I believe that in the course of these hearings, you've heard multiple amendment recommendations. The first would be to have a better capacity to put into action in every province, in every community, exactly what the original intention was of this law. We haven't seen that, and as a result it's really hard to have a measuring stick against it.
What we have seen on the books is that those who are minors, because of the laws of PCEPA.... I'm going to speak to the comment made by the committee member through you, Chair, that yes, child human trafficking, better known as child rape, does intersect with this issue.
This law and its consideration—and there are other laws on the books around children—has had marked success in identifying that type of criminal activity. How can we ensure that whatever we're amending and whatever recommendations we are making are consistent and are being actually worked on?
When you hear testimony that there are certain segments or communities that just refuse to lay any charges or do anything, we have to wonder, what's the divide? I don't think policing is solely the solution. I agree with the other witnesses that this is going to take an all-hands-on-deck and multi-level approach because of a lot of the historical legacy that we've seen. Some of the amendments will need to consider what we're going to do in the areas of protection in the newest trends that we're seeing.
I'm going to reiterate this. Out of the 427 victim survivors I've worked with, who started as minors, they didn't have an agency or understanding what was happening to them. They couldn't understand or identify what the sex trade was, what escorting was. Providing the training and prevention piece that needs to be ramped up in all areas has given us an opportunity.
We get calls from police officers, community workers, hospitals and Homeland Security. We've trailed girls who, by choice, have stated that they were in the sex trade, only to find them carried from Toronto to Vancouver, Washington and Seattle, back to New York, and then sold for $20,000 in Puerto Rico, and now needing our assistance to exit, and redefine what was safe for them.
I'm not saying we need to conflate it with sex trafficking, but we have to have the conversation, because of those who have disclosed, the majority disclosed as adults about their childhood experiences, as we've heard over and over again. Their narrative is important and can't be dismissed. It is valuable to this conversation, as are all—