I have a question here, and I would love for our legal experts to weigh in. My understanding from hearing from the witnesses is that this is a crime that can be quite insidious in that oftentimes people don't even know that they're being trafficked. That is the nature of the crime itself. The manipulation is so substantial and the nature of the victimization is such that a person doesn't even realize that they're being taken advantage of. One of the reasons that convictions are so difficult in this type of crime is because the person may not even have real fear, or they are themselves afraid to testify as to fear.
While I can stomach easily the first part, which is paragraph (b) in proposed subsection 279.04(1), I do have some issues with paragraph (a), because to me it seems to go against what the witnesses told us. I'm curious to hear from the analysts about their opinions on this, because, again, it seems as though this doesn't require the court to do so, but because it's there, they're likely to consider it. I would like to hear from Mr. Fortin on that point.
Thank you.