provided very strong and effective leadership in the police community in Canada. They had a head start because they were responsible for part of the enforcement of the offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Status of Women committee  That's what I meant by the implementation of the act. Who is out there telling municipal police forces about this new legislation and what it means to them and that kind of thing?

Status of Women committee  I think it would have if we had been successful. It's a tall order for Canadians to try to abolish poverty around the planet on our own. We should do more, and what we're doing is already important. But we should do more to do this. If we want to take measures to prevent human tr

Status of Women committee  No, that is not what I was saying. here there are also problems of human trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. The problem is posed there a bit differently. In Austria, there is regulated and legalized prostitution, along with clandestine prostitution. It is easier fo

Status of Women committee  I thought that program was abolished. That program created a lot of problems. I am told there really is not any reason to keep such a program.

Status of Women committee  Yes. There's the greed and the sad fact that some people are prepared to do anything for profit. On the other side, there are dreams. Desperate people who want to improve their situation in life are prepared to do anything. Unfortunately, they fall prey and victim to the first ca

Status of Women committee  With regard to your first question on procuring and its links to human trafficking, there are various opinions. Generally speaking, I think that the more some of these activities remain clandestine, the easier it is for organized crime to exploit people. I do not think for a mome