Status of Women committee  I would echo, in full, Ms. Wu's statement. Thank you.

Status of Women committee  Definitely. As so many before us today have said, it's really meaningfully including people who trade sex and people who are survivors of trafficking in your development of a unanimous definition of trafficking. Again, as Angela was saying, this overbroad definition that's including multiple types of violence outside trafficking is what's informing our current systems, and that's unreliable data.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question, and I apologize for what I missed there. Unfortunately, the Internet in Yukon is not great, especially at 9:30 in the morning, so I apologize for being off for the last bit of the call. Hearing what you were saying about all of the unique services, especially in a place like the Yukon, where is a reduced number of resources available given the population size we have here, we really need to be effective in creating a wraparound support service for people who've experienced all types of gender-based violence and for people who do sex work.

Status of Women committee  Yes, definitely. When we are labelling all types of violence that happens to sex workers as trafficking, we don't have a clear image of what violence sex workers are actually experiencing. Much like how we see this play out in a court setting, when we don't use the accurate language to describe violence, we often minimize and hide the impact of the violence.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Decriminalization is the first step, and it's a very important step.

Status of Women committee  Of course. Thank you so much for your question. Yes, it's definitely a matter of recognizing the data gaps, especially as they exist in rural and remote northern regions such as the Yukon. You know, I think most importantly we need to invest in funding that is community-driven.

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much for your question. I would respond with this. In all industries, including the sex work industry, there is the risk for exploitation and trafficking. When we are talking about addressing trafficking, as many people today have spoken to, we need to address inequalities across all industries, and we need to have the same protections and regulations that are available to workers in all other industries be available to those who work in the sex industry in order to reduce the vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking.

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak today. I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Jessica Stone, and I'm the project manager of the supporting workers' autonomy project Yukon at the Yukon Status of Women Council. We are located on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council.