I also want to thank you for this opportunity to speak before this committee.
Since the death of our daughter we have tried to do what we can to help those who are being sexually exploited. We have tried to warn children about the danger of predators who are trying to recruit them into the sex trade. We have tried to educate men about the damage they do to the sexually exploited women and children, and to themselves, when they pay money for sex.
When the news of Cheri's murder hit the media, we began to receive many calls from parents who had children at risk or who were already involved in prostitution. Girls in high school were being “tricked out” over the lunch hour. Others were prostituting themselves out of party houses on weekends or evenings. We often felt helpless when parents pleaded with us about how to rescue their child.
To try to warn these girls and other children at risk, Linda developed a presentation that she delivered over 800 times in schools to grades six, seven, and eight students. In the evenings we would meet with their parents to alert them to known places where girls were being procured, and to look for warning signs that might indicate their child was at risk.
Unfortunately, there were very few resources available for parents to help them intervene on behalf of their teenage children.
Since Cheri's death I have participated as a speaker in over 100 John schools in Regina and Saskatoon. I talk about the heartache that our family has experienced as a result of Cheri being sexually exploited and murdered.
I hear women who are survivors of the sex trade share about the terrible things that have happened to them. Many were forced into prostitution as children, some as young as eight years old. Their self-esteem and dignity have been destroyed by the abuse they have endured at the hands of men, men who feel that because they paid for her, they can do whatever they want to her.
These women weep as they remember other women they have worked with who have gone missing, been murdered, committed suicide, or died of a drug overdose. These former prostitutes declare how much they hated what they were doing, but they felt trapped by their drug addiction or the threats of violence from their pimps if they didn't make enough money. These women are not criminals, they are victims and deserve protection.
Bill C-36 will help provide that protection by offering the resources to give them an exit strategy. At the John schools I see men who are buyers of sex openly admit that their use of prostitutes is doing great damage to themselves and their families as they try to hide this dark secret they are living with. Many of the men tearfully ask for forgiveness as they realize the harm they are doing to the women they are abusing.
The harsher penalties in Bill C-36 aimed at the purchasers of sex and the traffickers will make men think twice about purchasing sex, and deter the trafficker from what in the past has been easy money for them, with very little risk.
A sad fact is that if men were not willing to pay money for sex, our daughter would still be alive today. She would not have been a target for a trafficker who needed money to buy his drugs.
The world of prostitution destroys lives physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Bill C-36 will help protect innocent victims while deterring those who would prey on the most vulnerable in our society.
Thank you, again, for allowing us to speak in support of Bill C-36, which addresses an issue that is so close to our hearts.