This is what I understand of the parliamentary secretary's comments.
We're talking about being open to amendments. We're talking about a substantive amendment, something that affects the substance of what we have heard here and not technical errors in how the bill was drafted before being introduced. What I understand is that the part of this bill called the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act has more to do with protecting communities. The parliamentary secretary made a point to confound the concepts of child prostitution and what is targeted by clause 15 and our amendment. This would decriminalize the victims themselves, meaning the ones we are talking about in this bill and who would be, as the witnesses said, sex workers and prostitutes, pursuant to section 213.
Now I see that this government wants to ensure that my amendment is defeated. I understand that it will just narrow the notion of what is considered public. That's the extent to which the Conservatives are prepared to go.
People will continue to be victimized, and I find that extremely sad and inconsistent with what we've heard and what we're hearing from Conservative members.