#NotInMyCity is an organization I founded about five years ago here in Calgary, where I am right now. The idea behind this organization was to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking and to disrupt human trafficking and sexual exploitation, especially as they relate to children.
You're right. Looking at places around the world where we've seen legalization and decriminalization, like Norway, Amsterdam, Germany and where I was in Cambodia, these are examples where the failed experiment of legalization and decriminalization occurred. We see brothels. We see drive-through sex boxes at truck stops, where buyers pull into walled stalls to buy women by the hour. Clubs with small flat rates will buy unlimited sex with as many women as a man wants during his stay.
Five years ago, when we started #NotInMyCity, it came to my attention that it's well known within the anti-trafficking community that one common menu item available to sex buyers occurs once a year during the Calgary Stampede. There's high demand by local and international sex buyers who visit the city at that time, specifically for indigenous women and girls, to facilitate their sexual fantasies.
Undercover investigations here in Alberta have turned up online communications on the dark web between traffickers. They say they don't deliver to Calgary, but they can get “it” across the border. The “it” that they're referring to is the trafficking of victims forced into the sex industry to meet demand.
I would say my home province of Alberta has made great strides in the last five years by uniformly and consistently applying the tenets of the PCEPA, and the momentum is changing communities for the better. We're seeing a lot of co-operation. Recently, #NotInMyCity introduced the position “safety network coordinator” through the Alberta law enforcement response team, ALERT, which handles crimes of this nature and organized crime. The safety network coordinator assists those wanting to exit the sex industry and was introduced by the Alberta law enforcement response team to be there to effectively and efficiently intervene.
I'll finish with this, and it was really telling to me. I was speaking with staff sergeant Colleen Bowers the other day, with the Alberta law enforcement response team. She's heading up the human trafficking counter-exploitation unit, and she said that the Nordic model approach of the PCEPA is the most effective middle ground for addressing the connections between human trafficking and prostitution. Uniform application of the PCEPA, along with increased public education about the links between human trafficking and the commercial sex industry, are improvements that she would like to see to enhance safety within the community.
She further said that ALERT's client-centred approach, recently implemented in Alberta through the safety network coordinator position, has been a great success in assisting those involved in the sex industry who would like to exit, are being trafficked, or are at risk of being trafficked. The SNC's success at intervening on behalf of those in the sex industry who need immediate support depends on the protections available within the PCEPA. The activities of the SNC were developed with the PCEPA in mind.
Finally, she said that the repeal of the PCEPA would be disastrous to both willing and non-willing individuals who are involved in the commercial sex industry. The risks are simply too high. International evidence of the failures of decriminalization and legalization is clear. Law enforcement jurisdictions across Canada do not have the capacity to address the amount of organized crime and victimization that is likely to occur should the PCEPA be substantively altered.