Status of Women Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2006

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm going to call to order the 21st meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

I'll bring to the committee's attention that we were to deal with Ms. Smith's motion at the beginning of the meeting, but Ms. Smith has asked that we deal with it in our last 15 minutes. You have your committee calendar in front of you as well.

Mr. Stanton, you had asked a question about the finances of the committee about six weeks ago, and somehow I just never seem to be able to get this out of here. Our total budget for the committee is $166,400. We had not spent any extra of the committee's money until we started with our witnesses. We'll keep the committee posted on how our budget is progressing as part of our work here.

We're going to move on to our witnesses. We have Ms. Crawford from the Panache Model and Talent Management agency. Welcome, Ms. Crawford.

From the Native Women's Association of Canada, Erin Wolski is replacing Beverley Jacobs.

From Help Us Help The Children, we have Irena Soltys, the coordinator. Welcome.

From the organization against the sexual exploitation of women, we have Rhéa Jean, doctorand in philosophy, University of Sherbrooke; and Diane Matte, ex-coordinator, International Secretariat. Welcome.

To all of you, welcome. We appreciate very much your taking the time to come this morning to speak to us.

I will open the floor for whoever would like to go first.

Ms. Crawford, you were here first, so if you would like to, you can begin.

[Liz Crawford, Panache Model and Talent Management]

Thank you.

If I had known it was first come, first served, I would have been last.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Be comfortable. You're with friends in this room.

[Liz Crawford]

Thank you. Thanks to all of you for inviting me here today.

I know your agenda says that I am from Panache Model and Talent agency. Currently, I suppose, I'm still a model, although considered probably prehistoric, by my age, in the industry. I am still a model, and have modeled both in Canada and internationally as well.

I want to go on the record as saying that I am pro-modelling, not anti-modelling. I am not here today to say that this industry is a bad industry, by any means. However, I am here to talk about the problems that exist in this industry, both within Canada and in what happens when we export our models internationally.

I have not prepared anything for a handout, and I apologize. The reason is that when I was preparing to come here I started making lots of phone calls, and I was absolutely astounded, when I started to scratch the surface, by the information that came forward to me. There is so much going on that even I, who have been in the industry for 20 years, was unaware of.

I would love to prepare something for you that you could all take home, but to be truthful, there was so much information that I would have needed probably two more months. I am going to do my very best, though, to share with you my personal experiences, things I have witnessed, things I have seen, things I have been told.

I'll start with that. It's not overly formal, but I'm going to speak to you honestly and frankly.

I have been a model since I was 13 years old. I am now 33. That's 20 years in this industry, which is almost unheard of. My first international placement was in Vienna, Austria, when I was 18. It was very exciting for me, obviously. It was my first trip abroad. I was dazzled by the glamour and the excitement of being an international model, what all young girls at some point think of.

It wasn't long after I was in Vienna that I realized there was a darker side, a side that at 18 I probably didn't have the wisdom or the experience to really comprehend or deal with.

I had a roommate, a beautiful young girl, maybe 18 years old. She was from Romania. She and I lived together for about two weeks. In the first week or two, I was going on plenty of “go sees” and castings, and meeting photographers, and all was going well.

I noticed that with my roommate the response wasn't the same. I quickly learned, because of her behaviour and the things she was doing—going out late at night, and so on—that she was brought in for an entirely different reason, and that was not to work as a model, but to entertain clients for the agency. This was the first time I recognized that models were not always models and weren't always modelling, but that there are some girls—and they used to refer to them as party girls—who were being brought in for different purposes.

This girl was a beautiful girl. She came from a very impoverished background. She saw this as her opportunity to get out of Romania, to model, make money, and send some money home to her family. She had no idea what the plans were for her.

I don't know what ever became of this girl. I left Austria after two months, and she was still there. She was being passed around from client to client, that sort of thing. It was heartbreaking. Again, I was 18. I couldn't comprehend, and I didn't know how to deal with it myself.

The more travelling I did, the more I realized it wasn't just girls from Romania or the eastern bloc, or the Ukraine. There were girls from all over the world that this was happening to. There were girls from Canada; there were girls from the U.S.

I thought, how is this happening? How do you guys not know? Why isn't anybody telling you? But they didn't know, and often they were targeted, and a lot of them were easy targets, because they would be sought after for certain reasons: they were beautiful; the ones that were most vulnerable had very little family support or strong ties back home; maybe they didn't have an agency in Canada or the U.S. that was particularly involved; they probably didn't have the financial means or resources to get themselves back home.

Those girls were the girls who became—and I say girls.... I'm sure it happens to male models as well, but I didn't see it as often, and I say “girls” and not “women” because we're not talking about women; we're talking about girls. The average age of a model starting out is 14 years old, so I'm very reluctant to use the word “woman”.

