Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, I thank all of you. You've given some very good information, you also, Mr. Hamel, with respect to the special victims section you've established. It sounds as if you have a good handle on the situation and are looking at innovative ways of dealing with it.
From my perspective, I see this as.... Unfortunately the law sees the victims criminalized in the system as well. I would personally like to see the victims not criminalized, because I think that's part of the problem in solving the issue. In criminalizing victims, we use doublespeak, in a sense. We use the word “victim” and then we criminalize them. We also call them criminals, in the sense that they can be charged for being found in the situation they're in.
I have a couple of questions, and let me just go across the panel, in the interest of time.
One is from the Vancouver presentation. Do you find that all trafficking involves sexual exploitation or not? You started out mentioning that the woman was forced to work and kept in prison, then was raped and beaten, but the original intent seemed to be to exploit work. Am I right in understanding that?