I hope I've been clear that I would think so. I don't think that's part of the bill at this stage, and I just want to pick up on the last point, the question that was raised earlier and the point that Michèle Audette raised, which is that when we fought initially to have women decriminalized—and I'm talking now back before the last set of amendments to the prostitution laws—we argued that in fact women should be decriminalized. Instead of the asymmetrical application of the law against women that was happening then, we were offered by the government of the day the de-gendering of the law and soliciting for the purpose of prostitution. When that happened, we immediately saw exactly what Michèle Audette has spoken about, which is the continued criminalization of women and the development of diversion programs for men.
I don't know how many men who have pimped and who have been procurers or exploiters of women are coming before the committee. I dare say probably not many, if any, but I've certainly been raising this question across the country. When I worked with men, when I worked with young people and since I've worked with women, I've yet to see a man jailed only for pimping or for buying sex. Not a man in this country has been jailed for that. If they've been jailed it's because they have also harmed, assaulted, killed, or done something else.
I'm not suggesting that we want to see more people jailed, but this notion that in fact we're going to see increased numbers of people at risk when we have a whole culture that has supported men buying and selling women for a long time is fallacious. It's nonsense. We're not likely to see that.
Absolutely, that doesn't mean that women should be criminalized. Absolutely, if there's any doubt, take all of those provisions out and put equality provisions in. Make sure there are supports in place, re-inject national standards, and have supports for a guaranteed liveable income. I'm repeating myself now, so I'll shut up, but we really need to see a fundamental approach that puts women's substantive equality front and centre.