I'm sorry, I get emotional, because I tell this story and it really is bothersome to me.

So these young girls would get these placements. They felt they had no choices. They wanted out, but the only way out was to earn the money to get out. They were the perfect target.

I met a girl this summer. For some reason, I've become something of a mother hen in our industry. When girls have problems, they often phone me. They phone me to get recommendations to new agencies. They phone me for advice on all sorts of things. I met a girl from a small town--I don't want to say what province, but in Canada--and she had heard about me through a friend. She knew the work I have been doing to advocate for restrictions or guidelines for agencies. She told me she had been recently sent to Greece.

I modelled in Greece; I know how it works. The first thing they do is confiscate your passport. This is because they say that passport theft is a really big problem there. The first thing you do when you get off the plane is give them your passport. They lock it up, and you're without a passport.

She was bought a one-way ticket to Athens. She was 18 years old. She didn't know this isn't done. If somebody said they had an international placement for me and bought me a one-way ticket, I would say, no, I don't think so. You need a return ticket. The one-way ticket isn't acceptable. She had a one-way ticket, and she did not have the financial means to get home.

So within hours of arriving in these markets, often the first phone call you receive is from a PR guy. PR guys work for nightclubs. Often, the agencies also own nightclubs and restaurants. They sometimes own magazines. They sometimes own strip clubs. They own a variety of businesses. The modeling agency is just one of them. Because they own all these businesses, it serves them well to have models working in these clubs.

She was in Athens, with no passport, no return ticket, and no money. They said she would have to work in the bar because they hadn't been able to find her any work--not that I think she was actually brought over to work. I don't think it was a coincidence. I think probably she was brought over for that purpose. She spent four weeks basically earning money to get back to Canada.

This is a story I have heard repeatedly. That is just one problem.

We have problems within our own country, which again, when I started to look into this more seriously, I was shocked what I learned. In Winnipeg, which is where I'm from, there was an agency that was recently shut down. It was in business for five years. The gentleman who owned it was a police officer. He has recently been charged with 21 counts of sexual exploitation and assault, half of which are on minors, girls who are 15 and 16 years old.

He would scout them. I have been a scout. There's nothing wrong with being a scout, but basically the qualifications for being a scout are having a pulse and a business card. If you have a heartbeat, you can be an agent or a scout. This is appalling, considering the average age of a model is 14 years old. There is no licence required. There are no standards to be met. There are no restrictions. It's easy. I could be one, Irena could be one, anybody could be one.

He was out scouting, and he developed his own agency. He had a camera. This is a very lethal combination: minors, cameras, model agents, and big promises of fame and fortune. He is now in deep water. The 21 girls who came forward are probably just half of them. I'm sure there are a lot who never wanted to tell their parents. I hear those stories all the time. I ask them why they don't talk to their parents about it. They will say their parents didn't know they wanted to be a model and they didn't want to talk to them about it. If he has victimized 21 girls, I'm sure there are 41 or 50. And he was a police officer.

The awareness of our industry is such a problem. People don't know. They are so uneducated about how it works.

This is a police officer. To open this business, he had to get permission from the chief of police and an executive committee of 14 fellow police officers. He got the okay.

I ask you, if a 40-year-old male says, “I'd like to open a modelling agency, I have no previous experience or history in the industry, I'm going to be targeting young girls, and I'm running it out of my home”, would that not raise a red flag? Would you not say that something is not quite right? He was in business for five years. Now they're investigating where he distributed the pictures. Where are these girls' pictures?

It's a very, very grey line in fashion. With nudity and fashion, it's a grey line. What's fashion and what's pornography? He could be very convincing.

So there are many problems in the industry.

International placements are not controlled. Girls don't know. Girls are being exported and imported in and out of this country all the time. Nobody knows. Nobody knows where they're going, where they're coming from. Nobody knows. These girls haven't got a hot clue. They leave the country. They believe their agency here. They believe everything is going to be fine. They get over there--and this isn't every one of them. I've travelled internationally and I've had a few bad experiences, but I had the resources to come home. But it does happen and it happens too often.

So we have a problem. We have a problem with the import and export of models. We have a problem that a lot of them aren't even 18 years old, they are going into foreign countries, and they have no knowledge. They don't know where our Canadian embassies are. Nobody tells them anything. They give up their passports as they get off the plane. They haven't got a clue. That's one problem.

We have a problem in Canada that we have no standards for model agents or scouts, yet it is a million dollar industry. We have so many agencies across the country that are scouting and putting up modelling conventions. You hear them on the radio all the time, but there are no restrictions. Anybody could be one. Anybody in this room could open up an agency tomorrow, no problem.

