Justice committee  Canada has a reputation for being a wonderful diplomatic source for information and intelligence and co-operation on human rights issues around the world. There's no question about that. Quite frankly, though, Canadians want to see an answer to this issue in this country. We've recently watched ministers who have looked at this issue in other countries around the world, and there's no question that there are human rights issues that are incredibly important and need assistance and intelligence.

Justice committee  More needs to be done within Canada on this issue, though, particularly looking at indigenous communities, looking at the poverty levels that affect kids in care graduating out of the system, looking at homeless youth, and looking at those people who are vulnerable in this and are living in poverty as well.

Justice committee  You mentioned protection of our families and of our children. If you think about this in the bigger picture, and you think about decriminalizing prostitution, let's just ask, would you like to see prostitution as a post-secondary educational choice that your daughter might want to go into in the future?

Justice committee  I'd like to point to the national human trafficking hotline in the United States. That has been a model that we at our centre are now starting to follow. Polaris, which is the non-profit, national charity in the U.S., has implemented and had that hotline up and running now for 12 years.

Justice committee  We have had direct experience working on this issue of human trafficking at a municipal level. We have recently seen a report by the City of Toronto's auditor general who identified that probably about 25% to 30% of the licensed holistic services in the city of Toronto are basically being accredited by professional holistic associations that operate, as she said in her report, only on paper.

Justice committee  First and foremost, I think there's been a sea change over the last four or five years in the way law enforcement is working with and dealing with sex workers in this industry. I have never found there to be active identification of human trafficking coming from any sex workers' rights organization, or from sex workers on the ground, in illicit massage parlours, or who are working in the field, actually providing statistics or identifying human trafficking happening, even when there are minors being trafficked in areas where sex workers are working.

Justice committee  First and foremost, one of the biggest problems in this country is that we have no national data collection mechanisms, so law enforcement is working very hard on this with very little resources. Every year, they're told to do more with less. We have been in communication with law enforcement across the country.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I am very honoured to to present to you today and to be here with the esteemed witnesses. I have presented a brief, which is before you. I will make sure I stick to my timeline, so there will be only certain paragraphs I will pull from it.