As far as trafficking is concerned, my friend Mr. Grant from CIC commented about life imprisonment and a $1 million fine for human trafficking convictions. Our case is before the courts now, our provincial courts in British Columbia at 222 Main Street, and we'll see what the sentence is from that building, but traditionally that is a very liberal house of justice.
We're hopeful that we'll get a severe sentence for this individual, especially after all this work and after the trauma these victims have gone through, but we'll just have to wait and see.
As far as domestic human trafficking is concerned, we haven't had a case before the courts yet. As I said, we're trying to get a file through now, but my investigator walked out of the crown counsel's office last week, and said to her, “You just don't get it; it's like talking to a rock”. That's a quotation of what he said to her. He was very upset. Then he came back to my office. I had to debrief him, calm him down, and send him home, especially after all the work he has put into the file.
I don't know whether the sentences will be as severe as we want. I'm hoping so. I hope everyone recognizes the problem and I hope the judiciary deals with it appropriately, because if they don't, they'll set a low precedent, and we don't need that in this country. We need a high bar.