If I want to volunteer in my child's classroom, however--my daughter is in junior kindergarten--I have to go for a course for the day. They check me out thoroughly. I'm handing out cupcakes and pouring apple juice, for God's sake, but I understand the need to check me out.

But I can go and target 14-, 15-, 16-year-old girls, no problem, and recruit them for modelling. Modelling is a very grey industry, where between fashion and pornography there's a very thin line.

Those are the problems we have within our own country.

I'm sorry, I don't want to take up too much time. I just want to point out to you that the popularity of Canadian models is soaring, with shows like Project Runway and Canada's Next Top Model. There are so many girls, young girls, who want to become models.

It is imperative and it is our responsibility as Canadians that we set an example, that we have standards, that we say it is unacceptable for our young girls to be exploited in any way. The modelling industry is just such an easy umbrella to hide under. It is a playground for predators.

We googled over 20 different Internet agencies, saying “How do I become a model?” and “Canadian model industry”, and not one warning site came up. Not one buyer beware site came up in Canada.

The U.S. has started to take some initiatives, but not Canada. All that came up was--and how safe is this--“Submit your photo, your phone number, and your address and we'll let you know if you have the potential to model”. They'll let you know by showing up at your door. This happened in Newfoundland this year. A guy set up an agency over the Internet. Kids don't know. Nobody talks to them about it. They are not educated about it. But I would venture to guess probably one in every four girls has looked into modelling.

With the popularity of Canadian models--and they are becoming quite popular internationally because of our ethnic diversity, because of our environment. We have good skin. They're very sought after.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very, very much.

We will hear from each of the witnesses and then we will have rounds of questioning. I can assure you there will be numerous questions.

Ms. Soltys, would you like to go next?

[Irena Soltys, Coordinator, Help Us Help The Children]

I just want to say that I'm honoured to be here today, and I'm hoping to share with you some grassroots insights I've had, as a volunteer, on a topic that's more than disturbing. It's much more than despicable.

I realize that the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women--Stop Human Trafficking as well as Help Us Help The Children are only two of the many organizations grappling with this issue. Uniting us all is a concern for this human rights tragedy. We care, and we want to truly make a difference.

You will have heard from many witnesses on the issue of human trafficking. No doubt by now you know the statistics, what the RCMP is doing, and how this has become a worldwide crisis.

Since I'm not a law enforcer, a politician, or a university professor, I'll allow myself to appeal, on a more emotional level, to your sense of what is blatantly wrong and what needs to be done about it. For those of us who occasionally benefit from a jolt of harsh reality, allow me to read a passage from Victor Malarek's book, The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade. Many of you are likely familiar with this book already. I'll read you a story about Sophia, an 18-year-old Romanian who was abducted at knife point while walking home one evening on a rural road, about a kilometre away from her home.

I'm saying Romania, but this has happened recently here in Canada. We know of a girl in New Brunswick who was abducted and sexually trafficked.

Two men with knives forced me into the car. I thought they would rape me and kill me. I prayed that my life would be spared. Instead I was driven to a river crossing where they sold me to a Serbian man. He took me across the Danube river in a small boat and then to an apartment in a town in the mountains. I didn't know the name, but I soon learned I was in Serbia.

There were so many young girls in there. They were from Muldova, Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. Some were crying. Others looked terrified. We were told not to speak to each other, not to tell each other our names or where we were from. All the time very mean and ugly men came in and dragged girls into the rooms. Sometimes they would rape girls in front of us. They yelled at them, ordered them to move in certain ways, to pretend excitement, to moan. It was sickening.

Those who resisted were beaten. If they did not cooperate they were locked in dark cellars with rats, with no food or water for three days. One girl refused to submit. She screamed and screamed. We all cried, and the next day the girl tried to hang herself.

Sophia's biggest fear was being broken in herself. In her words:

I dreaded that moment. In the first day I thought to myself, I will fight back. Then I saw what they did to one girl who refused. She was from Ukraine, very beautiful, very strong willed. Two of the owners tried to force her to do things, and she refused. They beat her, burned her with cigarettes all over her arms. Still she refused. The owners kept forcing her. She still refused. She kept fighting back. They hit her with their fists. They kicked her over and over. Then she went unconscious. She just lay there. They still attacked her. She didn't move. She wasn't breathing. There was no worry on the faces of the owners. They simply carried her out.

What I've read to you just now is a fact. It's absolutely not fiction. It's a small sample of the horrors that occur all over the world, and here in Canada as well. It was this book, The Natashas, that was the wake-up call for many of us, guilty of perhaps being ignorant or oblivious of the plight endured by hundreds of thousands of enslaved women. We are very comfortable in our own safe cocoons of existence, in our ideal lives.

I believe that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. That's why I volunteer. I strongly believe that governments can partner with NGOs and volunteer community groups in achieving a global impact on this issue.

