Thank you, Madam Chair. It's good to see you, as always.
Thank you to our witnesses for being with us today. It is, of course, truly appreciated.
At the risk of annoying my colleague, Mr. Champoux, with yet another reference to my youth, I remember that when I shifted to secondaire 1, my parents sent me to school with what was by then already a relic—a flip phone. At the time, not having a smart phone when my peers did annoyed me. However, my parents' decision to do that has only been further justified as time has moved on. The ease of access to social media on devices has granted predators a degree of access they never previously had to children.
Ms. Holland, in a LinkedIn post you wrote six months ago, you said, “For 2 years, I lived as the house mom in an emergency home for women fleeing the sex trade. I saw first hand the violence and devastation at the hands of pimps and predators. When phones came out, I saw these same men move online and be given full access to our children!”
From your perspective, how did this change not just the method but also the nature of grooming? What behavioural patterns in victims or in perpetrators emerged that were previously less visible or even impossible?