You are raising several very complex questions. I think that the data you are quoting about the average age at which people go into prostitution are probably right. This is so, not only in Canada, but also elsewhere. It seems that the age is going down each year; they are being recruited at younger and younger ages. I think we have to put those questions aside. If we talk about children, there is no question of legalizing prostitution or approving or having temporary immigration permits. In any case, this is not the way to go. So we must beware of that.
Whether the victims of this type of exploitation are also victims of human trafficking or not is not really an important question. There are many ways of exploiting people, including children and women. Human trafficking is only one of the ways. Obviously we have to take other measures to protect people who are victims of various forms of exploitation, even if they are not victims of human trafficking.
That is why some stakeholders are going to tell you that we have to start by dealing with the question of prostitution, etc. We have to take care of all these questions. If we begin to mix them all up and make a single problem of them, that will complicate things instead of helping us to develop practical strategies. A certain number of measures should be taken with a view to protecting Canadian women and children from sexual exploitation. Actually that has nothing to do with human trafficking. Other measures have to be taken to deal with human trafficking. You referred to programs or practices. Perhaps it would be fairer to talk about practices rather than programs. Such practices exist for other reasons, often praiseworthy and legitimate ones.
Sometimes these programs are diverted from their initial objectives by organized crime. It is very difficult not to create programs that are not at some point completely diverted by organized crime. You will often be told, for example, that everything that can be done to make life easier for victims—including temporary residence permits—can be used by organized crime gangs. Someone who belongs to a group of traffickers can tell the victims that, since Canada is a tolerant country that respects human rights, they just have to give him $10,000 and he will organize their entry into Canada. As soon as they get here, still according to the trafficker, all they have to do is declare themselves victims to get a temporary residence permit and have access to medical services, etc. All the measures taken to protect victims can be used against them by members of organized crime.
But that should not prevent us from adopting measures to protect victims. We should know that every time we make a move, as Sergeant Lowe said, organized crime does not remain passive; it finds ways of countering our measures or undoing what we are trying to achieve.