Allow me now to share with you some brief highlights of what our volunteers have accomplished. Help Us Help The Children is a project of the Children of Chernobyl Canadian fund and we've been working in Ukraine for over 12 years supporting projects. We've been providing medical and education aid to orphanages in Ukraine.

At the tenth anniversary gala, Victor Malarek was the guest speaker. He brought to our attention how conveniently orphans fall prey to traffickers. We're talking about children after they leave the orphanages. We're talking about children who could perhaps even be sold by corrupt orphanage directors. It was at this point that we decided to form the Help Us Help the Children anti-trafficking initiative.

I'll mention some of our projects in Ukraine, because I strongly believe our experience internationally—the experience of the NGOs at this table—can in fact be implemented here in Canada. We have experience with women's groups, educational modules, etc., that can easily fit into our system here in Canada.

We've had awareness-raising events in Canada, the United States, and Ukraine. I mentioned the learning modules that we've implemented for the orphans at our summer camps and for the orphanage directors as well. We're happy to know that our educational modules, on which we cooperated with the International Organization for Migration, will be incorporated into the Ukrainian high school system. Again, we could easily modify these programs, incorporate them into Canadian high schools, and in fact warn young girls of the dangers that could be facing them in, for example, the modelling industry.

We're also proud to speak of our trafficking awareness project, which was in fact funded by IOM and CIDA's partners in tomorrow program. It involved trafficking awareness education by a travelling team of trainers and volunteers at various orphanages in border towns in Ukraine, where it was determined that orphans may be more at risk of being trafficked. Of course, we're thankful to Her Excellency Ambassador Dann for lending her ear and support to our projects and aspirations in Ukraine, as well as here in Canada.

Now I'll talk a bit about Canada.

The spark or wake-up call reached far beyond the Ukrainian Canadian community. To that end, Stop the Trafficking Coalition was born, with membership and activities stretching from Vancouver to Montreal. To begin our work, we developed a comprehensive anti-trafficking action plan for Canada. The issue is just so large that we didn't know where to begin, so we put down all the facts and we looked at what we could tackle. It was not all that overwhelming. We picked a few issues that were important and that we could deal with, and we moved forward. They were issues dealing with legislation, enforcement, and the victims.

Along with other groups, we've met with and continue to liaison with the RCMP immigration and passport branch to discuss community involvement in ensuring a better outcome for trafficking victims. We've even organized a group of volunteer interpreters and have offered our assistance to the area police victim assist programs, should our interpreters be required.

We've made contacts with local Toronto shelters and NGOs, with the goal of increasing awareness about possible trafficking victims who may come through their doors. But the reality is that we have not found any shelters that are truly equipped to deal with all the issues surrounding trafficking victims: the social, spiritual, and security issues that need to be in place if we are to offer them proper protection.

We've organized various letter-writing campaigns. Some of you may have received letters from me. I thank those of you who replied.

We've also been part of the trafficking forum, which was organized in Ottawa in March 2004. The event was then sponsored by the ministries of Justice and Status for Women. The following day, we participated in a meeting hosted by the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking. At that time, we first submitted our action plan, as well as a proposed private member's bill, copies of which could be made available today if they're desired. We feel fortunate. Part of our wish list has been addressed by Bill C-49 and the recent guidelines for trafficking victims.

We're also looking at the medical consequences faced by trafficking victims. I'm employed in a large teaching hospital in Toronto. I've met two colleagues who have worked on numerous papers on this issue. I've put them in contact with the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking. They're ready to move ahead in terms of educating physicians and health care workers on the fact that they could perhaps come across trafficking victims in their practices. Of course, we're still waiting for a response on this issue.

We're focused on the eastern European elements of trafficking in humans, but we recognize it's a much wider social and economic problem that has echoes around the world. We recognize that it's a global crisis. We've sought to make contact with and have benefited from the knowledge of various groups.

Many of these groups you've already heard from; some are present today. Allow me to mention only two of them. There are our friends in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, who will be speaking to you. We were privileged to have worked closely with them in 2004 in formulating new resolutions on the action against human trafficking.

I'd also like to mention The Future Group. Many of you will recall The Future Group's recent 40-page study, released in March of 2006, entitled “Falling Short of the Mark”. That report is available online.

This report gave Canada a failing grade for failing to provide temporary residence to victims to recover from their ordeals and for the lack of even basic medical services for them. The study received national and international coverage, and as you know, on May 11, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced the adoption of new measures that will help victims of human trafficking in Canada, measures that now need to be effectively implemented.

What are we asking of our Canadian government? What should the responsibilities be of all sending, transit, and receiving countries? Canada fits all those categories.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

If you could wrap up with that, Ms. Soltys, fairly quickly, we'll be able to get some of your points in through the questioning.

