You are aware of the two possible interpretations of trafficking. Unfortunately, for a long time Status of Women Canada only funded research aimed at legitimizing prostitution. The allegation was that this was nothing more than sex work.
While there is no guarantee that Status of Women Canada has always been pointed in the right direction, weakening the organization will certainly not help to do so. In my opinion, weakening that program in particular is probably a mistake on the part of the government. However, I am really not in a position to say, because that is not my area of expertise as a researcher. It's really more the opinion of someone who has listened to the debates and believes that this kind of decision could create more problems than it solves.
Any institution can find itself facing problems. Choices are made by public servants and orders are given by politicians. I, personally, had problems with funding research. The result was an imbalance.
Abolitionists -- in other words, people who are in favour of decriminalizing the activities of prostitutes and of criminalizing procuring -- as opposed to those wanting to decriminalize procuring as is the case with people who are in favour of sex work -- are pushing for an attack on this industry, which is the root cause of trafficking. That is the fundamental point that distinguishes them from others. They do not confuse smuggling with trafficking.
Just for your information, human smuggling is listed in the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, which Canada has ratified. Human trafficking essentially relates to three areas: persons who are victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour, and organ trafficking. The motivation for trafficking is, in 92 per cent of cases, sexual exploitation -- in other words, prostitution, pornography, and so on. As for human smuggling, it basically refers to the smuggling of illegal migrants.
Of course, abolitionists consider trafficking for purposes of prostitution to be of great importance, whereas people in favour of sex work -- and in this case, who consider prostitution to be sex work -- try to systematically minimize the trafficking phenomenon, reducing it to nothing more than international migration -- in other words, smuggling. I see this as a fundamental cleavage. It is up to you to decide what conclusions you wish to draw from all of that. However, the fact remains that this fundamental difference of opinion can be seen in groups, among academics, and probably also among members of Parliament.