Here in Nova Scotia, we are really trying to adopt a public health approach to dealing with and addressing this crisis that we have here in the province. A public health approach can look at this issue more holistically and centre the experiences, the victimization, the violence and the trauma that can happen within the context of the sex trade when it is coming about through exploitation and trafficking.
I really appreciate your position of trying to balance out the variety of opinions on the legal status of sex work in this country. As a partnership, we have reached consensus on how to approach the issue, what we need to do in terms of prevention and how we should be providing supports to individuals on the issue, but we have not been able to reach consensus on the legal status of sex work. We feel that we don't really have to. Sometimes that stalls the work that needs to be done to support people who are coming to us for services, programs and assistance, however that looks, so by implementing a public health approach to the issue [Technical difficulty—Editor] upstream again.
I totally agree with Joy Smith that prevention is key in order to have any kind of effect in stemming the tide of people who get involved in this. It helps us take a holistic approach, because here in Nova Scotia as well, we're dealing with an issue of what has been referred to as peer recruiting, which is where victims also hold the position of being what the criminal justice system would define as an offender. When you have youth who are influencing and encouraging other youth to participate in the sex trade and we take a justice-based approach, it can be really difficult to pull apart who's a victim and who's an offender.
By taking a public health approach, we can deal with all of the trauma and all of the issues that are presenting themselves to us and focus in on supporting youth and young adults who are engaged in the sex trade.