[Irena Soltys]

All right. I'll just go, then, to the wrap-up of the main points of what I feel the government should be acting on: reactivation of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons; revisiting its mandate; opening cooperation of this group with NGOs, in implementation of effective victim rehabilitation strategies; and giving it the proper funding to do so.

We must ensure that the victim services are available in all the appropriate languages and are comprehensive, and that they include medical, social, and spiritual rehabilitation, protection, and shelter.

When I say shelter, I actually mean federally funded safe houses, where victims are secure from traffickers looking for their property. We urge timely and effective implementation of the guidelines. If possible, victims know they will be safe in a safe house, they are more likely to come forward, and then we will be able to make the necessary arrests.

We encourage law enforcers to continue to actively investigate the Internet chat rooms, mail-order bride sites, modelling agencies, massage parlour and escort ads, and tabloid newspaper ads. We know the businesses are not what they appear to be. My point is, if the men or users can find these women, so can the police. I also urge funding for the RCMP so that they can effectively carry out their mandate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Soltys, could you give us those recommendations at a later date, possibly, so that we can assure that everything is circulated to the committee? We can possibly get some additional recommendations in through the question and answer time.

I realize it's difficult. It's just that the committee only meets for two hours. The information is so valuable and important, but we have to get everybody in. Let us try to get some of your comments in at the end through the question and answer process.

We will move on to Ms. Wolski.

Ms. Wolski, try to keep your comments within about a 10-minute range, please.

[Erin Wolski, Research Coordinator, Native Women's Association of Canada]

Yes. That's no problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

[Erin Wolski]

Thank you very much.

My name is Erin Wolski. I'm here on behalf of the Native Women's Association's president, Beverley Jacobs. She sends her regrets that she was unable to attend today.

I'm a member of the Chapleau Cree First Nation in northern Ontario, born and raised in Chapleau, Ontario. I'd like to thank you again for allowing us to come and speak here today.

First, I'd just like to acknowledge the Algonquin territory on which we currently sit.

I want to focus my discussion today on three main themes related to human trafficking. First, I'll make some general comments on the issue, highlighting Canada as a source country. Second, I will identify some of the research gaps and offer suggestions on how to best address these gaps. And third, I want to bring your attention to some of the potential linkages between human trafficking and aboriginal women's situation in Canada today. Finally, I'll wrap up with some specific recommendations on how we see Canada moving forward in a proactive manner to appropriately deal with this rapidly growing criminal activity.

What is human trafficking?

The issue of trafficking in human beings is of particular concern for us, as it is for all aboriginal women in Canada. Human trafficking represents a modern-day slave trade that strips human beings of basic human dignity, fuels corruption and organized crime, and jeopardizes individual and public health. It represents human rights violations that are occurring in global proportions. It's a disturbing trend that Canada, unfortunately, has taken limited action to address.

It's an extremely lucrative business, generating up to $10 billion a year internationally. It's the world's fastest growing crime, thought to be more lucrative than drug trafficking. In fact, penalties for human trafficking in Canada are much less than those for drug trafficking. It's a low-risk, high-gain criminal activity affecting the most marginalized sectors of the human population in Canada. It's extremely unsettling to know that criminals today can buy and sell human beings with less consequence than for dealing illegal drugs.

The United Nations estimates that up to one million people are trafficked throughout the world every year. In Canada, the majority of those affected are girls and women under the age of 25. Canada is described as both a transit and a destination country. This means that people are trafficked through Canada to other countries and to Canada as migrant workers.

The question I pose today is, what is the extent of human beings being trafficked from Canada to other countries? This is a critical issue. There is a lack of knowledge about Canada as a source country.

Are Canadian women and girls themselves targeted by traffickers? This is of particular concern to us given that aboriginal women possess the highest vulnerabilities to this type of activity. If in fact Canadian women and girls are falling victim to trafficking in humans, it is highly likely that aboriginal women are the targets.

Regarding research gaps and what needs to occur, we're calling for more research. There's clearly a lack of solid knowledge on the issue in Canada. However, the research must go simply beyond descriptions of the phenomenon to approach the issue from a human rights and socio-economic perspective where the root causes can be brought to light.

The approaches we choose will determine the strategies we use in dealing with this problem and ultimately our rate of success in combating the problem. Current measures in Canada focus on border control and national security; however, the phenomenon of human traffic is much broader in scope, and we need to define it as it is. It's an issue founded in social and economic disparity. It's a human rights issue.

We feel that the gaps in information and the narrow-scoped approach taken by Canada thus far are completely unacceptable. We hope to create some momentum today toward gaining a better understanding of root causes. This approach, although daunting, is necessary if we ever hope to deal with the problem of human trafficking in Canada.

It is also vitally important that we develop and implement a system to monitor the problem nationally. It should be quantified, measured, and monitored. Aboriginal-specific, gender-specific research is needed in this area.

I want to discuss the linkages between human trafficking and aboriginal women. At this point, I think it's important that we identify the indicators that Canadian aboriginal women and girls, in particular, are easy targets for criminals and organizations dealing in trafficking of human beings.

Of the over 500 missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada, how many have become victims of this international phenomenon? Many of our sisters have simply vanished off the face of the earth, their families, their parents desperately holding onto hope that they'll return or be found.

It has become apparent as more aboriginal women go missing, and a huge majority of the cases are not being investigated, that this type of trafficking must be looked at as a possible source for information. We cannot rule out human trafficking as a trend affecting our women, some of whom, as you know, are in situations of extreme vulnerability.

We need to acknowledge the linkages here. Research indicates that trafficking victims are the poorest, most disadvantaged groups in society. Aboriginal women fit that description, as 40% of our women live in poverty in Canada. More than half over the age of 15 are unemployed. More than half of single-parent households live in core housing need.

Aboriginal women are at higher risk for alcohol and substance abuse, and life expectancy is five to six years less than it is for non-aboriginal women.

Amnesty International noted that Canada has often failed to provide an adequate standard of protection to aboriginal women. This is evidenced through the following statistics.

Aboriginal women are three times as likely to experience violence. Female youth are eight times as likely to commit suicide. Aboriginal women make up almost 30% of the female inmate population in Canada. The number of aboriginal women in federal institutions is increasing at a rate that far exceeds that of aboriginal men.

There are an alarmingly high number of aboriginal women experiencing sexualized, racialized violence in Canada. Aboriginal women have the highest mobility rates. Almost 60% of our women have changed their place of residence in the past five years.

Aboriginal women have experienced a legacy of legislated discrimination that impacts every aspect of our lives and our children's lives.

There has been a fair amount of activity from British Columbia, indicating that this area of the country is commonly used by traffickers to transport their victims. The linkage here is the increasing numbers of missing aboriginal women from British Columbia. The numbers are high and continue to rise, as you know.

In the downtown east side, 70 women are missing. We estimate that one-third of those women are aboriginal.

As you might know, Highway 16 is where locals estimate that the number of missing women is over 30—and all but one are aboriginal.

Given that there's a growing pool of evidence indicating that aboriginal women face the largest socio-economic challenges in Canada, we can speculate as to how strong the linkages are to human trafficking. And given the gaps in information on Canada as a source country, we are left to wonder.

Clearly we cannot deny the linkages between discrimination, poverty, violence, addictions, and incarceration. Aboriginal women are forced into desperate situations in order to provide for their families, in order to survive.

I will now provide our recommendations. As discussed, the measures taken thus far do not constitute genuine solutions, nor do they focus on the structural causes of human trafficking. Too often as a society we choose to deal with the symptoms rather than uncover and address the underlying factors, the root causes.

We would like to see a long-term commitment by the federal government to support work on evidence-based research specific to aboriginal women. We need to gain a better understanding of the extent of the human trafficking issue to be able to determine whether it is an element that requires specific attention, as it relates to the high number of missing aboriginal women in Canada.

We would like to see a national strategy on human trafficking. Collaborative approaches to the issue are needed beyond the interdepartmental working group on human trafficking.

We would like to be involved in the development and implementation of a national strategy.

Finally, we are calling for an end to poverty. The Assembly of First Nations currently has a national campaign to end poverty. Although anecdotal, poverty is clearly a root cause to aboriginal women being forced into high-risk situations. The AFN is raising this as an issue. Canada needs to acknowledge and address some of these root issues.

That's it. I'd like to thank you for hearing me today, and I sincerely hope we can work together on these issues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Jean and Ms. Matte, if you would like to go forward....

[Rhéa Jean, Doctorand in Philosophy, University of Sherbrooke, Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle]

Good morning. My name is Rhéa Jean. I am a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at Sherbrooke University. My thesis is on ethical issues relating to prostitution. I am not an expert in human trafficking, but Dian and I both worked on research into the sex trafficking of women in Quebec. I will speak mostly about prostitution generally, and link it to human trafficking. Diane will speak more about the latter.

My position, called the abolitionist position, is held by all members of the CLES, the Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle. The organization, which was founded in May 2005, is a coalition of women's groups and academics. It strives to make people aware of the problem of sexual exploitation, including prostitution and trafficking in women for sexual purposes.

Like the members of the CLES, I consider that trafficking in women for prostitution is directly related to the fact that our society trivializes prostitution. In my view, a client who pays for the services of a trafficked woman is essentially doing the same thing as another who pays for the services of a local woman. The same mechanism is involved and both are equally reprehensible. Why? Because by paying for sexual services, people forget that the others they are dealing with have their own subjectivity, their own lives, their emotions, etc. By paying, they believe that they can demand sex, and that it is part of a contract. They don't realize that prostitution affects the lives of these women, men, young people or children.

One of the great advances of feminism was to make people aware that one could not demand sex under any circumstances. Let us take as example the act that governs sexual harassment. It made people aware of the fact that sex ought not to be part of work. I ask you the following question: In considering prostitution as a job, as some people and some groups do, are we not destroying the progress we have made and rendering legitimate the idea that sex can be part of work, a job?

Feminism made another advance possible, and that was the criminalization of spousal rape. The act made society aware of the fact that sexuality could not be demanded, even in a spousal context. In my view, criminalizing the purchase of sexual services—and I wish to specify that I am not talking about the sale of such services—is similar in principle to the two advances made by feminism. These were to make people aware of the fact that sexuality is too important, intimate and personal to be able to demand it, buy it, turn it into a job or make it part of a contract.

I believe that some serious thinking is needed, not only about trafficking in women, but also about prostitution. I believe that we need to evaluate prostitution in terms of ethics, examine what it presupposes in terms of power relationships between individuals, economic disparities and inequality between the sexes. Prostitution needs to be challenged in order to develop sexual ethics as well as work ethics. Can sex be part of work without the workers becoming alienated from it? Can work be part of sex without the sexuality of individuals being alienated? My answer to both of these questions is no.

Sweden has refused to consider prostitution a job. Indeed, for many citizens of that socially advanced country, opposition to prostitution constituted a normal step along the way in the battle against sexual exploitation. By doing so, Sweden succeeded in considerably reducing the amount of trafficking in women. I believe that Canada should follow Sweden's example and combat sexual exploitation rather than attempt to manage it.

I now give the floor to Diane Matte.

[Diane Matte, Ex-Coordinator, International Secretariat, Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle]

I am going to concentrate on two points, the work of the research group on sexual trafficking in Quebec and the proposals made by the CLES concerning human trafficking and prostitution in Canada.

I want to point out at the outset that it was in part an initiative of the World March of Women, a network of which I was until very recently the coordinator, to establish the CLES. It is a world network for action that operates in 68 countries and that combats women's poverty and violence against women. In the current context of neo-liberal globalization, which increases inequalities, in particular between men and women, we have been especially concerned for a number of years now about growing militarization, which forces more and more people, particularly women, to move within their own country or to another country. We feel that the commodification of women's bodies has become one of the major issues at the dawn of this millennium.

That is why we worked to establish the CLES and to help set up a research group on sex trafficking in Quebec. People often ask whether there is sex trafficking, what form it takes, etc. The research group's report will soon be available, but I can tell you right now about a number of typical cases we were able to document, which demonstrate the complexity of the problem if we are to intervene.

The first example is that of a woman I will call Maria. A native of Ethiopia, she wanted to leave her country because she was in a violent relationship. She met the friend of a friend who said he could get her into Canada and find her a job. She agreed to go with him, even though she did not have the money to pay him. He told at the outset that it was not serious, and that once they were there, she would have a good job and would be able to repay him from time to time. She went along with him and was able to get through customs with him.

As soon as she was in Canada, he took her to a motel where two accomplices were waiting for them. For a week, she was beaten and raped. She was told that her work in Canada would be prostitution. After five days of this kind of treatment, she had an opportunity to run away and to meet someone in the street who told her how to get to a help centre for immigrants. She was helped to set in motion the process to obtain refugee status. However, the traffickers succeeded in tracking her down and getting in touch with her, even at the immigrant centre. She therefore went into hiding for her own safety. As we speak, she is somewhere in Canada. We hope that she is healthy and safe, but we have not had any information about her.

The second example is that of a woman from Jamaica who was able to obtain a visa, probably as a tourist, to come to Canada. She remained here after her visa expiry date, thereby becoming an illegal immigrant. On a street in Montreal, she met a man, whom we will call Robert. They became friends. She then fell in love with him. A few weeks or a few months after their relationship began, he took her to a bar where there were exotic dancers and told her that she was an illegal immigrant and that she would have to do what the girls there were doing, namely dance for him. She remained under the control of this pimp for six years, who toured her across Canada. She too decided to act. She reported the pimp to the police. Following her initial contacts with the police, she decided she did not want to take the matter further and she too vanished somewhere in Canada.

The third case is that of a woman from Russia who came here under the family reunification program. Her father—at least we assume that he was her father—was here in Canada. As soon as she arrived in Canada, she was offered work in a massage parlour. She is currently working there 7 days a week, 17 hours a day, for the sole purpose of bringing her mother over to Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Madame Matte, could you wrap up, please?

[Diane Matte]

Yes.

These examples give you an idea of the complexity of the problem. They also show that you cannot dissociate trafficking from prostitution. The CLES is particularly emphatic about the fact that one cannot—and this concerns the Canadian government above all—pass an act that on the one hand condemns sexual trafficking and supplies the tools needed to combat it, and on the other, remains vague and encourages people to bury their heads in the sand with respect to the prostitution industry. It is a known fact that trafficking supplies this industry. The Criminal Code of Canada is rather deficient from this standpoint.

In connection with this, I could leave you our brief. The CLES has in fact begun to identify the essentials of what could constitute a Canadian framework law. It will discuss the issue of sexual exploitation and provide for measures in the four following areas: the importance of education and awareness for women and young women, particularly those from Canada, but also those from other countries; protection and other options for women working as prostitutes who are under the control of networks of traffickers; the criminalization of pimps—pimping is unfortunately very much tolerated in Canada at the moment—and last but not least, the criminalization of customers. Trafficking and the prostitution industry exist because men want to buy the bodies of women and young girls.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you all very much. To any of you, if you have any recommendations you want to give to the clerk, we will ensure all members of the committee get a copy of them or any additional comments that unfortunately we weren't able to give you enough time to pass on to us. But I expect with our question and answer format, we'll have opportunities. We'll start the seven-minute round. Seven minutes is for both the questioner and the responder, so please keep the answers as brief as humanly possible in a difficult situation.

Ms. Minna.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your presentations. The different groups open a slightly different window every day, but there are some recurring themes. I'm going to mention them, but I may not question them, because I accept them, from what all of you and others have said about the need for shelter with specific support and protection.

The immigration situation, in terms of the 120 days...that's not long enough. It should be reviewed, so women don't fear being deported.

Concerning the criminalization of the user, as I've said for years...people are finally beginning to listen. I've been talking about it for a long time, because I've always felt it should have been the other way round, and I agree with that.

I want to ask some specific questions beyond that. To Ms. Crawford, you were talking about the modelling world, which is expanding, and you made some recommendations. If you had one recommendation, what would that be, in terms of regulating the business and tightening it up?

[Liz Crawford]

Tightening it up would suggest that there is something in place already. There is nothing in place, so step one would be educating people, and the second step would be—

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Regulate the industry, is what you're saying.

[Liz Crawford]

Yes. They need to be licensed. They need to meet standards to represent minors, period.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I think that makes a great deal of sense.

I want to go to Ms. Soltys and to the native women's representative, Ms. Wolski.

One of the things we were going to discuss on this committee was the economic security of women in Canada. We're talking about Canadian women's economic security--native women and all women in Canada.

It seems to me, from what both of you have said, that economic security is the root cause. In Ms. Soltys' case, you said some women are abducted--that's criminal. But there's also an underpinning issue with respect to the economic issue. Ms. Wolski, you were mentioning...and I've always felt that is the situation, so I have two questions.

If you were to make two recommendations that would assist in the economic area as well as the police structure...because native women may not even go to the police. They are afraid of being incarcerated, as they are, in larger numbers, being incarcerated. Those who have disappeared have not been investigated. So there's a racial issue, and that's piled onto the economic one.

I'd like to get a clear handle on some recommendations from you. We know that the root cause is economic. I'd like to hear some suggestions on how we might approach that in a more aggressive way. I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear some of yours.

Then, of course, the other is the legal system, the policing system, and how we might change and structure that to ensure there's investigation...at least safety. And of course, shelter, I imagine, is the other...but just the way to break that cycle.

[Erin Wolski]

Those are very good questions.

I'll start with the police piece first. I think to a large degree what's happening is there's a lack of awareness and knowledge about the aboriginal situation in Canada to begin with. All recruits coming out of the Regina training centre.... I know for a fact there's very limited sensitivity training in terms of aboriginal people--historical perspectives--in order to increase their awareness and understanding of the people they're typically dealing with. There needs to be more focus on the recruits, and then an extension of that would be refresher courses for the guys who are out in the field.

I think education and awareness is a huge piece, as far as the RCMP goes, to better the relationship between aboriginal people and the RCMP. That relationship goes back 130 years or so. I think there are a lot of barriers that need to be dealt with.

In terms of the economic issue, as I said in my presentation, the Assembly of First Nations is currently challenging the federal government to end poverty. I haven't had a chance to look in detail at their plan, but I think there needs to be a national strategy to end poverty that focuses specifically on aboriginal people in Canada. That would be several-tiered, I'm sure--everything from economic opportunities, to education opportunities, to issues in communities, and looking at the reasons why women in particular are leaving their home territories in search of a better life in urban centres and ending up in similar situations in an urban setting, where they're not able to access housing, they're not able to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads; they're ending up in situations where they're forced into living high-risk lifestyles.

I think the poverty piece is fundamental.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Mourani.